I'm so sorry for the late chapter! Things have been pretty hectic lately, and I just haven't had the time to write it out or ideas to make it as good as I wanted it to be. I hope you enjoy, and please review!
It was the day after the incident at the warehouse that the four UA students found themselves sprawled across the Mystery Shack's gift shop. Mina was leaning next to the globe Stan had on his desk, spinning it around. Ochako was deep in the merchandise, seemingly testing her limits on how much she could lift with her amulet. Shouto was sitting next to the window staring out at nothing. Soos was getting candy out of the vending machine. The part time worker, Wendy, was reading a magazine. And Izuku was flipping through the pages of the journal, clicking his pen as he looked through the section on ghosts.
Stan stomped through the door from outside, scowling. "Soos, Wendy," he called out. Soos scampered over, while Wendy didn't even look up.
"What's up Mr. Pines?" Soos asked.
"I'm heading out." Stan smiled at his employee. "You two are gonna watch the bathrooms while I'm gone, okay?"
Soos saluted. "Yes sir!"
Wendy saluted as well. "Absolutely not."
Stan laughed, then narrowed his eyes at the four students. "You stay out of trouble," he warned, before closing the door again and walking away.
"Rude," Mina pouted. "It's like he doesn't trust us or something."
"Well, we did drop into his house from a portal in the sky just a few days ago," Ochako pointed out. "I mean, it kinda feels like it's been forever, but it hasn't really. And we fought a robotic lake monster, and messed up his parlor room with cursed wax figures, and fought his arch nemesis with magic powers."
"That's pretty fair." Izuku chuckled. He noticed Wendy out of the corner of his eye, moving towards the other end of the shop.
"Hey guys," she called out, reaching a small curtain over a part of the wall. "What's this?" She pulled it back. "A secret ladder to the roof?" Wendy gave them all a grin, which was returned by at least three of the other people in the room.
Soos walked over, eyeing the ladder nervously. "Uuuh, I don't think Mr. Pines would like that. Maybe this isn't such a good idea."
"He's not here at the moment, is he though?" Wendy snarked. Soos didn't seem convinced.
Mina walked over. "Can we actually go up there?" The other three got up and joined her, Izuku putting his pen in his coat pocket and tucking the journal under his arm.
"Sure we can!" Wendy was already opening the latch to the upstairs and climbing up. She pumped one of her fists in the air with a grin. "Roof time, Roof time!"
"Roof time, Roof time!" Izuku laughed and joined in the chant, climbing up after Mina and being extra careful not to let the journal slip out from under his arm, with Ochako and Shouto right behind him.
Wendy opened the latch, showing that they were on the lower portion of the roof, over the porch. She climbed up over the top of the taller roof, and the four scrambled after her. Izuku slid down on the other side to see the setup Wendy had going on: A flat section of the roof, complete with a couple of pool chairs and a cooler, an umbrella, and a bucket of pine cones.
Wendy gestured around her. "Check it out. You like?"
"Absolutely!" Ochako affirmed. Mina flopped down in the pool chair and stretched out.
"I could get used to this," she sighed happily.
"Did you put all this stuff up here?" Shouto asked. Izuku startled and turned around to face the other boy. Shouto was looking at the little rooftop hideaway with interest. It was nice to see, considering what had happened yesterday. Izuku had honestly been worried for his friend, but Shouto seemed to be recovering from his near death experience. Still, something felt off….
Wendy shrugged in response to Shouto's question, looking smug. "I may or may not come up here during work, all the time, every day. Lots of time to set this up." She picked up a pine cone and chucked it at a totem pole. The pine cone landed right in the middle of the bulls-eye she had taped up there. "Ha, yes!"
Izuku shared a grin with his friends, and they each picked out a pine cone, taking turns throwing them. He felt pretty satisfied, watching his pine cone hit its mark right smack in the middle of his target.
"You guys are pretty good at this," Wendy noted.
