First off happy holidays. Now, I am going out of town for a week, so internet connection will be spotty at best. So I'll make you guys a deal; We reach 100 reviews with this chapter, and I'll give you a double update for New Year's. Sound fair? Now that that's out of the way, since Alex is in this chapter, I had to adjust some parts of the episode; it will be a bit different, but the general principles are the same. Now shout outs!
Fantasy Female Freak- I didn't take offense to the Alex thing (I try not to take offense to anything) so don't worry about it. Trust me, I'll work on him. This chapter, and something I have planned for later should be interesting. I checked out that story you mentioned; the only reason I DIDN'T review was because anything I said would be SO inappropriate, I would be arrested. Your Thanksgiving sounded like it was interesting; mine consisted of a Gravity Falls marathon and tickle attacks (don't ask). I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Gamelover41592- Thanks for your review; trust me, her suspicions and 'TRUST NO ONE' mentality will play a HUGE part coming up soon.
Miss Tri- I get what you're saying, so I'll try to work on it. And I know I've said this before, but thank you for all the advice/tips/everything else you've given me; I owe you BIG TIME!
Cleo- Thanks for your review; things are going to start getting interesting!
Disclaimer; I only own Willow, Alex, and anyone/anything else that was not in the episode. Everything else belongs to Alex Hirsch/Disney.
Dipper's POV (July 17th)
I was at Wendy's house. We were watching a movie called Nearly Almost Dead but Not Quite. It was about zombies, but it wasn't as scary as I had remembered it. I didn't care, but I wanted to ask Wendy out on a date. I didn't know when, or what I was gonna say but I had to try something.
"What do we do, Chadley? I thought they were dead!"
"Far worse Trixandra! They're… Nearly Almost Dead but Not Quite." If I was ever going to ask her out I needed to lead up to it in a conversation, so I tried to start one.
"These movies ate a lot less scary when you've actually fought real zombies." Wendy nodded.
"There're slow! Just power-walk away from them!" She yelled at the TV. She sounded like my dad, yelling about either politics or football. But when you grow up with all boys, I guess that would happen.
"I bet Chadley dies first." I said. Just then we heard a chomping noise.
"My face is being eaten a lot." It came from Chadley and I smiled. We both laughed.
"Chadley ain't pretty no more." She said, just as her phone buzzed. "Another text from Robbie." Perfect, now I had to deal with that before I asked her.
"Oh, yeah! Robbie. How's, uh, how's all that going." I was trying to see if she was still into him without asking her.
"I'm over him," Yes! "I wish he was over me." No! I have competition. "Just look at these texts." Wendy held out her phone for me to see. There were a bunch of texts from Robbie with weird emoji's. "Winky frown? What does that even mean?" As she was backing out of her phone I saw a text from her dad that said, 'Why can't you be a man like Vermin Supreme?' I had no idea who that was and I had a feeling that I didn't want to. I decided to just ignore that for now.
"And you're not like, seeing any other guys or…" Was I being too obvious? I hope not.
"Of course I am," Uh oh. "Meet my new boyfriend dude!" She held up the stuffed animal I bought for her after I couldn't win her one at the fair. I wasn't sure if that was a good sign, or a terrible sign. I had to ask her out now before I get to nervous and crash. I fake laughed trying to hide my feelings.
"Right, right. So, I was wondering if maybe you wanted to maybe if," Just ask her, "You know, you and me, whatever." Just say do you want to go to a movie with me this Saturday, "I mean if maybe you," I can't do it. "wanted to come with me and the girls on this mystery hunt tomorrow? Conspiracy stuff and all that?" She gave me a funny look.
"Yeah, dude. I love doing junk with friends." I couldn't believe that just happened.
"Yeah that's what we are." I pulled a note out of my pocket that I had wrote when I was trying to figure out what to say when I asked her out. It was a waste of time. "That's all we'll ever be." I crumpled the note up and stuffed it back in my pocket. "Friends." I lied down on her bed.
"Dude, you're lying on my bra." She said. I screamed then laughed.
Willow's POV
"Where is he?"
"Relax, he'll be here." Mabel told me. We were in the living room watching Duck-Tective. Well, Mabel was watching. I was pacing around, looking through the curtains to see if he had shown up yet. I had made sure to take the bandages off my head, just so he wouldn't freak out.
"He said he'd be here at 4:30. It's 4:45."
"Why is he coming here anyway?" Mabel asked.
"It's his birthday tomorrow."
"Shouldn't you go to see him if it's his birthday?"
"Grunkle Stan wouldn't let me. He had to tell his parents he didn't want any presents this year if he could come and see me."
"That's sweet. And stupid. For our birthday I'm gonna ask for a roller coaster, a unicorn, a kitten, a sparkle gun, a bunny, another pig, a dog…" I started to zone her out, and a few seconds later I heard a knock on the door.
"He's here!" I ran to the door and yanked open the door and immediately hugged him as tight as I could. "I love you."
"I'm just the pizza guy." He said. I stepped back and looked at him. He was holding 3 giant pizzas and 2 sodas. He was wearing a red shirt and black pants, which I was guessing was is uniform. His name tag said Connor. He had frizzy red hair that made his cap look like it was gonna fall off.
"Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you I ordered pizza." Mabel said.
"That's $62.71." Connor said. Mabel handed him the money.
"It's a good thing you got here when you did. Another two minutes and this whole thing would have been free." Mabel told him.
"Talking about that, I might have knocked over a statue in your front yard." He told us after Mabel took her stuff.
