I'm back! It's been so long, I know, but this story was never abandoned. I put it on hold to do some other work, and when I came back, I found a lot more awesome reviews! Thank you all so much, you helped me write this chapter a lot faster.

(And for the one who asked, everyone in the town is aged up, so Candy, Grenda, Pacifica, etc. are the Mystery Crew's age, while Wendy and her gang are about to enter college.)

Anyways, I hope you enjoy!

The golf cart skidded to a halt, and its six passengers climbed out, led by none other than Stan Pines himself, proud to show off another one of his great mysteries.

"In this land of ours, there are many pits," he announced, "but none more bottomless than the Bottomless pit." He leaned casually against the sign proclaiming the pit they were standing around to be just that. "Which as you can see here, is bottomless."

Mina peered over the edge of the pit. It dropped down and down, into such darkness that she couldn't see the bottom.

"Question," Soos asked. "Is it bottomless?"

Stan let out a long suffering sigh. "Kids, can one of you try explaining this to Soos?"

"I mean, it's a fair question," Izuku pointed out. "It obviously goes down a long way, but is it bottomless or just a really deep hole? Just about anything can happen in this town, so do you know for sure?"

Stan shrugged. "Honestly, who cares? It's bottomless enough for our purposes."

"Then, why are we here?" Ochako side-eyed him. "You just told us to get in the golf cart without any explanation."

"Easy! To dispose of things we don't want!" Stan reached into his suit and pulled out a bunch of golden slips of paper. "So long, Mystery Shack Suggestion cards! He started pulling more and more out, tossing them in by the handful.

"In that case, I'm getting those creepy letters from Gideon and throwing them in," Izuku decided, running back to the shack.

Soos started taking off his shoes. Shouto frowned. "Soos, what are you doing?"

"Throwing stuff dude. Everyone's doing it!" Soos chucked his shoes in the pit as Izuku ran back with the letters, disposing of them as well.

"Isn't a bottomless pit technically impossible?" Mina wondered aloud, as Soos chucked a mini grill into the pit. "I mean, there has to be an end to it, you can't just keep going down and down into the earth's crust."

"Says you." Stan had taken off his hat, and was hitting the top of it, sending more and more cards into the hole.

Ochako winced. "How many of those things do you have?"

"Lost count at fifty," Stan shrugged. A harsh wind picked up around them, sending the hair flying out of Mina's face, and rolling dark clouds over the previously clear sky. The suddenness of the push against her face was certainly surprising.

Soos put a hand on his hat to keep it from flying off. "It's some sort of invisible pushing force!"

"Let's get back to the shack," Shouto suggested, and everyone else quickly agreed.

"I'm not done getting rid of these yet," Stan snapped, throwing more cards away. This time, however, they flew back in his face and covered his eyes. Stan yelled and stumbled around blindly.

"Stan!" Mina ran back to try and pull the older man away from the pit, where he was standing dangerously close to. He kept trying to put the cards in, and soon all five of them were holding on, determined to keep him from slipping.

Another push of wind, and Stan leaning forward too much, and they tumbled down into the darkness.

Mina screamed, along with everyone else, as the light of the sky got farther and farther away from them. The wind rushed against her skin as she fell down and down, and she could barely hear her own voice.

And then it stopped. Mina looked around. She was still falling, sure, but it felt more like she was just floating in darkness. Everyone else seemed to have come to the same realization as she did. For a few moments, they all just fell in silence together.

"So," Soos said. "Anyone want to scream some more?"

"Where are we?" Izuku wondered. Mina pulled a glowstick out of her sweatshirt pocket and lit it up, pointing it towards all sides of them.

"Somewhere where it looks like we're nowhere," she joked lightly. In truth, it was kind of disturbing, not being able to see any walls around them. The pit definitely wasn't this wide from the outside. She put the glow stick band on her arm and watched, amused, as it floated upwards.

"Welp, looks like we're down here for the long haul." Stan pulled out a deck of cards. "Who wants to see some card tricks?" He tried to shuffle the cards, but they all ended up floating away from him. Stan looked momentarily stunned, but waved it off. "Ta-da!" Mina and Izuku clapped politely.

Soos smiled. "Nice trick Mr. Pines! Hey, maybe we should pass the time by telling stories?"

