Gravity Falls: Once More

by Absolute Rift

Four years after their faithful summer of weird, Dipper and Mabel finally return to the legendary town of Gravity Falls. Despite having new adventures and mysteries to take on, they are still tailed by the challenges that come with navigating teenage life. With friends and enemies, both new and old, the Pines must prepare themselves for whatever awaits them. (S1 done, S2 ongoing)

32. Back to the Bunker: Part 3

WHOOOSH!

A bag had been suddenly pulled off of Ryland's head, flashing his eyes with the sudden shine of daylight. His eyes continued to adjust as he looked around again. As he looked down, he noticed he had several ropes tying his entire body down to a slanted board. He tried to pull himself free but he quickly found that the ropes were tightly tied and found himself hardly able to move.

He narrowed his eyes angrily. "You damn gnomes! I swear once I'm free I'm gonna… huh?"

His eyes bulged upon looking around and noticing where he was. Surrounding him were the round walls of some sort of wooden colosseum where he was placed in the middle.

The colosseum itself wasn't very large. Up above on the walls and in the seats were hundreds of gnomes watching and booing him. The seats were designed for the gnomes themselves. While the colosseum was large enough to seat such a large number of gnomes, that didn't make it very viable for a lot of normal humans. It did, however, have a very tall height, using the surrounding tall trees of the forest as support.

The gnomes booed Ryland from above, with some throwing pinecones and rocks at him.

"Hey! Hey!" Ryland shouted as some of the objects thrown at him painfully made their mark. "I already bruise myself enough from my own stupidity! I don't need gnomes to top it off!"

"Ryland! Up here!"

He glanced around to one of the other walls and spotted Mabel along one of the colosseum seats. Like him, she was also tied down to a slanted board, but she was also surrounded by a bunch of gnomes, making escape even more improbable for her.

"Mabel!" he called back. "Where the hell are we?"

"Why, you're at the Gnoman Colosseum, blondie!" Jeff announced as he stood directly across from Ryland on the wall above a large gate. "The largest, deadliest, most inflammable gnome battle arena in Gravity Falls! Which isn't very large to you guys, actually, but by gnome standards, it's a pretty impressive piece of architecture."

"Why'd you bring us here? What do you want with us?!" Ryland asked, continuing to try to struggle out of his ropes.

"I thought it was obvious. We wanted Mabel... sooo, we kidnapped her," Jeff told him bluntly. "And we kidnapped you because you were getting in the way. So, uh... yeah. Now, we're gonna kill you."

"WHAT?!"

"I'm sorry, was that not loud enough? I SAID, WE. ARE. GOING. TO. KILL. YOU. How was that? Was that better?"

"This has gone too far, Jeff!" Mabel called out to him from her place on the wall. "It's not unlike you to stoop low, but I didn't think you were this bad! We worked together during the apocalypse for crying out loud!"

"What's past is past, and what's now is now," Jeff brushed aside carelessly. "You see, Mabel, we gnomes are very different now compared to four years ago! We've gone through many governmental changes, disputes, and even a civil war! But we're past all of that, and now, we're at the point of rebuilding our colony. Part of that process involves finding the proper structure of leadership. I was ready to make a change and give up the monarchy, and I did it for you!"

"Well, that was your first mistake- assuming that I wanted anything to do with you!"

"I guess it was. But you were given a chance! It's a shame you didn't take it. Now, instead of winning your heart, I gotta pry it from your date's perfectly tanned hands!"

Ryland glanced down and examined his hands. "Huh. I've never been so conflicted about whether I should cuss someone out or say thanks."

"Anyways…" Jeff began as he looked down at the gnomes next to the gate below him. "...RELEASE THE BEAST!"

The gnomes below nodded and walked over to opposite sides of the gate. On each side, there was a lever, which each gnome approached. At the same time, the two put their hands on the levers and pulled down, prompting the gate to begin slowly opening up. As it opened, there was an audible growling coming from the inside, which was too dark for anyone to be able to see through.

"Oh God..." Ryland said worriedly as he heard the growling.

"Jeff, what is that thing?" Mabel asked, growing panicked as well. "Some sorta giant three-headed mountain lion or something?"

"Oh, no! Something I think you two are much more familiar with!" Jeff said with a grin. "You remember the Guardian of the Gnomes, don't you? Once owned by the oh-so-mighty Thomas the Great and his Timberland Gnomes?"

"THE FIRE-BREATHING DRAGON?!" Ryland fearfully realized.