Mina smirked. "Training. Lots of training."
A few seconds later, a blue van pulled up in front of the shack. Wendy brightened up. "Oh hey, it's my friends!"
Someone stuck their arm out one of the windows. "Wendy!" Wendy waved back enthusiastically.
She turned back to them with an awkward smile. "You guys aren't gonna tell Stan about this, right?"
"No way! We won't rat you out." Mina made a 'zipped lips' motion with her fingers. Wendy repeated the action with a laugh, and jumped onto the tree right next to the roof, sliding onto the next tree, and bending that one all the way towards the ground, where she hopped off and jumped into her friends van. They all drove off laughing.
Izuku watched this all happen, mouth slightly agape. "Did - did she really just do that? That - That whole sequence of events, I mean."
"Yeah," Shouto affirmed. "That was really really cool!"
"That was awesome!" Ochako cheered. "Anyways, we should probably head back down before Stan notices everyone but Soos is gone." After a murmured agreement, they all headed back.
The owl clock chimed on the wall, and Wendy grinned, shoving her name-tag in her pocket. "Hey, quitting time!" Although to be fair, days working at the Mystery Shack had gotten a lot more fun with the younger kids around, even if she still had no idea where they had come from. She waved to them. "Welp, gang's waiting for me, so I'm off. See you guys."
"Hang on," Mina stepped forward. "Do you think we can join you guys? Your friends sound like a lot of fun."
"Yeah!" Ochako perked up from behind the counter. "I wanna meet the people you hang out with! I mean, the only guys we know in this town are everyone who works here, sort of that Fiddleford guy, and Gideon. Ugh." She shuddered. Wendy wondered what the weird kid had done, but decided not to pry.
"Hmm, sure, I guess you guys can come along. Why not?" They were neat kids. Pretty weird, but neat. Also, who was Fiddleford? Meh, didn't matter. "I'll go get my stuff."
Wendy went outside to see her goofy friends acting as they usually did. Lee and Nate were holding down Thompson, and Robbie was aiming a candy at his belly. Wendy snatched one up and flicked it lightly, watching as it hit the jackpot, right in Thompson's belly button.
Her friends all looked over, their faces lit up. It made Wendy's heart warm, to know just how much she mattered to the guys. Nate started chanting her name.
"Hey guys." Wendy walked over, the kids in tow. "These are my pals from work, Izuku, Shouto, Mina, and Ochako." Mina, Izuku, and Ochako waved. Shouto stayed quiet, but at this point Wendy kind of expected that. Guy kinda looked like he had a dark and tortured past.
"Nice to meet you guys!" Mina greeted.
"Wow." Nate leaned over to get a closer look at Mina. "You're pink! That's so awesome!"
"I like the horns. They make you look pretty cool," Tambry commented. Mina blushed.
"Thanks! You guys all look awesome as well!" She smiled at Wendy's friends.
"Thanks for letting us tag along," Izuku said nervously. From what Wendy could tell, neither of the boys now working at the shack had much in the way of social interaction. Hanging out with other teenagers would probably be good for them.
"No problem!" Lee flashed Izuku a thumbs up. "Any friend of Wendy's is a friend of ours."
"So, are you like, babysitting, or…" Robbie started.
Wendy huffed. "Come on Robbie." She turned to the kids. "Anyways, this is Nate and Lee. Nate's the one with the baseball cap, and Lee is the one with the long hair." Nate elbowed Lee, both of them grinning. "That's Tambry." The purple haired girl gave a wave, not looking up from her phone. "And Thompson, who once ate a run over waffle for fifty cents."
"Don't tell them that," Thompson mumbled. The others snickered. Wendy motioned to her left.
"And that's Robbie." Who had brought his guitar along with him for some reason, even though he knew there was no one to play for. But hey, they all had their weird quirks, so everyone let it slide. "You can probably figure him out." Robbie strummed his black guitar for emphasis.