"Here's one," Shouto deadpanned. "It's about the time Stan got us all thrown into a bottomless pit, where we spent the rest of our natural lives." His friends snorted.

"Go on," Soos said, hand resting on his chin contemplatively.

Izuku elbowed Shouto lightly. "What about the time with the grow and shrink light, where when we first found that? Soos and Stan haven't heard it before."

Shouto deliberated for a moment. "That could work as a story. Okay then. Let's call it… Fun Size."

"Hey Shouto, come check this out!"

Shouto looked up from his book and walked over to where Izuku was flipping through the journal. The green haired boy had the journal open to a page Shouto hadn't seen yet. "What is it?"

"It says here: Legends of miniature buffalo and giant squirrels have led me to believe that there is something containing height altering properties deep within the woods." He looked up at Shouto. "Since the girls are dealing with that mermaid guy at the moment, maybe we could check this out?"

"Sounds fine to me," Shouto agreed. They left the shop together and headed into the woods.

"I always love coming here," Izuku said, as they walked through the forest. "Magical creatures aside, it's really nice in these woods."

Shouto raised an eyebrow. "Didn't we just run into a tree giant named Steve who wanted to eat your shirt a few days ago?"

Izuku waved him off. "Sure that was a little nerve wracking at the time, but it all turned out okay in the end. Turns out he was just angry because those strange manotaurs were mocking him right before we ran into him." Strange was the perfect verb to describe the testosterone filled beasts. They especially didn't seem to like Izuku, who had told them that their version of manliness was wrong to their faces, and Ochako, who had bonded with their sworn enemy, the multibear, after the latter had introduced her to some band called BABBA. "Oh hey, I think we're here!"

Shouto looked around. It was definitely a magical looking cave, with glowing pink and blue crystals scattered around. Shouto spotted deer that could fit into his palm trotting around the forest floor, as well as giant butterflies bigger than Izuku flying around.

A growling noise caught their attention, and Shouto looked up to see a mountain lion staring them down.

Izuku squinted at it. "Is that thing small, or is it just perspective?" The mountain lion leapt at them. "Perspective, perspective!" He drew his knife, and Shouto lit his hands up with blue fire. Before either of them needed to make a move, however, the lion passed through the glowing pink light of one of the crystals, and by the time it reached them, it was about the size of a small toy.

Shouto looked at the little crystals scattered across the ground. "These could come in handy for so many different things."

"Agreed." Izuku used the knife to dig one up. He held the little crystal in the air. "Let's see if this thing works with a flashlight!"

They sat out in the lawn as Izuku fitted their little contraption on the flashlight. He turned the crystal one way, and pink light shone out of it. "Smaller." He turned it the other way, and the light turned blue. "Bigger! This is super cool! Wait until the girls hear about this."

"Oh?" Before either of them could react, someone had snatched the flashlight away from Izuku. Shouto turned to see Gideon standing there, before pink light shone in his eyes, and the ground started to get closer and closer. Gideon cackled as he shoved them in a jar, and Shouto and Izuku could only watch helplessly as they were carried away, into Gideon's house and room, and emptied on his desk.

"Gideon, what do you want with us?" Izuku said, eyes scanning the room, clearly looking for a way out.

Gideon cooed at him. "Oh, I only want you to be my best friend forever, you sweet green pea." Izuku glared back at him.

"Did we go over this already? I don't want to be around you until you clean up your act!" Izuku took a few steps back. "This is not cleaning up your act, Gideon."

Gideon narrowed his eyes. "You'll change your mind soon enough, I'm sure." He swung around his desk lamp and pointed it in their faces. Shouto squinted into the bright light. "Now, tell me, how did you come upon this magic item, hm? Somebody tell you about it? Did you read it somewhere?"

Unconsciously, Shouto made eye contact with Izuku. Then he turned back to Gideon. "Come closer, and I'll tell you."

"Don't mind if I do." Gideon leaned in, and Shouto pressed the airhorn button next to him. Gideon screamed and jumped back. In a rage, he smacked the desk lamp away. "I could squash you right now!" And he looked close to doing so, before he collected himself. "Steal yourself, Gideon. You can use them." He placed his hamster on the desk right next to them, before walking out with the light.