"Yep! We've since renamed her Theresa! And not too long after we took her under our wing, we made a great discovery..."

As the gates finished opening up, Ryland's eyes glanced forward anxiously. The ground shook as the creature inside began to walk forward, the steps getting louder as it got closer. Soon, it finally stepped out into the light, revealing itself. Mabel and Ryland's eyes both widened in surprise to see that the creature wasn't the same large and mighty dragon they saw prior, but a smaller, infant-looking red dragon that appeared confused as it walked out into the daylight.

"...she was going to become a mother!"

The gnomes cheered as the baby dragon appeared, whereas Ryland held fearful eyes as he sat right in the middle of the colosseum, still unable to move or escape. He knew he was a clear target the second the dragon looked over at him.

"Theresa's been a bit out of it since laying her eggs, so instead of sending her out to burn you alive, we sent out one of her kids to do her bidding," Jeff explained.

"NOOOoooOOoo! You separated her from one of her babies?!" Mabel cried out, her heart aching at the thought. "YOU MONSTER!"

At that moment, a gnome stepped up to Mabel's head and placed its hands over her mouth, silencing her. She continued to try and shout and scream things out, but nothing came out besides muffled noises.

"Thanks, Steve!" Jeff nodded in his direction. "Now, where were we? Oh, right! BURN THE BLONDIE!"

The dragon still appeared confused as it stood out in the open of the colosseum. It looked all around at the gnomes surrounding them above the walls and occasionally Ryland. Each time it looked at him, he froze fearfully, bracing himself as much as he could for whatever it might decide to do to him.

"AH! How can something be so cute and so terrifying at the same time?!" Ryland asked as he turned his head away, shutting his eyes tightly as the dragon looked at him yet again.

"What are you waiting for?! Stop looking around at everything and burn the boy!" Jeff ordered the baby dragon impatiently. "We don't have all day! Actually, we do, but we're not trying to prolong a good burning here! Shmebulock has barbecue plans!"

However, the dragon began to whimper as it looked around. It looked too confused and didn't seem to know where it was. It began to grow progressively antsier while beginning to huff repeatedly. Ryland looked on with growing curiosity.

Jeff raised a concerned eyebrow as he saw the dragon beginning to act up. He looked down below at the gatekeepers inside the arena. "Hey! Something's going on. One of you go and try to calm him down!"

The gnomes looked at one another hesitantly before one just decided to follow Jeff's order. He ran up to the dragon as it continued to huff and look around anxiously.

"Hey, boy! Over here, boy!" the gnome waved, trying to grab its attention. It worked, as the dragon looked down at him, studying him. "That's right! Everything's okay! You're alright!" He then pointed over at Ryland. "You see that tied-up kid over there in the middle? What we're gonna need you to do is-"

The gnome was suddenly cut off by the increased whimpering of the baby dragon. It began huffing again, with smoke soon beginning to steam from its small nostrils. It then took a very quick breath before opening its mouth and firing a large fireball directly at the gnome.

"AH!" the gnome shouted just as it jumped out of the way of the fireball. Instead, the fireball hit the ground and against the edge between the wall and the ground, spreading a bunch of flames out among the wooden wall of the Gnoman Colosseum.

"WHAT THE-?!" Jeff shouted as he witnessed the event before his eyes. As he looked over at the impact of the fireball, he noticed the flames beginning to slowly burn apart the wood the fire had been set upon. "NOOO!"

Continuing to feel confused, threatened, and scared by its surroundings, the dragon continued to huff defensively. Before any other gnome had a chance to go after it, it quickly breathed in again and shot another fireball out, this time, directly into the crowd of gnomes above the wall.

The gnomes in the way of the fireball jumped away all at once just as it hit. The impact left a large number of flames that began burning into the wood as well. As the gnomes stood back up, they started running and screaming for their lives, as well as most of the other gnomes that sat down within the colosseum as well.

"DRAGON FRENZY!"

The baby dragon continued to breathe in and repeatedly shoot out large balls of fire throughout the arena. Some hit the walls, some hit the ground, some hit the seats above, and some even hit some gnomes themselves. Each time it shot though, another part of the arena got set on fire and started to burn.

Jeff looked on in horror. "THAT IDIOT DRAGON IS GONNA BURN DOWN OUR WHOLE GNOMOSEUM! SOMEONE GET IT UNDER CONTROL!"

Just as he spoke, the dragon had already aimed a fireball in his direction, blasting it directly at him. With little time to react, Jeff simply ducked down below one of the seats. However, the spread of the fire was enough to reach him anyway and his hat caught fire, which he noticed just as he stood back up.