"What!?" I said.
"And by a statue I mean 6 statues." With that, he slammed the door in my face and ran to his car. I didn't care. Mable went to the living room to go eat her pizza.
"When is he gonna get here?" Great now I'm talking to myself.
"When is who gonna get here?" Someone behind me said. I turned around and saw Alex standing there. I ran over to him and gave him a giant hug. After that I stepped back and looked at him. He was drinking a soda, wearing Grunkle Stan's fez, and one of Soos' question mark shirts.
"When did you get here?"
"Like 15 minutes ago. I snuck in the back way. I kinda raided your fridge… and your Grunkle's room…"
"And Soos' break room." I finished for him.
"No, actually, he saw me in the hallway, made me put this on, then shoved 6 more in my hands, and tried to make me pay $96. I tried to give them back to him, but he told me to keep them, then burped, then left."
"Where are the other ones." I said seeing that his hands were empty.
"I may or may not have thrown them in your fireplace."
"That's why I smelled burning dog poop earlier." I said and he made the stupidest face I had ever seen.
"Anyway I want to do something different tomorrow. Like something you would do even if I wasn't here." He told me.
"Well, Dipper did ask me to go on this special mystery hunt tomorrow, but I told him no because I thought you would want to something else."
"I'm good with a mystery hunt." We walked upstairs so I could call Dipper and tell him that we were in. While I was talking, Alex found the treasure chest. When I was done, he looked up.
"What's in here?" He asked then looked back down and started entering numbers into the 4-digit key code.
"I don't know. It was here when we came. Dipper and I tried to figure out the code but we never did."
"Got it." He said and looked up. "0-6-1-8."
"How did you figure that out."
"618 has been engraved into the walls of this room at least 7 times, it's in the living room at least 3, it's the number that's permanently stuck on the cash register in the gift shop, half of the merchandise costs either $6.18 or $618, it's all over your Grunkle's room, it's the address of this place, and I'm sure you've noticed by now that the numbers on all the remotes in this house go 618-234-579-0. But that's only 3 digits so I added a zero in front of it." He said.
"I don't know how I didn't figure that out before." I said amazed. "Well, what are you waiting for, open it." I said as I knelt beside it. He opened it and we looked inside. There were 5 index cards facing upside down.
"Which one should we read first?" He asked.
I pointed to one and he read it aloud.
"Little Cathy what a dream. Held her hand made her scream." He said. "What do you think that means?"
"I have no idea." I said. We continued to read the cards like that. Me telling him which one to read then him reading it. When we were done, I had ideas about what some of them meant but I didn't want to get any ideas in my head until I knew for sure.
"I'll tell Dipper about them later today and we can talk about them tomorrow." I told Alex. I couldn't wait until tomorrow.
GFF (July 18th)
Dipper was standing by the Journal Tree the next morning. He had Journal 3, the cards that Alex and I found, a lantern, and a bunch of other stuff we might need, and as per my request, had take the bandage off his nose. Like the doctors had said, you could tell it had been broken, but Alex didn't seen to notice. Mabel, Soos, Alex, and I were sitting on a fallen tree. Mabel was punching Soos in the gut because Soos wanted to see if he had 'Abs of Steel.' (He didn't.) Dipper looked upset. I guessed it was because Wendy said she would come but she hadn't showed up yet. Dipper still started the meeting by tapping on his lantern with a pen.
"Thank you all for coming." He said.
"Hey, when there's a mystery, you can count on your sister…-Ey." Mabel said happily. I rolled my eyes. To make it worse Soos tried to make his own.
"That's an amazing rhyme. When you want some, good… When you need a Soos, you… Oh gosh, I don't know." I rolled my eyes again.
"Did you punch him in his head too?" I asked.
"Yeah to see if he has a skull of steal." Alex added.
"ANYWAY!" We pissed Dipper off. If I have to be honest it's fun making him mad. "We're here to solve the number one mystery in Gravity Falls; who wrote this journal? We have two clues. First are the index cards Alex and Willow found. But we need to analyze them one by one. The first one says, 'Little Cathy what a dream. Held her hand made her scream.' What do we think that means?"
"I think it could point to the author. One of the few things we know about him is that he has six fingers. It could make a little kid scared." I said.
"Or it could mean that there is a burrito that can walk and talk. It would freak a little kid out too." Mabel said happily.
"We could call it Bob the Dancing Burrito." Soos said. I had a feeling that those two weren't gonna be much help.
"What is wrong with them?" Alex asked me.
"Next one." Dipper said. "'Never trust a witch. They'll curse your ear and turn you into an immortal goat… so I hear.'"
"When we first read that one I thought of Gompers. It could be possible that a he's a man that was cursed by a witch and turned into a goat." I said.
"And that makes more sense than Bob the Dancing Burrito." Mabel said sarcastically.
"In this town anything could happen." Alex said.
"That is true." Dipper said. "Next one. 'Birthday June 15th. Death day sooner than you think.' This means someone that was born on June 15th is going to die soon. Who do we know that was born on June 15th?" For a few seconds, no one said anything.
"Stan. Duh." Soos said. I gave him a weird look.
"How do you know that?" Mabel asked.
"I do my research." He said and everyone gave him a weird look. "Don't ask."
"So that means that Grunkle Stan is going to die soon. That's fun. Next one." I said. Dipper rolled his eyes and picked up the next card.
"I'll get this thing up and running someday and neither time baby nor the big frilly know it all will stop me." He said.