"What should we do?" Izuku wondered, as they watched him go. "We can't let him get the shack, or the journal, and we can't stay this height."

Shouto frowned. "I guess we'll just have to follow him. I think I can levitate us down from here."

"Are you positive?" Izuku hedged. "Not that I don't trust you! But your fire is a little… wild."

"Do we have any other choice?" Shouto gestured downwards. At their height, the floor was a long ways away.

Izuku hummed in thought. "I recently figured out more of the tricks on the magic dagger, and one of them can make a strong gust of wind. But I don't know if that would really help or not." He turned to Shouto. "Alright, I guess it's our best option."

"Yeah." Shouto concentrated, and his hands lit up blue. The light flickered and surrounded him and Izuku, before lifting them off the dest and down onto the ground. Once they safely touched down, Shouto let it go with a sigh.

"You did it!" Izuku smiled at him, and even though they both knew Shouto had no control over whether the fire did what he wanted it to or not, he appreciated it just the same. "Let's get out of here."

As they crept their way across the floor, Shouto could hear Gideon screaming at his parents over being tickled, throwing his ice cream across the room, and eventually graping the light and heading out the door, proclaiming about how he was going to shrink the entire shack.

"That kid…" Izuku trailed off, and Shouto didn't blame him. Few words could accurately describe Gideon Gleeful. They ran across the room and climbed through the dog door.

"We can't see anything from this size. We need to get higher." Izuku scanned their surroundings, before pointing to a dollar sign balloon with wings. "There!" They managed to make their way to the top, only to see Gideon get on the bus, right before it took off.

"We need to go after him." Shouto looked at the ropes holding down the balloon. "Izuku, can you free this thing?"

"No problem!" Izuku took out his dagger and sliced the ropes clean off. There was a tilt and a shudder, and then the balloon was soaring through the air. "I can do more than that, I can direct it!" He activated one of the runes, and made a slicing motion behind them. A gust of wind sent them flying in the right direction.

It was an amazing feeling, flying through the air like that. Izuku was laughing and cheering as they soared up and down, and Shouto couldn't help but join in.

Eventually, they landed on the roof of the shack, just as Gideon stepped up to the door. Shouto sent a burst of fire downwards, catching Gideon's hair aflame. Gideon screeched and batted at his hair, dropping the light in the process. The two scrambled downwards.

Shouto flipped the light to "grow", and motioned for Izuku to stand in front of it. Then he turned it on, and Izuku quickly grew to his normal height, snatching up the flashlight, and growing Shouto as well.

Gideon stared at them, hair still on fire. "What - how did you - give me that!"

"Sorry Gideon," Izuku said, "but we're taking you home now." He flipped the light to "shrink" and turned it on.

"So, what happened after that?" Soos asked. Shouto shrugged.

"We brought mini-Gideon to his house and regrew him there, before getting out as fast as we could."

Izuku chuckled. "It was certainly an adventure. Flying on that balloon was amazing!"

"Getting that thing off the shack wasn't," Stan grumbled.

Ochako laughed and took the glowstick from Shouto. "Okay, okay, I got one. This happened around the same time as when the guys got that light. Hmm, I'll call it… Hidden Depths."

"Watch out Gravity Falls, because at 110 degrees, we're looking at the hottest day of the summer!"

As if Ochako didn't already know that. Her and Mina's wax Stan statue melted in the gift shop and the water in their empty fish tank boiled as she laid down on the carpet, a bag of till slightly cold water that used to be ice on her head. Mina was next to her, fanning herself hard, Soos was face down on the floor with no shirt on, Shouto was spread out on the couch, Stan had his back on the hardwood and a tub of ice cream on his stomach, Wendy had covered herself in a mountain of water bottles, and Izuku leaned up against the couch, sending occasional waves of air around with his dagger.

"All in favor of doing nothing all day, say uuggghh," She groaned.

"Uuggghh," was the reply from everyone else in the room.

Waddles, in pig form, clopped over to Stan, who glared non-threateningly. "I'm gonna throw this pig out of the house!" Waddles licked the ice cream off his face and he sighed. "You called my bluff, pig."

"On the bright side, pun very much intended," Toby Determined continued on the tv, oblivious to their misery, "It's opening week at the Gravity Falls Pool."