"AHHHH! I'M ON FIRE!" he screamed as he began to run around.

At that point, just about every gnome was already on the run, including the ones that had surrounded Mabel, who was now left tied up completely on her own. However, the dragon had previously launched fireballs close enough to her position that the spreading fires began to grow closer and closer to her.

"Aw, c'mon!" she shouted as she looked down.

More fireballs continued to be shot from the scared dragon, still landing in various places. It had soon fired one incredibly close to Ryland's position, with the flame that it left behind only mere inches away from his board.

However, one look down at the fire, and Ryland was able to see that flames were occasionally making contact with his ropes. Each time the tip of a flame touched the rope, it sunk in a little burn that cut through slightly. As the wind continued to blow, the flame was found brushing against the rope multiple times, cutting pretty deeply through.

"C'mon... c'mon!" he pleaded as he looked on at the deepening cuts into the ropes. To assist the process, he began pulling on the ropes by leaning his body in the opposite direction from where the flames were cutting.

SNAP!

After a moment, the ropes had broken loose and Ryland found himself thrown to the side as he was freed from the board.

"Yes!" he cheered victoriously before rubbing his arms due to the rope burn that came with it. "Ow..."

He quickly drew his focus back to the situation at hand, taking one look at the dragon as it continued to crankily set fire throughout the rest of the arena. Verifying he wasn't within its current line of sight, he looked back over to the section above the walls where Mabel was tied up. The fires that had previously surrounded her had gotten even closer at that point, and all she could do was struggle within her ropes.

"I'M COMING, MABEL!" Ryland shouted, jumping back to his feet to immediately run over to her.

He quickly rushed over to the wall that her board stood above, jumped up, and grabbed onto the ledge. He pulled himself up onto the small wooden seats, ran up to her, and began to untie the knots of the ropes she was tied in, trying to do it fast before the spreading fire reached them.

"So I know sundresses are supposed to be made for warm weather, but this puppy does NOT respond well to fire at all," Mabel said casually as Ryland focused on untying the knots. "Seriously, this dress is starting to burn me from the inside out. And I have a high tolerance for this kinda stuff! I once wore sweaters for a whole summer!"

"I guess that explains why you've got me burning up, huh?" Ryland asked with a flirtatious smile as he stopped untying.

Mabel was everything but smitten, though. "Oh, Ryland, sweetie. Please don't tell me you got flirting advice from my brother..."

"Nope. That just sounded a lot better in my head," he confessed right before finally getting her loose. "Anyway, c'mon! Let's go!"

He grabbed her wrist and pulled her along with him as he ran back down the wooden steps, which began to burn behind them. The two then jumped down into the arena at the same time. As they hit the ground, they looked back up and watched as the fire spread completely above the wall behind them.

Mabel looked above at the fire among the seats, realizing they had no way of getting through to get to the side exits. "Now how are we supposed to get out of here?"

Ryland thought for a moment before glancing behind them. "Quick! This way!"

He grabbed her wrist yet again and pulled her along with him as he ran in the direction of the dragon. Initially believing they were going to run past it toward the exit, Mabel suddenly became floored once she realized where they were running.

"Uh... Ryland? Why are we running toward the dragon?"

"Because I'm gonna get us outta here!"

"What?!" Mabel questioned as Ryland suddenly let go of her.

"Watch!"

He ran directly behind the baby dragon as it was blasting fireballs in another direction, paying no attention to him or Mabel. Then, without warning, he jumped up and landed right on the dragon's back, placing his hands on its neck.

"Alright, little guy! Ride us out of here!" he shouted heroically as he raised a fist in the air.

The baby dragon, however, did not take kindly to Ryland's sudden mount and roared angrily. It then made a violent jump, kicking its legs back and throwing him right off its back.

"AAAH!" Ryland yelled as he flew through the air for a brief second before violently hitting the ground. He groaned painfully. "Well... that didn't work…"

Mabel quickly ran up to his side and pulled him back up. "Ryland, I like you... like, a lot... but that was really stupid."

The dragon roared unhappily yet again, which grabbed the attention of the two as it turned toward them. With narrowed eyes, it began to slowly march up to them, shaking the ground with each step. Its nostrils were fuming with smoke as it huffed repeatedly at them.

"Yeah, I'm starting to see that now…" Ryland agreed as he looked on nervously.

Neither of them was sure what to do next or how to react as the baby dragon continued to approach them. They could run but it wasn't like they had many places to go. Especially when dealing with a creature capable of flight.