"I have no idea what that one means." I said. That was the only one that didn't make ANY sense to me.
"It might be a giant baby that rules us all in the future." Mabel said.
"Maybe." I said sarcastically. "But who's the 'big frilly know-it-all'?" I asked.
"I don't know. I have no idea what 'thing' they're talking about either." Dipper said.
"Let's do the last one." Alex said.
"Fear the beast with just one eye." Dipper said. That one was obvious.
"Bill," four of us said at the same time. Alex looked back and forth between us.
"Who's Bill?"
"DON'T ASK!" We all yelled, not wanting to relive that again.
"So we have one clue that leads to a girl named Cathy, one that leads to Gompers, one that leads to Grunkle Stan, one that leads to a Time Baby and a 'Big Frilly Know It All,' and one that leads to Bill. That literally got us nowhere," Dipper recapped, pulling the portable black-light out of his backpack. He turned it on and shined it on a page labeled 'Hiding Spot.' Or, more correctly, 'My Hiding Spot." The black-light had revealed the word 'My,' along with some spiral steps that appeared to circle around the tree.
"Hopefully the second new clue will get us somewhere. According to this new clue we may have found his secret hiding place. We find the author; we learn the answers to everything. We just need to figure out a way to get down there." We all looked at the tree. I walked up to a bush, and started to shake it as if it was going to do something.
"That's not gonna do anything." Alex said.
"We're not gonna get down there. Let's just go home and give up." Mabel said. She had been acting weird lately.
"Just chop it down." I heard someone say from behind me. I turned around and saw Wendy riding on her bike.
"Oh, hey! You came." Dipper said a saw a grin start to appear on his face.
"I'm so stoked about this. I've been wanting to go adventuring with you guys. Beats picking up after my dad at home." Wendy said. Dipper started to mumble nonsense things under his breath. I started to zone them out. Dipper and Mabel started talking I couldn't tell what they were saying, but I could tell that Dipper was mad about something. Wendy had walked over to where Alex and I were standing and started looking for something that could get us down there.
"Is it just me, or does that branch kinda look like a lever?" Wendy said. I looked up and saw what she was pointing to.
"It's just you." Soos said. "It looks like a branch."
"No it does look like a lever." I said. I turned around and looked at Dipper. "Hey, come look at this." I told him.
"I think that branch is a lever." Wendy said.
"Yeah," he turned back around and starting talking to himself. "But how do we get up there…?" I looked back at Wendy. She had taken off her belt, wrapped it around the tree, and clipped it in the back. She used it to started climbing up, the tree. I was surprised by how well it worked.
"Uh, Dipper." I said.
"I'll get Soos to draw up a prototype." He didn't hear me. Wendy was almost at the top of tree. I grabbed Dipper by the shoulder and turned him around.
"What?" He asked. I grabbed his hair and pulled down so his head would go up. When she got to the lever she reached around and grabbed her ax from her belt loop, she swung it over her and brought it down on the lever. I didn't really know why she didn't just use her hand to pull it down, but it worked so whatever.
"Wow!" Mabel and Soos said at the same time.
"My dad made me compete in these lumberjack games when I was little. I won three years in a row." She said, the tree started to shake, like there was an earthquake. Wendy fell and almost landed on me, but landed in the bush, as the tree started to sink down, into the ground, and it took Wendy with it. We had to pull her up, and then stairs started to come out of the trunk of the tree. It looked exactly like it did in the journal.
"Whatever happens down there, we tell no one." Dipper told us. Mabel gave him a thumbs up, Soos turned his hat around, I held my index, and middle fingers together, tapped my lips twice, then saluted him. It was a thing from when we were little that meant you were a Soviet Russian. Alex just saluted him and Wendy zipped her lips, locked them and threw the key at Dipper. I knew that had always been their thing.
"Now, who wants to go first?" Dipper asked.
"I do." A creepy staircase that goes down into and unknown layer. That was totally me. I walked down the stairs to the bottom. There was a door that said, 'Fallout Shelter. Оборотни внутри. Если вы хотите жить, не пройти через эту дверь. Если вы делаете, не сказать, что я вас не предупреждал. Я действительно надеюсь, что тот, кто читает это может читать по-русски.'
"I wonder what that says?" Alex asked. I had no idea, but I loved taking risks.
"I don't know, and I really don't care." I said and grabbed the handle.
"Maybe we shouldn't go in." He said.
"I agree with Alex." Mabel said. I didn't know what was up with her lately. She normally would have gone in first without even thinking. I sighed.
"Okay. Does anyone else think we shouldn't go through the door?" Nobody said anything. It was 4-2. Alex and Mabel were over-ruled. I opened the door, and we went in.
"It's like a fallout shelter or something." Dipper said.
"Well duh." I said and pointed to like 6 different signs that said FALLOUT SHELTER. Wendy walked over to one and took it off the wall.
"This is going over my bed." Wendy said.
"I wouldn't do that. It could carry diseases." Willow said.
"Oh, well." Wendy said. Soos walked over to a giant cabinet that said weapons on it, and opened it.
"Oh my gosh!" He said I had a feeling I didn't want to know what he found. "A Pez dispenser." He said happily. I was right, just not in the sense I thought. Dipper was at a big dresser. That had a bunch of boxes with years on them, from 1980-2070. He was talking to himself again. Mabel had her head in something that looked like a witch's cauldron. I walked over to one that looked just like it. There was some kind of green goo in it. I didn't know what it was but I had a feeling she shouldn't have her face in it.