Mina brightened. "Gravity Falls pool? And it's finally opening?"

"Aw yeah!" Wendy grinned. "Staying cool and hopefully earning money at the same time? I'm totally ready for this."

"You're lifeguard trained?" Izuku asked her curiously. She nodded.

"Got my certification a couple years ago." She stretched out.

Stan pointed a pumped fist upwards. "Quick, to the car!" He tried to get up, but seemed to find himself stuck to the wood. "Um, kids, a little help here?" Ochako laughed and floated him off the ground.

The pool was already in full swing by the time they arrived with their newly bought swimsuits, with just about everyone splashing in the water or relaxing on a chair. Wendy ran off to join her friends and apply for a lifeguard job, and the rest of them set up their towels on chairs and put on their sunscreen.

Ochako slathered the sunscreen on and turned to pass the bottle to Mina. Instead, she found her friend looking curiously out at the pool. "Who's that guy? I've never seen him before." Ochako glanced to where Mina was looking and saw a long-haired boy about their age, with a pool floatie covering the lower half of his body.

"Oh, him?" Soos leaned over conspiratorially. "They say he showed up at the pool weeks ago and hasn't left the water since."

Mina and Ochako shared a smile. "Magical creature, you think?"

"Only one way to find out." Ochako turned to the guys. "We're going in! See you in a bit."

Izuku smiled at her. "Have fun!"

"Don't get in too much trouble," Shouto added, looking rather amused. Mina laughed and punched his arm, and the two of them jumped into the pool.

Ochako weaved through the different groups of people, diving underwater when she got close to the strange guy. Then she got a good look at what was under his floaty, and she gasped, got a mouth full of chlorine, and had to come up for air and spit it out.

"What is it?" Mina asked, swimming over.

"Mermaid," She choked out. "He's a mermaid. Or merman, whatever. He's got a tail." Mina's eyes went wide.

"That's so cool! Let's talk to him."

The merman's eyes went wide as they approached, looking rather worried. Ochako tried for her friendliest smile. "Hello! We noticed you've been by yourself for a while. Would you like some company?"

He frowned. "I suppose I have been a little lonely… but I don't know." His accent sounded European, but it was hard to place.

"Don't worry, we don't bite," Mina assured him. "I'm Mina, and that's Ochako." The boy's eyes went wide as he looked at her, and she took notice. "I know I don't exactly look normal, but I'm pretty harmless."

"It is just…" He trailed off uncertainly. "Everyone here doesn't mind that you are not like them?"

"Nope!" She grinned encouragingly. "I've made a lot of friends in this town that don't mind. Everyone here is really open-minded when it comes to strangeness."

"I see." He looked thoughtful. "I suppose I can trust you with my secret then. My name is Mermando, and I am, well. I suppose I'll just show you." He pushed away the floaty to show his tail.

Ochako didn't have the heart to tell him they'd seen it earlier. "Wow, that's amazing! It's so pretty!"

"Oh, you think?" Mermando brightened. "Why thank you."

Mina frowned. "If you don't mind me asking, how did you end up in a public pool?"

Mermando sighed deeply. "It is a tragic story. I was swimming with my friends, the mighty dolphins, when I was ensured by a fishing net! They had decided to ship me off as cargo to Gravity Falls, but I managed to escape into the river, and tried to swim back home! But it was not to be. I nearly died of dehydration, but was found by animals and ended up falling down a slippery slope, and into this pool, where I have been ever since."

Ochako and Mina exchanged glances. Mina shrugged. "That sounds crazy enough to be true."

"I'm so sorry," Ochako told him. "Is there any way we can help you get home?"

"I do have a theory," Mermando admitted. "This Gravity Falls lake is very strange. It connects to many different places somehow, including the ocean. I do not know how it works, only that it does. If I could just get to the lake, I could go home! But that would require walking there, and I am unable to do that. Not to mention, there is the head lifeguard." He nodded towards a blonde, tanned, and extremely severe looking man.

"But we can!" Ochako punched her palm. "Mermando, we've been living with an expert lawbreaker for weeks now. If anyone can get you out of this pool and to the ocean, it's us."