Without any other ideas, Mabel simply decided to stand right in front of it. She smiled nervously as she slowly began to approach it with her arm outstretched.

"Mabel, what are you doing?" Ryland asked with a mix of dread and confusion.

"I saw some guy do this in a dinosaur movie last year," she told him before turning back to the baby dragon. "Shhh, it's okay! There's no need to be scared!"

"Mabel, that's a dragon. Not a dinosaur," Ryland reminded her.

"I know that. I've dealt with dinosaurs before too."

"Wait, seriously?!"

The dragon appeared to grow slightly confused as it watched Mabel continue to approach it. Still, it huffed aggressively and continued to keep its eyes narrowed at her. But she just continued walking up to it with complete confidence in her movement.

"Don't worry! Those stupid, ugly gnomes are gone! I won't hurt you!"

As she finally reached the scared dragon, she carefully placed a gentle hand right on the top of its large head and began to pet it softly. Maintaining a frozen, uptight posture, the dragon still looked confused and scared, but it also seemed to allow her to pet it.

"You see? You're okay…" she continued to coax it soothingly, trying to maintain as calm of a demeanor as possible. "Everything's gonna be fine…"

The longer she pet him, the less uptight the dragon began to appear. It started to lean forward a bit more relaxingly, which allowed Mabel to easily pet it more. Eventually, it started to calm down to the point where it stopped huffing and smoke stopped expelling from its nostrils. It now appeared to be soothed by her gentle petting, which she and Ryland were able to quickly notice, much to their disbelief.

"No... way…" Ryland said in awe.

"Awww... He just needed someone to comfort him!" Mabel said before wrapping her arms around it. "Isn't that right? You big, beautiful, deadly baby, you!"

"I cannot believe what I'm looking at right now," Ryland said as he walked up beside her.

HUFF!

The baby dragon aggressively huffed once at Ryland upon his close approach beside Mabel, which made him flinch back fearfully.

"Hey, hey! It's okay!" Mabel told the dragon quickly as she began giving him comfort pets again. "Trust me. He's alright."

Despite her coaxing, Ryland continued to receive untrusting looks from the dragon. But it remained calm under Mabel's handling.

After a moment though, there was the sound of creaking around the Gnoman Colosseum. As the two looked around, they could see wood caving in and falling apart from the walls as a sign that the entire place was about to collapse from the burning flames.

"Mabel, we need to get out of here," Ryland reminded.

Realizing this, she turned back to the dragon and gave it a pet on the side of its snout. "I know we just met, but you think you can do us a favor and give us a flight outta here? Pleeeease?" she begged as she continued to give it side strokes.

The baby dragon gave a gentle huff as it spread its wings out a bit and sat upright, offering for the two to hop on.

Mabel laughed as she went and hopped on its back. "Awww! What a sweetie! He already trusts me!" She glanced over to Ryland and gestured for him to hop on behind her. "Now, c'mon! We have our escape!"

Ryland shook his head as he sat down behind her on the dragon. "I just can't believe it. This thing actually understands what you're saying?"

"Probably not," Mabel said with a shrug. "Usually, it's not about what you say to animals. It's about how you say it! Now, hang on tight! First time flying a dragon here, and I can't guarantee there won't be any accidents!" She patted the dragon's neck a few times. "C'mon, boy! Next stop- anywhere without gnomes! YAH!"

The baby dragon gave one final huff before leaping forward and spreading its wingspan out. As soon as it did so, Ryland took immediate safety precautions and held onto Mabel's waist as they took off in the air. Being as young as it was, the dragon wasn't a necessarily skilled flyer and made hard movements as its wings flapped.

Still, Mabel and Ryland managed to hold on long enough before it finally started to smoothen out its flying. As they soared through the sky, Mabel let out a jubilant laugh as she felt the wind flow through her hair above. Her blue floppy straw hat blew off her head with the wind, falling somewhere into the forest below. But it hardly mattered to her. The rush of adrenaline was too exhilarating for her at that moment. She was riding a frickin' dragon.

Ryland didn't express the same amount of excitement as her, finding the circumstances a bit more terrifying with how easy it was looking for him to slip off. However, he couldn't help but smile upon seeing Mabel so delighted. As he held onto her waist, she spread her arms out like an open wingspan let the full breeze of the wind brush across her. She turned her head back to look him in the eye, and both of them smiled blissfully at one another.

They may not have been at the front of a ship over the open sea, but Mabel still felt like she was on top of the world. At the very least, she was actually flying.