"Mabel get your head out of there." I said. She popped her head up, and there were fuzzy things on her face.
"Why? There just caterpillars." She asked.
"Oh, there's a weird green goop in this one." I said and pointed to it. I looked around the room and I didn't see Alex. I saw a doorway near a corner, and went in. He was standing in a small room that led nowhere. "What are you doing?" I asked him, he was about to answer, but before he could Dipper called me.
"Hey, guys come here." He said. We walked back outside and went over to where Dipper was holding a can of food that was open.
"This can is still wet. It was probably opened recently." Dipper said.
"Maybe the author is still alive. Down here." Soos said.
"No he can't be that's impossible." Alex said.
"Not necessarily." I said. Now he was acting weird too.
"Come on we would have seen someone down here by now if he is still alive." He said.
"What is up with you?" I asked him. He was about to answer, but we heard banging.
"What was that?" Wendy asked.
"It's probably nothing." Alex said. "We should look for the author down here." Alex said.
"I thought you said he couldn't be alive." I said.
"Did I?" He said.
"How are we gonna find out where the author went?" Dipper asked. I decided to look up. I don't really know why I did that, but I was glad I did. There was a map of a tree, and three different rooms. I figured out where we were, and where the next room was. Closet, bins, shelfs.
"If I'm correct the next room should be… behind that map of the town." I said and walked over to the map. I hoped I was right. I pulled it down, and I saw a small crawl space behind it.
"I'm going first this time." Wendy said. She got in. Soos went in after her, then Dipper, then Mabel. I got in and went about two yards, and turned around. Alex was still standing in the first room, looking at the closet.
"You, coming?" I asked him. He hesitated for a few seconds, started nodding and got in behind me. When we got out of the tunnel I looked around, and saw a bunch of bricks some of them had symbols on them, some didn't. Everyone was walking around, but no one stepped on any of the bricks that had symbols on them.
"This room is way creepy." Soos said.
"And weird." I added.
"Like Dip's internet history." Mabel said, as she pushed Dipper onto a brick with a symbol that had a triangle inside a circle. Next there was a loud buzzing sound, and the bricks with symbols on them started to come out of the walls, making the room smaller. We all started pushing on the walls to try to stop them from moving.
"It won't stop! What do we do?" Wendy asked. Dipper scanned through the journal and turned to the page that said security room. He turned his black light on. It lit up 6 symbols. One looked like a t with claws on the ends of them, and two dashes on each of the lines, one looked like a person, one looked like a diagonal L, with a line overtop of it, one looked like a circle with an X overtop of it, one looked like an X with a line on it, and one that had three lines with circles on the end of each, and a smaller line through each one.
"Find these six symbols, quick everyone step on one." He said. I looked around for one of them. I heard Soos say one, Wendy say two, I saw the one that looked like and L, hit it, and said three. Mabel said four a second after me, Alex found five. We all looked around for the last one it was on the ceiling, and Dipper had to climb to get to it. Once he pressed it he said six. I looked around for whatever came next. A door opened to my right.
"Run for it!" Mabel yelled. Wendy went out first, then me, then Alex, then Soos, then Mabel, then Dipper. Dipper almost didn't make it. His vest had got caught in the door.
"That was nuts." Wendy said. She turned to Dipper and added, "You ruled back their man." I started to look around the room that we were in. There was a big screen that had four capsules shown on it, each off them empty. There were two chairs in front of it. A giant keyboard with a bunch of symbols on it that I didn't understand. A bunch of shelfs with food, another container of green goo, and a closet.
"Willow!" I heard Mabel yell exited. I walked over to where Dipper was covering her mouth.
"What?" I asked.
"Dipper likes Wendy!" She said and showed me a letter that was in Dipper's sloppy handwriting, trying to explain how he felt about her.
"Duh. I've only know that since the first day we were here." I said. "I don't know why you haven't asked her yet."
"He was going to ask her today." Mabel said.
"No, I changed my mind; it's a bad idea. I'd embarrass myself and then I'd be another guy she hates, like Robbie." Dipper said. I got where he was coming from, and I knew I wasn't gonna be able to change his mind. Even though I thought he was completely stupid for not asking her.
"Just tell her. Won't you feel better just knowing how she feels." I decided to let them argue and started to look around again. Soos had put on a lab coat and grabbed a briefcase, pretending to be a scientist. Alex was looking on some of the info that was on the table. I started messing with the control panel.
"Dipper, check out this weird metal closet." Wendy said form the closet I was just in.
"Coming!" Dipper said, and muttered one last thing to Mabel that I couldn't hear, before going back into the closet. I turned back to the weird keyboard. I saw a button that looked like Bill, and knew that I probably should stay away from that one. A second later I heard a really loud bang. I turned around and saw that the door to the closet was closed. Mabel was standing with her back leaning against the door and a smile on her face that made her look like the Grinch after he stole Christmas.
"What's going on?" I asked her.
"I'm making Dipper tell Wendy how she feels."
"You heard Dipper just leave him alone." I told her. I started to hear banging on the door.
"Mabel, open up, for real! There's a monster in here!" I heard Dipper yell.
"Nice try! There are no monsters." She yelled.
"Just let him out." I said as I walked to the door and tried to get Mabel out of the way. She pushed me into the giant bucket of green goo, which spilled on to Alex. I didn't know what was going to happen. I first I couldn't see anything because the goo let off a weird green gas. But then when I looked back at him I saw that Alex wasn't there, and in his place were two weird monsters that look like two giant caterpillars.