"I'll go tell Izuku and Shouto what we're doing, and then we'll make a plan," Mina decided.

They came back at night, after the guard finally went home, courtesy of Wendy, who was in on the plan. Mermando perked up at the sight of them.

"You came! But the cooler we planned to use was taken home by the head lifeguard! What are we going to do now?"

"No worries." Mina brought out their new flashlight. "Our friends gave this to use. If you're okay with it, we can shrink you down into this small container, and then make you normal size again once we reach the lake."

Mermando thought for a moment. "I don't think I have another choice. And shrinking does seem like it might be fun. Okay, I am ready."

Mina turned on the pink light, and Ochako floated Mermando and some of the water around him into the container. They climbed back over the fence and sped off in their golf cart, heading for the lake.

"You okay in there?" Ochako asked him.

"I am alright!"

They made it to the lake, and Ochako dipped the container in the ocean. Mina turned on the blue light, and Mermando returned to his normal size.

"I can't thank you two enough," he said.

Ochako gave him a thumbs up. "It's no trouble. We're heroes, it's what we do!"

"So, let me get this straight. You guys had to fight giant robots to get into hero school? What about the people who don't have quirks for fighting robots, but can still be super heroic, just in different ways. Like heroes who want to rescue people."

"Well…" Izuku trailed off awkwardly at Soos' question. To be completely honest, he had thought about the same thing before, but had always brushed it off, because it was UA. When said out loud like that, he didn't really have an answer.

"It does sound kinda rigged," Mina admitted reluctantly.

Soos frowned. "You said your teacher had a quirk that could erase quirks, right? How did he become a hero? He couldn't have fought the robots. And wouldn't his quirk not be useful for any of those tests you said he made you do on the first day or you'd be expelled?"

"That was just to motivate us," Ochako protested weakly.

Stan snickered. "Sounds like a good motivator, all right. Scaring kids half to death on their first day of school sounds like fun!"

They all fell in awkward silence for a minute. Then Mina took the glowstick from Ochako. "So, how about we tell another story? I think I'll call this one… Several Troubles."

Mina tapped Izuku on the shoulder, and he spun around to face her, looking up from the journal in his lap. "Oh, h-hey! What's up?"

She smiled and motioned to Candy and Grenda. "So Grenda and Candy stopped by to say hi, and to tell us that this big boy band is coming to perform in Gravity Falls!"

"They're amazing!" Grenda gushed. "How many times am I gonna love ya?"

"Several times!" Candy cheered. Mina laughed and turned to Izuku.

"So, they invited all of us to go with them, but Shouto and Ochako are busy training with Wendy, so I was wondering if you wanted to come instead?"

Izuku beamed. "Sure! I've never really been that into boy bands, but I also haven't been to one of their shows. Thanks for inviting me."

"Of course!" Grenda pulled him to his feet. "You're our friend too! Let's go have some fun and meet some more cute guys!" Izuku blushed, and Mina laughed at him, and the four of them headed out.

The Gravity Falls Civic Center was surprisingly crowded, with everyone from Pacifica to McGucket there to see the band. Mina led the charge up to the ticket line, where Pacifica happened to be right in front of them. They reached the counter, and Mina held out their money. "Tickets please!"

The ticket seller, a boy with a massive acne problem, sneered down at them. "To late kids. Show's sold out." And with that, he slammed the window screen down on them.

Mina let out a huff. "Rude!"

Candy groaned. "The night is ruined. I welcome you, death."

"Come on, don't get so down!" Izuku protested. "This is Gravity Falls! You know what that means?"

"Doing illegal things is par for the course and you won't get caught or get in trouble for it?" Mina offered.

"Exactly." Izuku pointed to the doors leading backstage, with a massive Keep Out sign. "We can sneak through there." They rushed towards the doors, and Izuku looked around before tapping the lock with his dagger. It opened easily.

"That's useful," Grenda noted appreciatively. They all stepped inside, and headed towards the door with Several Timez name on it. Mina held the door and grinned.

"Everyone ready?" They all nodded, and she opened it.

Then her jaw dropped.

Instead of a normal dressing room, this one was filled with cloning tubes where little blond boys were in various stages of development. The actual group of band members were in a human sized hamster cage, acting very much like small animals.

"This, is not what I expected," She managed to say.