Back down below, Jeff poked his head out of a nearby stream of water that he had run into to put out the fire that covered him before. As he looked up, he spotted the couple flying off on the baby dragon. He narrowed his eyes and clenched his fists angrily.

"CURSE YOU, MABEL PINES!" he shouted, despite the fact his voice wasn't loud enough for them to possibly notice from above.

He sighed and looked down in defeat. At the same time, he looked down at himself and only then realized that the fire had burnt off all of his clothes. With this in mind, he sat back down in the stream, letting the flowing water be his temporary cover.

"Help! Gnome president down!" he aimlessly called out through the forest. "I'm in a stream and need a new set of clothes here!"

There was no response from any other gnomes that could've been in the area. Jeff continuously looked around, hoping someone would show up to aid him. However, even after a solid minute, there was still no answer to his calls.

"A-Anybody?"

---

Back in the observation room, Wendy continued to sit alone on the ground with her back laid against the wall. She held her axe lightly in her hands. With little pressure, she ran her finger along the cutting edge, staring at it.

"Ugh," she groaned as she put the axe down beside her. "This is so stupid. What's wrong with me? I faced tons of other crap the same summer I came down here last. So, why does this place give me the creeps? Why am I so afraid of a monster that just turns into other monsters?"

She picked her axe back up and stared at it again, focusing on her glossy reflection within the head of the axe.

"Am I just scared of... myself?"

It was a ridiculous thing to think that all her fear of the bunker and the Shifter could've accumulated from a brief battle she had with herself when she fought the Shifter last. But as she recalled the circumstances of her life over the past month, the ridiculousness of the idea started to dissipate.

"It has been pretty stressful at home lately," she admitted, thinking over all the pressure that's been put on her as of late with her upcoming move. "And, of course, it's my fault for getting expelled in the first place. Maybe... I'm just worried about messing up again. Maybe my one bad memory of this place is just mixing together with all of my recent stress. I mean, is this place really as bad as I remember it?"

She stared forward for a moment, thinking over her feelings and fears before narrowing her eyes.

"To hell with it. This place isn't anything I can't handle!" she said to herself as she confidently stood up from the floor, pocketing her axe as she began walking across the room over to the decontamination chamber. "I've gone through the apocalypse, dammit! And if that didn't stop me, then neither should this place! I can do this!"

She pulled open the door to the decontamination chamber and stepped in, shutting the door behind her. She then pulled down on the cord that hung above in the chamber, which immediately caused a shower of water to rain down on her from above.

The suddenness caught her by surprise and she shrieked as she held her hands above her head. The water eventually finished washing down on her, giving her a second to catch her breath. A few seconds after, though, she was blasted with hot air from both sides, the intensity blowing off her pine tree cap, as well as almost entirely drying her.

BEEP!

A sign that read "Decontamination Complete" flashed above the next doorway, which soon opened up. She picked her cap back up from the floor and adjusted it on her head, glancing around outside the doorway as she stepped into the lab.

"Alright, I forgot how much I hated that," she said as she walked away from the chamber. "On the bright side, the Shapeshifter's gone. So really, one near-death situation aside, what's there to be scared about?"

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Wendy's eyes bulged as she was startled by the sudden sounds of metallic banging. She quickly turned her head and looked around the laboratory, trying to make out where the sound was coming from.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"MM-MMM!"

The extra banging allowed her to trace the sound back to a corner of the lab where a metal cabinet stood. Paired with the muffled screams from a familiar voice, she grew unnerved and hesitated on whether she should walk over and check it out for herself. Knowing the boys had already been through before her, she questioned whether it was just something normal that McGucket had kept around or if it was something worth being concerned about.

"MM-MMM! MM-MMMM!"

She deduced that someone was definitely inside the cabinet and they sounded like they were calling out for help. What continued to bring her concern was the fact that the voice of the muffled screams began to become even more familiar to her as they repeated. Her curiosity prompted her to start slowly walking over to the cabinet to get a better idea of the supposedly familiar voice to her, while also not jumping to the immediate conclusion of opening it up and potentially freeing something dangerous.

"MM-MMM! MMMMMMMMMM!"

Her eyes lit up. "Wait a second... Dipper?!"

"MM-MMM! MM-MMM! MM-MMM!"

Without further hesitation, she ran up to the cabinet quickly and attempted to pull it open. However, she immediately learned it was locked.

Not that it was a problem for her.

"Hang on!"