"Yeah," he flicked his hair out of his eyes. "I'm the guy who spray painted the water tower."
Ochako's eyes brightened. "Oh, you mean the giant muffin. That's really neat!"
"What? No!" Robbie sputtered. "It's an explosion." All of their eyes drifted above the trees to the water tower, where Robbie's red spray paint was on full display.
Lee snickered. "Ha, kinda does look like a muffin," He pointed at it with a smirk. Nate quickly joined in.
"Definitely a muffin," Shouto fought back his laughter. Robbie glared at them, and Ochako winced.
Wendy decided it was time to intervene. "Let's hurry it up guys." She gestured to the van, whose door had been open the whole time. A lot of bugs had probably gotten in. "I've got big plans for tonight." She clapped her hands a couple times for emphasis. All of them clambered into the van, the four kids from the shack squeezing into the back.
Thompson, the driver, turned around to look at them. "Alright guys, before we go, my mom said you aren't allowed to punch the roof anymore." There was a moment of silence.
"Thompson! Thompson! Thompson!" They all punched the roof as hard as they could. Wendy could even hear some of the kids in the back joining in on the fun.
Wendy smiled to herself; she knew letting those kids join in was a good decision.
The rock music was blaring extremely loud, to the point where Ochako was trying not to wince. She looked over at her friends. Mina was jamming to the music, Shouto was staring out the window, again, and Izuku was tapping his pen to his cheek nervously.
Ochako leaned over to him. "Everything alright?"
Izuku jumped slightly, and looked over to her with wide eyes. "Yeah, I'm fine! It's just, I've never done something like this before. Hung out with a group of friends, I mean. Besides you and Mina and Shouto, obviously, and we've been fighting for our lives most of the time." He looked down at his hands. "I guess I'm just nervous, even if I don't have a reason to be."
Ochako frowned slightly. The way he said it...Izuku was a really nice guy. She's always thought he would've had friends before UA. But the way he said that made her rethink that train of thought. Was that why he was so nervous all the time?
She elbowed him lightly. "Hey, if it makes you feel any better, I haven't done something like this either." He looked at her in surprise. She gave a half shrug. "My parents don't have a lot of money so, y'know, people would sometimes make fun of me for that. I didn't have a lot of friends."
"That's awful!" Izuku exclaimed. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know."
"And I didn't tell anyone," Ochako admitted. "I didn't want people to think of me that way again." It wasn't her parents fault for wanting to give her a good education. But going to a rich school as a poor kid was hell. She couldn't believe she was telling someone about it even now. Ochako guessed that was just the aura Izuku excluded, it made you feel like you could trust him. "But I'm just saying, I know how you feel."
Izuku gave her a warm smile. "Thanks. That means a lot to me." It meant a lot to her too, that someone understood what she was feeling. Ochako hadn't expected many people from the hero course would understand how she felt, but she was happy to know she was wrong.
The van stopped and everyone tumbled out. Ochako looked at their destination: an old, run down store, called 'Dusk 2 Dawn', clearly abandoned and blocked by a fence. She looked around her, just noticing the strange mist that had settled on everything, and the sudden chill that swept in.
"There it is, fellas." Wendy grabbed the fence. "The condemned Dust to Dawn."
Mina seemed to share Ochako's hesitance. "Is it just me, or did we just enter some spooky movie?" The pink girl muttered, voice cracking slightly as her eyes darted around. Ochako's fingers clasped around the amulet.
"Totally." Lee grinned at her. "Some people died in there, and the place as been haunted ever since."
"So then why are we actively going inside there?" Shouto asked. "Doesn't that seem a bit dumb? I mean, the supernatural is pretty obviously real in this town."
"So there's a good chance their could actually be ghosts inside," Izuku finished. "But then maybe we really should check it out, see what knowledge they have to share."
"I like your thinking." Wendy grinned at him. "Don't worry guys, that's just an old legend people tell. It's not really that big of a deal." In one smooth motion, she back up, then took a running leap, using the wire of the fence as a springboard and bouncing up and over the top. After that display, everyone else decided to follow suit.