"Alex what happened." I asked.
"Oh, come on. I'm not Alex I'm a shapeshifter. That goo makes me multiply." I looked over at Mabel who had moved over to where Soos was standing at the screen. "The rest of my family is in that closet." It said. "But it's too late for them because there's no way that we are going to let you out of here." He said as he moved to the closed closet door, and the other one moved to the door to the Security Room. That's when I knew that Dipper was in trouble, and judging by the look of Mabel's face, she knew it too.
Dipper's POV
"Just say whatever it is Mabel want you to say so she'll let us out of here!" Wendy told me. I couldn't let her know, so I had to improvise.
"I" What to say, "I'm gonna find another way out." I told her. I grabbed her arm and we started running down one of the tunnels.
"I think it's following us!" Wendy yelled. The tunnel curved, and when we could see straight ahead I saw a wall of dirt. A dead end. On reflex we both turned around, and saw a monster's shadow on the wall. I had an idea, but before I could do anything, we saw the shadow of a man approaching the monster from behind.
"Back you heinous beast!" The man yelled as he reached into the monster's mouth, and started to pull on the monster's tongue. I couldn't tell what happened next, because all I could see was green goo coming at us. We both ducked and covered our faces. When I looked up I saw a man holding a tongue. He had gray hair, a mustache and beard, and goggles on his forehead. He was wearing jeans and a brown shirt and trench coat, all of which were torn and had sewn-on patches.
"I just ripped out a monster's tongue." He said flatly, his voice reminding me of Luke Skywalker. He threw the tongue on the ground and turned around. Then I noticed his hands. The twelve fingers confirmed it.
"It's the guy. It's the author." I whispered to myself.
"We did it." I heard Wendy say faintly.
"Hurry now, I scared it off, but it'll regenerate, or multiply." He started to run down the tunnel that we had just come through. In the observation room he turned left, leading us down another tunnel. He moved aside a giant blanket, and told us to go through. When we came out there was a giant living space. "It's not very clean down here. I haven't had guests for years! Weeks maybe. I miss orange juice, and my kitten Muffing." I could tell he was a little bit wacko, but he was the author.
"You don't understand you're the guy I've been looking for all summer!" I said. I could finally get all my questions answered. "I got like blevillion questions. Why did you write the journals? Was Bill after you? Why did you make this bunker?" I rattled off a couple more of my questions before he cut me off.
"I'd love to tell you. But we have more important things to worry about right now. It's an experiment, a shape shifter. Able to take the form of anyone of anything it sees."
"Didn't you say something about it multiplying?" I asked.
"Yes, there's this green goo down here. It leeks through the walls of all the tunnels. Whenever a shape shifter touches the goo it splits in half. I started out with the one that just attacked youl he is the most powerful. The other's have limits, but I've gone half crazy trying to catch the creatures alone. But now you're here. Will you help me catch it?"
"Of course." I said. I was so happy.
"Sure dude." Wendy said. I could tell she was freaking out on the inside, because of the grin on her face.
"Now the beast must have some weakness we can exploit. I just wish I had my research on me. But alas, I lost my journals so many years ago." He told us. I reached into my vest, and grabbed Journal 3.
"I found one of them." I held it out to him. He took it from me.
"My boy! I can't express my gratitude! Oh yes, after all these years..." He started to flip through the pages of the journal.
"Dipper!" I turned around and looked at Wendy. She was holding an empty can of beans.
"Look!" She held the can out for me to see. The man in the picture on the label looked just like 'The Author'. I knew that he wasn't the author, he was a shapeshifter. And now that he was looking in my journal, he could change into any monster that he wanted.
Willow's POV
I slowly moved over to where Soos, and Mabel were standing.
"What do we do?" Mabel asked.
"Soos, you run at the one near the closet. Mabel and I will run at the one near the surveillance room. Try to fight them, and… hope for the best. When I say go." I told them. I don't think this is gonna work. "3…2…1…" Before I could say go Mabel started running at fake Alex. "Go." I ran after Mabel. I knew she wasn't gonna be a good fighter. That's why I put her with me, and Soos alone. She used her shoulder to try and slam into the monster (which I decided to call Bill, because they were both evil) but before she could hit him Bill transformed into a black bird.
"What the?" Mabel yelled. I looked over to where it flew. It was sitting on top of the observation room. I looked around for something to trap it with. I saw a bird cage sitting on a table. I grabbed it and opened it. I ran to the bird, lifted my arms up, and closed the cage door with the bird trapped in it.
"Yes!" I said.
"We did it!" Mabel said even though she didn't technically do anything. I put the cage down on the counter. I started to turn to help Soos with his. But one second the bird was there, and the next second it was gone. I looked around for it, and I saw the original monster back where it was to begin with. It was just staring at me with a smile on his face. To him it was a game. If he wanted to play a game, then I was gonna play a game too.
"Oh, come on." Mabel yelled.
"We can do this." I told her. I looked to my left and saw a baseball bat. I grabbed it. I didn't know how I could use it, but it was better than nothing. I looked over at Mabel and saw that she had a knife in her hand. I started to run towards Bill. Mabel followed behind me. I swung the bat at him, but he shifted into a giant lizard. Mabel ran up to it and started to pet it, but it swung its tail around, and it hit Mabel in the knee. She fell and hit her head on the control panel.