"No kidding." Izuku laughed nervously. "How did this even happen? How did nobody notice that this was going on? What even is this? I mean they're clones, but how?"

"Never meet your heroes, kids," Grenda said solemnly.

"Think they have a human sized hamster ball?"

"Mina!"

"Sorry, had to get that out there."

"Someone's coming!" Candy hissed. They all jumped behind a rack of clothing.

A rather large bald man with a gold cane and tooth stepped into the room, looking pretty mad. "Terrible show! What is wrong with you boys? You barely even sold out the arena! And Deep Chris, you call that a pout?" Deep Chris pouted even more. "Every one of you should be ashamed of yourselves. Except you Leggy P, you were really on point tonight. Here you go." He tossed Leggy P some food, and the man gobbled it up greedily, hissing at the others when they tried to come near. "And remember, you can always be replaced by your brothers. Dance for me child, dance!" The clones in the pods started dancing, and the man chuckled maniacally before leaving.

Mina stepped out of their hiding spot. "Well, you don't see this every day."

Izuku's face was white. "This is horrible! How could that man do this?"

"Who goes there?" Deep Chris asked. All the boys looked at them curiously.

Mina cleared her throat. "Hi! I'm Mina, this is Candy and Grenda and Izuku, and we're all fans of yours, totally!

"Who was that man?" Izuku demanded. "What has he been doing to you? Besides the obvious, I mean."

"Mr. Brassman's our producer, yo," One of the boys said. "He genetically engineered us to be the perfect boyband, but he keeps us in cages."

"That's so wrong." Candy shook her head. "We'll get you guys out of here."

"But we can't disobey Mr. Brassman," they protested. "He says he loves us!"

"If he loved you, he wouldn't keep you in cages, threaten to replace you, and use you to make money," Izuku pointed out. The boys looked at each other cautiously. "We'll help you guys escape." He opened the lock on their cage. "Let's get out of here."

Stan raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying that's why we had those strangely dressed pretty men staying in our house for a few days?"

"They had to lay low until Mr. Brassman got arrested," Mina explained. "And since they spent their whole life being treated like animals, we sort of had to teach them how to act properly in society so they wouldn't get trampled in this world."

"It was a pretty weird few days," Ochako agreed, spinning around continuously in her freefall. "But it felt really nice helping those guys! Izuku, you want to tell a story next?"

"Sure!" Izuku took the offered glowstick. "Okay, the name of this story will be Helping Hands."

The Mystery Crew, plus Stan, had decided to go to the Swap Meet event, where balloons were handed out and everyone was selling their used junk, like a massive party of a garage sale.

"Look at all this cool stuff!" Mina ran ahead to check out McGucket's inventions and Manly Dan's collectables. "If I wasn't trying to save more of that money we got, I'd buy all of it!" She flicked some of the bobbly heads and laughed. Shouto sighed and ran after her, a smile on his face.

A stand caught Stan's eye and he rubbed his hands together. "Look at these foe gold beauties! They're mob boss quality." He grinned at Izuku and Ochako. "Alright kids. Prepare to watch the delicate art of the deal." Then he slammed a hand on the table. "Hey, hag face. How much for the junk watches."

The woman, who looked a lot like a hag, pointed a long knobby finger at him. "These are not for sale. Not for you, Stan Pines!" The wind blew ominously behind her. "The wind whispers your name!"

Stan looked nonplussed. "Right, fine. Less talking more watch dealing." He slammed money on the counter and grabbed one of the watches. The woman's hand suddenly gripped him tight.

"Get your hands off my watch!"

Stan snatched his hand away. "Okay fine! Yeesh, freakshow." They walked away from the stand.

"Someone needs to work on their social skills," Ochako agreed, giving the woman a backwards glance.

"And their observation skills." Stan grinned, showing off the watch. "Boom!"

Izuku wasn't so sure. There was definitely something off about that woman. Still, he doubted Stan would care if he mentioned it, so he kept his mouth shut.

Izuku woke the next morning to the sound of screaming. He ripped off his blankets and ran downstairs, his friends following behind him. There, in the kitchen, was Stan, with neither of his hands.

"Holy crap, what happened to your hands?" Mina gasped.