Robbie tried pulling at the doors, to no avail, while Wendy looked through the windows. "I think i-it's stuck."
"Maybe I could take a crack at it?" Ochako offered helpfully.
Robbie snorted. "Oh yeah, I can't get in, but I'm sure 'Little Miss Cheery' over here's gonna break it down like Hercules." It kind of felt like a punch in the gut, but Ochako tried to shrug it off.
"Hey, don't be rude!" Mina stepped forward, looking mutinous.
"Yeah," Izuku added, voice cracking a bit. "You don't even know her, why are you being a jerk?" Her friends coming to her defense warmed her heart and spurred Ochako on. She was going to find a way in, to prove the jerk wrong!
Up there. Ochako focused in on the vent. She ran to the side of the building, where the trash was, and scrambled on top of it. The gutter to the roof was well within reach, so she grabbed it and scrambled up the wall of the building, pushing herself up onto the roof.
"Hey, Ochako, what're you doing?" Wendy called up.
"Woah, kid, slow down!" The baseball cap guy, Nate, called after her. Ochako ignored both of them, scrambling up the rood and onto the top of the building, where the vent was situated. She launched herself at it, and it caved in, most likely due to years of being left to collect dust, and ducked inside.
"Nice going, Ochako!" Mina called up. "You can do it!" Ochako grinned to herself and slid down the vent. She landed on another grate, and kicked downwards, dropping into the store. Ochako ran over to the door swinging it open to multiple cheers.
"Great job kid!"
"That was awesome!"
"You're Little Miss Cheery in all the right ways." Mina and Izuku high fived her as they entered.
Now that everyone was inside and the door was closed behind them, Ochako took a proper look around. Everything was dark and dusty, as expected, but it was all in a really neat way, added with the thrill of doing something they probably shouldn't. The whole group 'oohed' and 'ahhed' as they looked around. They all headed in different directions, exploring the store.
"This is even creepier than I imagined," Wendy admitted, looking around.
"Anyone see a light switch?" Lee asked aloud, heading towards some of the isles.
"My pen has a light on it," Izuku called out. He flicked it on, and a small purple light came out of the other side of the pen. "It's a black light though."
"That's pretty neat," Wendy told him. Izuku grinned.
"Thanks! I got this from the shack that first day. It's actually a pretty good pen to write with."
"Found the light switches," someone called out. They all turned to see Shouto standing by said switches. "You think these still work?"
"Try it out!" Mina encouraged. Shouto flipped the switches, and all of the lights in the store flickered on, including grilling machines, coolers, and even the monitoring camera. Ochako looked around a newly lit store with a smile. Suddenly, it didn't seem so creepy anymore.
"So, what do we do now?" Izuku ventured.
Wendy smirked. "Anything we want."
Izuku enjoyed a newly opened icicle with Wendy, perched on one of the shelves. They had already shoved mints in soda, hit each other with balloons containing all sorts of weird sodas, and grabbed as much unopened candy from the shelves as they could fit in their pockets. Mina had discovered something called 'Smile Dip', and was apparently trying it out now. All in all, Izuku was glad they had come along.
"I'm glad you guys tagged along," Wendy said, as if reading his mind. "This night is like, legendary." At Izuku's questioning gaze, she added, "Look around! The guys are bonding," by shoving ice in Thompson's pants, which would bother him if Thompson didn't seem to still be enjoying himself, "I've never even seen Tambry look up from her phone this long." Which from what Izuku saw of Tambry was a fair assessment, even if he had just met her. "And your friend seems to be going nuts for that smile dip." Izuku looked over to see Mina surrounded by packets of opened smile dip, looking definitely out of it.
Izuku frowned. "Should we...stop her?"
Wendy shrugged. "I dunno man. Your friend, your call." Izuku started to get up, then figured if it really was a problem, Shouto would've yelled at her by now, and sat back down.