"Mabel!" I yelled. Bill had turned back into the original form. I swung the bat at it again, but before it could make contact with Bill, he shifted into a gorilla. He grabbed the end of the bat, and ripped it out of my hands. He held it out in front of him and snapped it in half. I looked around for something else to use as a weapon. I saw that the knife Mabel had been using was on the floor by my feet.
I picked it up and threw it at the gorilla. This time he didn't shift. The knife hit him right in the heart. For about half a second we just stood there staring at each other. Then he started to shift into a bunch of random things. I watched as it slowly started to shrink until it was about two feet tall. It stayed there for about 5 seconds and turned into the green goo, except it floated in the air. Then it started to move to the bucket with the goo in it. It went in, and didn't come back out. So now I know stabbing them is their weakness.
I went over to check on Mabel. I saw that she had a giant cut on her head. I saw a couple of old scarfs on the ground next to her. I was going to wrap it around her head, but I heard Soos scream. I turned around and saw that he was in the corner behind a lion. I grabbed the knife from behind me and threw it at the lions back. I thought it was going to start shifting randomly. But it used its tail to remove the knife from his back, and throw it at my head. I ducked just in time. He slowly turned around to face me. I backed up, and grabbed the knife. I threw the knife at him. He shifted into a kangaroo, and jumped over the knife. It nearly hit Soos in the stomach, but he moved out of the way. It turned back into its original form. Soos picked up the knife.
"You will never defeat me." The shifter said. "My brother was the weak link." I glanced at Soos. He mouthed the words, 'Get him to turn around.'
"We'll see about that. Turn around I don't have a weapon. He does," I said as I pointed to Soos. "You should be worried about him." The shifter turned around. Soos threw the knife when the shifter was halfway around. It didn't hit him until he was all the way around when it hit him in the heart. It did the same thing that Bill did when I defeated him. I realized that it wasn't just cutting them, you had to stab their heart to kill them.
"Where's Mabel dude?" Soos asked.
"Over there. She hit her head when the lizard tripped her with its tail." I was talking fast. I couldn't help it. It's what I do when I get really sad, upset, nervous or stressed.
Soos sensed how upset I was. "I'll stay here and take care of Mabel. You go save Dipper and Wendy dude." I nodded, not trusting myself to speak. I picked the knife up from the floor. I went over to where Dipper had put his backpack, and grabbed a flashlight. I went through the closet, and got to the observation room. There were four capsules, with a button next to each of them that said FREEZE in big bold letters. I pressed one of them and the entire capsule lit up a very faint blue. All four of the buttons did the same thing. I walked over to where there were three tunnels side by side. I picked the one furthest to the right. I was started to get kinda scared which was weird for me. A few minutes later I heard footsteps. I stopped, and turned off the flashlight.
"He fell for it man."
"He'll figure it out eventually." I heard Wendy and Dipper talking. I turned the flashlight back on, and I saw them standing about two feet from my face. All three off us screamed at the same time.
"Dipper. Mabel is…" I started to tell him what happened but he interrupted me.
"Wait. How do we know that she isn't a shape shifter?" Dipper whispered to Wendy. They both backed up a couple of steps.
"Come on, Dip; its me."
"Prove it." How do I prove to him its really me? I knew of one way. I told Dipper what his real name was, and what mine was. Both of the names felt foreign in my mouth. I hadn't said my real name since first grade. My parents were the only ones that still called me that, and that was only when I was in trouble, which didn't happen very often. I couldn't even remember the last time I called Dipper by his real name. Judging by the look on Dipper's face that said 'I'm about to puke.' I knew he knew it was really me.
"It's her."
"So, that's your real name." Wendy said, as she looked at Dipper. Then she looked at me. "Your real name isn't Willow." Wendy said, the second part of what I said registering. "Okay then." I could tell she was surprised.
Dipper looked down. "Wendy you're bleeding." He said. He looked kinda freaked out.
"It's cool. It's just blood man, don't freak out." She said. The word blood sent chills through my spine. She tore off her shirt sleeve to cover the cut. I tried to explain what had happened again.
"Dipper. When we were in the tunnels we found out that Alex was a shifter. I don't know where the real Alex is. But the shifter multiplied. So Mabel, Soos and I fought them, and Mabel fell…" I heard a growl coming from down the tunnel.
"Hold that thought. Right now we need to think of a plan." He said.
"He took us into his home, tricked us, and tried to destroy us. I say we return the favor." Wendy said.
Dipper's POV
"He's coming! Do it now!" Willow yelled, running down the tunnel towards us. We turned the water valve as fast as we could, but the water wasn't coming out.
"It won't work man." Wendy said. I saw the shifter coming from the other tunnel. Its current form was a giant version of me and Willow combined that looked like a spider with two mouths, both with really sharp teeth. It stuck it's tongue out and grabbed the journal with it.
"HEY, LET GO!" I said, and grabbed the journal before the shifter could get it, but it was still attached to its tongue, and I couldn't get it away.
"You leave him alone!" Wendy yelled. She let go off the valve and started to help me. She grabbed onto the journal and started pulling. But the shapeshifter was stronger. It started to pull its tongue back into its mouth, taking Wendy with it. She jumped off and onto the shifters back. She grabbed her axe, and got ready to stab the shifter in its back, literally. The others finally got the valve to turn. Water started to come out of the pipe, pushing all of us down the tunnel.