"He got cursed," Izuku informed her.

Stan shrugged. "So I may have gotten cursed a little. It's fine! The watch looks great, and I don't need hands. I have self respect."

"I'm sure. But you have a business to run, we're staying with you while you run this business, and you need hands. This world's prosthetics won't cut it when you can actually get your hands back," Shouto pointed out. "Let's go visit that witch woman." Izuku was planning on sugar coating that, but at least Shouto was being honest.

They traveled through the spookiest part of the forest together, avoiding spiders and Steve the giant, then climbed a rocky mountain, which was theorized in hush words by the local hermit to be the home of the Hand Witch. Stan led them into the dark cave, flashlights tied to his forearms.

Something tapped Izuku's shoulder, and he shuddered nervously. "Guys, whoever is tapping my shoulder, this isn't funny. Not in this place."

"Seriously." Ochako frowned. "Someone's doing it to me too, and it isn't cool."

Something scurried along the wall, and Stan pointed a flashlight towards it. There, covering the entirety of the walls, was a massive number of hands. A scream tore from Izuku's throat, and he could hear everyone else screaming around him.

The hands launched themselves at everyone. Izuku blew them away with his dagger, and next to him Ochako floated them off her. Izuku noticed a hand launching itself at her from behind, and he sliced through it.

She turned back to see the severed hand fall on the floor. "Thanks!"

"No problem." Still, there were so many hands, even with all of them together it was starting to get overwhelming.

The witch cackled from above them. "Look at this touching scene. Up top!" One of the hands high fived her.

"Alright you horrible witch, you got me." Stan glared at her. "Stealing is wrong, yada-yada, etc. etc. Now can I have my hands back? I have a certain one fingered gesture I'd like to show you."

The hands formed a throne for the witch to sit on. "Alas, your hands cannot be gotten so easily. The spirits say, um, the curse can only be broken with ah, a kiss on the liiipppps!"

"What? Forget it!" Stan snapped. "I'm not kissing that mess. I don't need my hands that bad."

"You're just making stuff up now, aren't you?" Mina pointed out.

Izuku frowned. "People don't come here to visit a lot, do they?" The Hand Witch turned to him. "That must be really lonely. But how is taking their hands going to make people like you more? That's not how fondness works."

The witch stared at him, then let out a defeated sigh. "You're right, you're right. But whenever I bring people here without taking their hands hostage, they just run away!"

"Well, yeah." Stan gestured around them. "Look at this horror show. It's creepy even for a cave."

"Maybe in exchange for Stan's hands, we could help you re-decorate?" Izuku offered. "That way people might feel more invited."

"I like that idea!" The witch smiled. "You have yourselves a deal."

"Home makeover!" Mina cheered. With that, the six of them and hundreds of hands got to work. When it was finished, they led the Hand Witch back into her cave. "Okay, uncover your eyes."

She did so, and looked around the finished cave in awe. "Oh wow, I can't believe this is the same cave!"

"And we left a book of pick-up lines for you," Ochako added helpfully.

"I don't know what to say," the witch gushed.

Stan narrowed his eyes. "How about, "here's your hands back?" That would be good."

"Oh, yes." The witch snapped her fingers, and Stan's hands flew towards him, putting themselves in their rightful place.

"Shaky, scratchy! Oh how I've missed you." He wiggled his hands joyfully, and Izuku bit back a laugh." They waved goodbye to the witch and left the cave with some parting words from Stan: "Well, I learned nothing."

"That's amazing!" Soos clapped. "I can't believe I missed that."

Stan crossed his arms. "You're lucky you missed that mess. Why'd you have to go telling others about that day?"

Izuku shrugged. "We are telling stories. And Soos hadn't heard that one before." He passed the glowstick to Soos. "Want to go next?"

"Sure thing! And since Mr. Pines had a story told that I wasn't there for, I'll tell one that Mr. Pines wasn't there for. This story is called: Soos' Really Great Pinball Story! Is that a good name? Does it have to be a pun or something?"

Soos pressed the knobs on the pinball, while the Mystery crew cheered him on. "Go! Go! Go!"

"This is it dudes. After four long years of trying, I might finally get the high score on Stan's creepy old pinball machine. Then I'll go down in pinball history, with the likes of Sal, Gaff, and of course, Poo."