"Hey guys, we need more ice!" Nate announced. They looked over so see Nate holding Thompson's pants out, and Lee shaking an empty ice bag over the rest of the ice in Thompson's pants.
"I'll get it!" Izuku volunteered, hopping off the shelf and landing on the floor with a thump. He strolled over to the ice box and opened it up, grabbing one of the ice bags and cradling it in his hands-
And there was a brain, and nerves, and it was floating. Izuku froze, unable to speak as he looked at the floating abomination in front of him. The thing rolled its eyes, which were barely connected to the rest of it, focusing right on Izuku. And then they shot forward, right out of the ice box and an inch away from Izuku's face. He let out a yelp and closed the door as fast as he could.
Izuku looked at the door, breathing heavily. What had just happened? What was that thing? He carefully set the ice bag down and reached for the door handle, slowly opening it to reveal...nothing. There was nothing in there.
"What was that?" Lee wandered over, Nate following close behind. "Thought I heard someone screaming over here."
Nate grinned and wiggled his hands. "You freaking out kid?"
Izuku winced and tried to smile. "N-no, not really. I'm all good, everything's all good!" He scooped up the ice bag and handed it to them. "Here's the ice you wanted."
Lee took the ice bag. "Thanks man." Nate looked behind them.
"Hey look! It's Dancy Pants Revolution!" He called out. "The game that tricks people into exercising!" The whole group moved over to the game, bubbling with excitement.
Izuku stole one last look at the supposedly empty ice box. Had it just been his imagination? No, they were in Gravity Falls, it was probably real. But what was it doing in this store?
"Deku, you coming?" Ochako yelled over to him. Izuku hurried over to where everyone else was gathered. Thompson was already on the machine, and losing pretty bad. Everyone was cheering him on, but that didn't seem to be helping.
Izuku slipped over to Shouto, who was looking somewhat bored. He nudged his friend lightly in the side. "Hey, Shouto, got a moment?" He asked.
Shouto turned to him and nodded. "What is it?" Izuku rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
"I-I think I just saw something really weird, and I'm pretty sure this store really is haunted." He explained what had just happened as Ochako wandered over to listen in, gasping when he described the ice box monster.
Shouto furrowed his eyebrows. "This probably isn't good. We should get out of here."
"Let's go get Mina," Ochako agreed, voice wavering a bit. The three made their way over to Mina, who was slumped on the floor with opened packs of Fun Dip all around her, shaking at high speeds and muttering odd phrases.
Shouto picked her up and shook her lightly. "Dammit, we leave you alone for a few minutes and this happens!" He hissed. "How many of those did you eat?"
"Bleventeen," Mina slurred out. Shouto set her down and rubbed his forehead, pushing his hair away from his eyes.
"This is just wonderful," Shouto muttered, glaring at Mina. Ochako bounced on her feet, anxious to leave, while Izuku looked around nervously. "We're in a haunted convenience store and Mina is incapacitated. And how do we convince Wendy and her friends to leave? They probably won't believe us."
"Woah guys," Robbie said from down another row. "You might wanna see this." The three exchanged nervous looks and followed the older teenagers to where two outlines of bodies lay on the floor.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Ochako whispered.
Lee leaned forward. "No way! Then the rumors are true."
Robbie smirked. "Dare you to lie down in it."
"Good idea." Lee nudged Nate. "You go do it." Nate laughed him off and walked over to the outlines.
"Ooh, I'm a dead body, look," Nate snickered, as he stepped into the outlines, sitting down and preparing to mimic on of their poses.
"W-wait!" Ochako stepped forward. "Maybe this isn't such a good idea!"
But it was too late to do anything, as Nate had already settled into the pose. A second later, a green light shone through the outline, enveloping the older boy in a blue-green glow. The lights overhead started to flicker, and everything turned off.