For what I think was about 20 seconds, it felt like I had been knocked over by a giant wave at the beach. I was disoriented and dizzy. Then all the water must have drained from the tunnel, because when I took a breath I didn't get a mouth full of water. Then for about a minute I lied on my back, trying not to throw up. I sat up, and looked around. Soos, Willow, and Wendy's axe were all close to me, but Wendy was nowhere to be found.
"Where's Wendy?" I asked, picking up her ax. I looked around, and saw that there was a cliff not too far away from us. I got up, and ran over to the cliff. "Wendy!" I yelled out, sliding down the cliff like it was a slide. Wendy was lying on her back and didn't look like she was breathing.
"Wendy! No, no, no-no-no! Can you hear me? Oh, please be okay, please be okay!" I said, shaking her, but she wasn't moving, I grabbed her wrist, hoping, praying… thank god, I felt something. But it was wrong; instead of being slow and sporadic, it was pumping like a jack-rabbit. That COULDN'T be good.
"Dipper I'm sorry, this is all my fault. If I had stopped turning the stupid valve…" Willow told me, but it wasn't her fault.
"No. It's my fault! If I had told you when we were in the closet we wouldn't be in this mess. But I was too scared and now you could be hurt or worse, and I never even got to tell you I'm, like—In love with you, Wendy!"
"Dipper?!" I heard Wendy say from behind us. I turned around and saw that she was holding the journal.
"Wendy!"
"Then who's that?" Willow asked. Go figure; it was a shapeshifter. It started to make a weird hissing noise. Then got back up, and ran at Wendy, and started trying to grab the journal. I watched them for a few seconds, then turned around and picked up Wendy's axe as Willow ran over to one of the chambers.
"Give me back that journal!" One of the Wendy's said.
"Never!" The other replied.
"Give it back; it belongs to Dipper." The one that was on the right said. "Hit her with the ax!"
"Don't listen to her Dipper!"
"She's the shape shifter!"
"I don't know whose who, give me a sign." The Wendy on the left winked at me. The one on the right zipped her lips then threw the key. I hit the Wendy on the left with the ax in the stomach, and green goo started to come out of its body. It ripped the axe out of its body, and threw it, almost decapitating Willow. Wendy then pushed him into the chamber and Willow hit a button. The chamber door locked, and lit up blue. It started to shift randomly before finally returning to its true form.
"No!" He yelled from inside the chamber. It started to do an evil laugh, and smiled. Even though we just trapped him. "You think you're so clever don't you, Dipper? But you have no idea what you're up against. You will never find the author. If you keep digging, you'll meet a fate worse than you can imagine. And this will be the last form you ever take!" He said and turned into me, and poses with its mouth open, and hands, up. With the right hand higher than the left, and started to scream as it was frozen in that position.
"Good luck sleeping tonight," Willow told me.
"Let's go find everyone else, and go home." I replied, not wanting to think about what had happened.
"Dipper…" Willow said, the look on he face telling me this was something major.
"What?"
"Mabel and I were fighting a shifter, and she fell, and hit her head on that big control panel." For a minute, I didn't say anything.
"Is she okay?" I asked eventually.
"I don't know. She had a giant cut on her head. Soos is with her now."
"Why didn't you say anything before?"
"I tried to but you kept on interrupting me." We grabbed all the stuff we brought in the tunnels, and a few extra things, and started walking to the closet. None of us said anything. Wendy opened the door to the closet, all of us filing in.
"Hey dude." Soos said solemnly. I thought I knew what he was going to say next.
"Well?" Soos started shaking his head.
"She's…" he couldn't finish, but we knew. We both started crying, but it wasn't out of grief. You know how they say twins (or triplets in our case) have a special connection and can understand each other better? We used to only be able to do that when it was a strong emotion or feeling, but since coming here, we could practically read each other's minds. The real Mabel was still alive. Which meant that this Mabel…
"Everyone grab a weapon," Willow called, grabbing a hammer off a bench. Soos opted to just use his hands, Wendy lifted her axe, and I picked a knife up off the ground. "There's gonna be two of them. Only a heart wound will do it."
"Wouldn't it be easier to…" Soos started, but stopped when he saw the look on our faces. "Never mind." Shape-shifter or not, there was no way we could do that to something that looked like our sister.
"Everyone ready?" Willow asked, walking over to one of the goo barrels. We all nodded, and she tipped it over, spilling it onto 'Mabel.' A green gas appeared, and when it was gone, two caterpillar-like things were in her place. Luckily, one of them was still unconscious. I finished off the unconscious one while Soos and the girls took care of the other.
It must of still been dazed from being knocked out, because it only took 20 seconds to get rid of it. Just like before, it shifted randomly before turning into green goo and flying back into the barrel. All that was left was to find Alex and get out of here.
Alex was unconscious in a supply closet. Soos picked him up and we all walked back the way we came, climbing out of the tree and up the steps. Mabel was there, staring at us like we had just survived a war.
"I thought we were supposed to meet at two!" She exclaimed when we asked where she had been. She and Soos went into town together, Soos offering to fill her in on what she had missed. We had put Alex against a log, so when he came to, he and Willow went off together. That left Wendy and I alone.
"Look. In the heat of the moment, I might of said some dumb things. Can we pretend like none of this ever happened?" I asked.
"I always kinda knew." Wendy told me.
"Y-you did?" I asked.
"Yeah, you think I can't here that stuff you're constantly whispering under your breath?"
"Oh man."
"You know I'm too old for you right?"
"Yeah, I know. Mabel said confessing would make me feel better."