"Have you ever tried just tilting the machine?" Mina wondered.

Soos frowned. "I dunno dudes. Isn't breaking the rules kinda, you know, breaking the rules?"

"To hell with the rules!" Ochako cheered. "Rules are for those not aiming to go down in pinball history." Soos turned back to the machine, only to lose the game.

"Failure! You stink!" The creepy cowboy skull said.

Soos narrowed his eyes. "Alright, that's it. You ready kids?" They all got up and positioned themselves around the machine. Soos started a new game, and they helped him tilt it into the mouth of the cowboy.

"Bullseye!" They all cheered as Soos' name went up on the very top of the leaderboard. "New high score!"

"This is the best moment of my life," Soos confessed. "Totally beats my old best moment."

The cowboy skull narrowed his eyes. "You cheated."

"You say that like you know for sure," Shouto pointed out coolly.

"Oh I know." Lots of green lightning started flashing from the machine, and they had only a moment to step back before it enveloped them.

When everyone opened their eyes, they were much smaller than before, and wearing western costumes.

"Guys!" Izuku's eyes were wide. "We're inside the game!"

They looked around. Sure enough, the different parts of the pinball game towered above and around them.

"Dudes, if this is a dream, I never want to wake up!" Soos yelled.

"That can be arranged." They all looked to the cowboy, much bigger than before. "Welcome to Tumbleweed Terror, partners. This isn't a good thing though! I do recall I warned y'all not to cheat! I tried to be gentleman-like, but I'm plum-sick of being tilted." The lights in the machine all flashed menacingly. "So now, I reckon I'm going to tilt you."

Out of the cowboy's mouth came five different metal balls, giant compared to them now, and rolling right for them. They all took off.

"Does anyone have the flashlight?" Ochako cried out.

"It was in our room!" Izuku yelled back, jumping over one of the displays to avoid a ball. "Everyone behind here!" They dashed into the "Saloon Parlor".

Ochako turned to Izuku. "Deku, what's the plan?"

He frowned in thought. "Maybe if we shut down the machine manually, then we'll be good."

"I know where the shutdown button is," Soos told them. "But we'll need a distraction. Are any of you good at jumping up and down and making annoying noises?"

A mystical wind blew through Mina's hair. "My time has come," she announced.

So while the crew jumped out of hiding and did their best to act as annoying as possible, Soos rode down a cart through the gold mine and into the inner workings of the game, where a big green power button was on. He ran over to it, but then had a thought: what if this erased his high score? Looking down at the warning confirmed it.

"Soos!" Soos looked up to see a gust of wind sucking the kids in, and he knew he had no choice. He pressed the big red button. With another flash of green light, all of them were outside the game, and normal size.

Izuku let out a relieved laugh. "We're okay! Thanks Soos."

Shouto frowned. "Sorry about your high score."

"That's okay," Soos assured him. "Now I have an even better accomplishment: save you dudes."

Ochako blinked. "Wait, didn't that all happen this morning? We just went through that." Soos seemed to notice his shoes, and quickly put them on again.

"Does that make this whole mess our new story?" Mina's smile faded. "But then, how does it end?"

"Guys, do you see that?" Izuku was looking downwards, towards a steadily approaching bright light. Everyone screamed and covered their faces.

Then for a moment, they were in the air, before landing with a thump on the grass right outside the pit. No time seemed to have passed from when they entered.

"We came right back out the top, somehow." Ochako dusted herself off. "Not that I'm complaining, but how?"

Izuku looked down curiously. "Must be a paradox or wormhole of some kind. I guess this really is a bottomless pit."

"That sounds science-y enough to be true," Soos agreed.

"But - but that's impossible." Stan leaned on the sign, looking down. "No one will believe us!"

"Maybe this is one story we keep to ourselves," Shouto suggested.

"Agreed." They stood there for a moment, in peaceful silence, before the sign broke and Stan fell into the hole again.

"...He'll be fine."

This chapter contained a lot of the little stories I wanted to write, but weren't long enough to merit their own chapters. Lots of adventures have been going on since the gang entered Gravity Falls, and so here's a little snippet of them.

Anyways, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed, and please don't forget to review, let me know if you liked it!