A scream directed Izuku's attention to Tambry, who looked as though she was fading as well as being torn apart. Her cell phone dropped to the floor with a clatter as everyone gasped. Izuku stepped forward and reached for it.
He read aloud: "Status update: AHHHHHHHHH!" The TV monitor turned on, Static blaring out until it finally cleared, revealing Tambry in black and white, looking around in a panic, then pounding on the screen while screaming. Izuku nearly dropped her cellphone in terror.
"Tambry! Tambry!" Wendy called out, sound more panicked than Izuku had ever heard her sound.
Ochako but her lip. "Can you hear us?" Tambry gave no motion of answering them, continuing to pound on the glass.
"What are we supposed to do?" Nate threw his hands up in the air.
"I dunno man! I dunno!" Lee answered him.
"Let's just go already!" Robbie snapped.
"Wait, Thompson!" Izuku followed Wendy's gaze to where Thompson was still playing Dancy Pants, and doing much better than before.
"Wait!" He protested. "I've almost got the high score!" Then he disappeared in the exact same manner as Tambry had, reappearing moments later inside the game's screen. The arrows in the game started to sink into him, as he yelled and curled up to try and avoid them.
"Forget him, let's go!" Robbie yelled. "Just as he said that, the front doors to the store slammed closed with an ominous thud. Wendy ran to the doors and rattled them, to no avail.
"Guys, it's locked!" she yelled.
"Out of my way!" Robbie lifted up the cash register and threw it at the door, where it promptly vanished. In its place was a turquoise light that quickly spread around the entire store.
"Hang on!" Izuku called out, grabbing the journal from inside his pocket and flipping to the page on ghosts. "What ever's doing this must have some kind of reason. If we can figure it out, maybe we can talk to them, get them to stop hurting us!"
"Ooh, they'll let us out of here," Robbie snarked. "Yeah, that makes a lot of sense."
"Yeah right," Lee said nervously. "I'm sure the ghost just wants to talk about his feelings." Not even a moment later, Lee was lifted into the air and vanished as well.
"I'm bonkers for eating you alive!" They all spun around to see Lee in a cereal box, and the cartoon mascot- Oh no. Izuku turned around before he could be sick.
Nate backed away, taking off his cap and rubbing the sweat off of his forehead. "Okay, I'm with you kids, one hundred percent."
Behind him, Mina floated upwards, glowing that same greenish-blue, eyes vacant. "Welcome," She said, except it wasn't her saying that, because that voice definitely wasn't Mina's. "Welcome to your graves, young trespassers. Ohahahaha!"
"They got Mina!" Ochako yelped.
"Told her that Fun Dip was a bad idea," Shouto muttered under his breath.
Wendy held her hands up in surrender. "We're really sorry about coming to your store! Can we just go, and not come back?"
"Well...okay." The doors opened with a snap. Izuku could barely believe it.
Shouto seemed to share the sentiment. "What, just like that?"
"But before you go," The ghost floated Mina down to where ages old hot dogs were still roasting. "Hotdogs are half off. I know it sounds strange, but you've got to try some!"
As most sane people would do, Nate and Robbie screamed and headed for the doors, which slammed shut once again.
"Just kidding about the hotdog sale!" The ghost snarled at them.
Robbie held Nate back as he lunged for the ghost. "I don't care about that, just let us go!"
"I don't like your tone young man!" Nate vanished. A few seconds later, one of the hotdogs started screaming.
"I think I'm going to be sick," Ochako muttered. Izuku agreed wholeheartedly.
The ghost raised Mina's arms. "It begins." Everything started to lift off of the floor. Izuku yelped as his feet left the ground, rising upwards until he slammed into the ceiling. His head spun as he tried to adjust to standing upside-down.
A crunching sound came from above him, and Izuku looked up to see the TV that held Tambry falling right towards his head. Before he could move away, a light blue surrounded it, pushing it to the side.
He looked over to see Ochako gripping her amulet, panting slightly. "You're all good!" She gave him a smile. "That was harder than any other time I've used this. Maybe because the ghost is interfering?"