"How do you feel?"
"Anxious. Scared. Kinda itchy." I told her, scratching my arm. She rolled her eyes and punched my arm.
"Listen, this summer was super boring until you showed up. I had more fun with you than practically anybody else. And if you ever stopped being my friend, ... I would, like, throw myself into the Bottomless Pit!"
"So things won't be too, awkward, now?"
"I just wrestled myself. That was awkward. If you can handle that monster, you can handle a little awkwardness."
"Friends?"
"Friends." She said, punching my arm again before grabbing her bike. "See you for movie night tomorrow. You're place this time, okay?" With that she biked away, leaving me alone. Well, almost.
"So, how'd it go?" Mabel said, appearing on the log next to me.
"What? How much of that did you hear?"
"Everything! All the time!" She responded excitedly.
"I'M NOT HERE!" Soos yelled from the trees.
"Mabel, how can everything be so amazing and so terrible at the same time?" I asked her. I mean, it was great that I didn't have to 'hide' my feelings for Wendy anymore, but now that she told me that we can't be together...
"I'm sorry about it Dipper. I wish I could have been there. If it's any consolation, I already have a list of your potential rebound crushes." That was the Mabel I had grown up with.
"Thanks Mabes. That's… whoa!" Soos came over and sat down next to us, causing our end of the log to fly up. It was then that I realized he had put on a lab coat and grabbed some souvenirs.
"I'm still bummed we're no closer to finding the author guy. At least we got his science-y coat and briefcase," he said holding the briefcase up by the handle. The bottom flopped down, revealing that it wasn't a briefcase; it was an ancient laptop. And when I say ancient, I mean like it was old enough to have been the first laptop ever invented, maybe even older.
A blue label above the screen read PROPERTY OF F, and below the screen were the letters and numbers MO52584. There was a small crack in the upper-left corner of the screen, and a layer of cobwebs were covering the bottom left corner. The keyboard had the standard layout of current laptops, but some of the keys had weird symbols on them, and a handful were orange instead of black like the others.
"I bet I could get this thing fixed up in a few days," Soos offered, starting to fiddle with some of the buttons.
"I have a better idea," I said, standing up and taking the laptop from him. "Let's head home." We all stood up and started walking back to the Shack, the newest clue to finding the Author in my hands.
Willow's POV
"Wow," Alex said after I was done filling him in on what he had missed, which had taken a good half hour because he kept asking questions and I had been writing down notes to put in the Journal. Odds were slim that we would EVER go down there again, but you never know; it would be a great place to hide out if the Mayans were correct in that the world would end this year.
"Yeah, wow," I responded, tucking my notebook and pen back into my jacket. Somehow, we had ended up in a clearing near the Shack. It was the same clearing from the carnival three weeks ago where the archery area had been set up. Not 100 feet away from us was where Alex had told me that they were leaving early.
"You guys really go through stuff like that every day?" Alex asked me. I nodded, doing some quick memory checks.
"Pretty much. I think there have only been maybe four or five days since we've found the Journal where nothing crazy has happened." For some reason, he started laughing. "What?"
"Just… everything," he responded, getting himself together. "Weirdest birthday ever." The word 'birthday' reminded me of the gift I had planned on giving him.
"I'll be right back!" I told him, running into the Shack and to my workshop. I noticed a new item on my table that hadn't been there before, but I ignored it, grabbing the present and running back outside. "Here."
On his birthday last year, I had agreed to give him archery lessons. Just before the deal, he had snuck up behind me and thrown a knife over my shoulder at the target. I had been holding onto the knife ever since. Carved into the handle were the letters A.G.R. His initials. He took it from me and turned it over and over in his hand, staring at it like it was about to explode. And just like a year ago, he threw it over my shoulder, imbedding it in a tree behind me.
"I'm sorry things got a little… okay, a lot, crazy back there, and I know you don't remember half of what happened, and I know this will seem kind of insignificant after everything, but I thought that-" He kissed me, cutting me off. When he pulled back, the look in his eyes melted my heart.
"Will, I love the knife, I really do, but like I said, all I wanted for my birthday was to spend time with you. So far, that hasn't gone very well, but we still have a few hours before I have to leave. Now, where's this 'Lookout Point' I've heard about?"
GFF
We spent the rest of the day up there, watching clouds, having a picnic, talking about anything that came into our minds, and at the end of the day, watching the sun set over the mountains. The storm that had been brewing was almost at us now, so when the sun went down, it looked like the sky was on fire. Alex was especially happy about getting to see the stars again; he hadn't been able to since moving to Piedmont, and stargazing had been something Dipper, Mabel and I had all started doing since coming up here, so I knew how he felt.
Eventually though, it was time for him to leave… again. I couldn't handle many more of these goodbyes. I don't want to start crying again, so I won't go into details, but after we said goodbye at the bus stop that I was WAY too tired of seeing, like most times he had shown up then left, I went to work in my workshop. But this time, I was working on something instead of my crossbow.
The new thing I had seen on my work table had been a VERY old laptop. When I opened it up, I saw a note that Dipper had written.
Soos took this from the Bunker. We figured you needed a distraction, so good luck. You need help with anything, let us know, but this one's all yours.
I smiled, propping the note up on the table. It was amazing what a month of craziness could do to relationships. New friends, new enemies, bonds breaking, making new ones… but the most important relationships were the ones with family; that moment when you truly understand somebody, what they want at any given time… that's love, no matter what form it is in.