That would make sense. "Thanks," Izuku replied, looking around for any bit of cover. She spotted Shouto and Wendy ducking into a cabinet and grabbed Ochako's hand, leading her over and diving in with them.
"What do we do?" Wendy asked, desperation filling her voice. "What do they want from us?"
Shouto frowned. "There has to be some sort of pattern. What was everyone doing before they disappeared? Tambry was texting, Thompson was playing a video game, Lee was being sarcastic-"
"Those are all just normal teenage things!" Ochako protested.
Izuku snapped his fingers. "That's got to be it then!" How had he not seen it before?
"Then we don't have any chance to calm them down," Shouto said. "I mean, we're all teenagers. So how else can we fix this?"
Izuku looked through the book, squinting at the page on ghosts. It was too hard to see it properly, so he fished out his pen and turned the light on, deciding that black light was better than no light.
To his surprise, there was more words written on the page than before, words written in invisible ink. Izuku gaped for a moment, then looked through the page for anything useful, settling on an exorcism spell. "I've got it!" He called out. After a moment of thought, he crawled out of the cabinet!
"Izuku, what're you doing?" Shouto called after him.
Izuku looked back. "I know how to fix this!" He snuck behind a piece of debris, keeping the ghost in sight but staying behind them, and started chanting the words of the page.
The ghost turned Mina's head to him, followed by her body. "What are you doing? Stop that!" Izuku ignored them and kept chanting. Objects started flying at him, but Ochako stopped them before they hit him.
"-And move on the afterlife, where you belong!" Izuku finished. The ghost let out an eerie scream before the glow around Mina faded and she dropped to the ceiling with a groan. The light around the store started to fade, and Ochako, Shouto, and Wendy scrambled out of the cabinet as everything dropped to the floor again. Bursts of light signaled the return of the older teens. Tambry gasped as she regained her voice. Thompson rubbed his back and Lee clutched his stomach. Nate waved his arms and shook out his legs, glad to have them back.
Mina groaned. "I'm never gonna eat or do anything ever again."
Shouto raised an eyebrow at her. Mina slumped down. "Yeah yeah, I get it." He gave her a small smirk.
"What happened after everything went crazy?" Lee asked aloud.
"Oho, you wouldn't believe it!" Wendy waved her arms excitedly. "Izuku and Ochako figured out how to exercise the ghost, and took it down hard and fast!" Everyone turned to them with smiles as Wendy wove her story, and Izuku flushed. He was still getting used to people liking him. Ochako wouldn't stop smiling.
The four students spread themselves out in the living room of the shack, unable to even watch TV, due to Stan throwing it out the window for some odd reason. Ochako still felt like she was floating on air, with all the thank-yous and being called 'cool', coming from Wendy's group of friends. The whole day had been one wild ride, but that just seemed par for the course in Gravity Falls.
Izuku was flipping through the journal again, going over it with the black light. Once he had found out there was basically a whole 'nother journal inside the journal, he had been studying it non-stop.
Mina was slumped on the couch looking green, while Shouto offered her some water. She had thrown up just after they had gotten out of the van, and was now dealing with the side effects.
"Hey guys, I think I've got a lead for getting us home!" Izuku exclaimed. Ochako jumped over, Shouto not far behind. Even Mina pushed herself up to listen in. Izuku shown his pen on one of the blank pages, where blueprints for some kind of bunker lay. "If the author is still in town, there's a good chance he's here!"
"Then we'll go there tomorrow," Shouto decided. Mina groaned in protest, and he glanced over to her. "Okay, we'll go two days from now. We should spend tomorrow preparing though. We don't know what will be down there."
Ochako nodded in agreement. A way home was just within grasp, and they were going to take it!
And with that, things really start to diverge from Gravity Falls canon. What will the four students find in the bunker? What answers will they uncover? What mysteries will this lead to? Find out next time!