She drew her axe out and effortlessly sliced the blade right into the middle gap between the doors, cutting straight into the lock embedded inside with a single swing. She pulled the doors open and spotted Dipper at the bottom, all tied up and his mouth taped shut. He looked up at her with pleading, yet thankful eyes.

"Oh my God!"

She immediately kneeled down to him, putting her hand on the piece of tape over his mouth and quickly peeling it off.

"Wendy!" he shouted gratefully.

"Dude! What the hell happened?! Who did this?!"

"I... uh… I don't think you wanna know…"

"Just tell me, man!"

Dipper still looked reluctant to say for a moment but knew there wasn't use in starting an argument based on what was at stake. "The Shapeshifter! He cut out the power and caused a blackout, then swooped in, quickly tied me up, and locked me in this closet while he took my place. He's with the others right now!"

The mention of the Shifter's return alone brought a look of disbelief to Wendy's face and he immediately noticed it. Her skin went cold and the world sounded muffled for a good moment as her heart sunk deeper into her chest.

However, she snapped herself right out of it not long after. A tight feeling in her chest remained, but she knew that the stakes made that feeling irrelevant. Knowing the Shifter was currently blending with their friends meant that no matter what fear she felt, it was more important to be brave at that moment.

Dipper looked at her remorsefully. "I know this was the last thing you would've wanted to hear on this whole trip, but-"

"Just forget it, man! This isn't about me anymore!"

With her axe in hand, she carefully, yet speedily sliced through the ropes around his arms and legs, freeing him. She then grabbed his arm and quickly pulled him back up to his feet before beginning to run off toward one of the tunnels.

"We gotta go save the others before it's too late! Come on!"

---

McGucket had continued to lead Ford, Derrick, Soos, and Dipper down into the storage area. The five of them continued to stay grouped together, with Ford still readily aiming his wristwatch around behind them. They moved at a steady pace, watching each tunnel they passed while keeping their eyes on the lookout for the Shapeshifter.

"Chemical testing lab up ahead," McGucket pointed out. "Any sign of the Shifter at all?"

"Nothing particularly notable, but then again, who knows?" Ford said as he continued to look around. "If it wanted to, it could shift into a pebble. It could pop out from right beneath us at any second."

This knowledge only increased Soos' fear at that moment. "Aw, c'mon, dude! I was already worried enough looking around for extra people! Now I'm learning this thing can shift into actual objects? My heart ain't gonna be able to take much more of this! I'm freaking out!"

"Calm down, Soos!" Ford said. "While my claim is possible, I meant it as a very strong 'if'. I don't believe he would choose that subtle of a form."

"You should consider adding these clarifications to your normal speech. I think that'd substantially lower the heart attack risk," Derrick said while keeping his eye out.

Dipper suddenly stopped walking and looked straight into a tunnel they were about to pass. Noticing something, he pointed into the tunnel and turned back to the others as they kept walking. "Guys, wait! The Quantum Destabilizer!"

The other four stopped and turned back to him in surprise; McGucket especially.

"You found it?" Ford asked.

"Yeah! It's right over here in this dark and scary tunnel!" Dipper told them.

"Really?" McGucket asked curiously while stroking his beard. "What's it doing over there in a tunnel? The chemical lab is right ahead."

Soos narrowed his eyes at Dipper skeptically. "Wait a second, guys... I've seen this in the movies. What if 'Dipper' is actually the Shapeshifter? And what if 'he' is trying to lead 'us' into 'his' 'trap?'" he questioned while improperly overusing air quotes.

Dipper glanced around casually. "Well, I mean, the gun is literally right there. I'm not even joking. You can see it from where I'm standing right now."

With that said, the four walked back over to him, standing right behind him as they looked into the specified tunnel. And just as he said, they spotted the large gun lying against the back wall of the dead-end tunnel.

"Well, I'll be darned. There it is!" McGucket said with great surprise.

"Huh," Soos said, also somewhat surprised. "In that case, I withdraw my accusation. Guess I've been watching too many movies. Sorry 'bout that, Dipper dude!"

"No problem, human companion!" Dipper said while giving Soos a friendly punch in the arm. "Anyways, we should all go in there and get it. Leaving anyone out here would leave someone open to the Shifter, you know? Same thing in there."

"I suppose you're right," Ford nodded as he and the others began to walk into the tunnel toward the weapon. "Quickly though. Someone grab the weapon so we can keep moving toward the chemical lab. We still need to stock up on weapons so we're more prepared to fight back against the Shifter. If he's here, then it's vital we stop him before we leave today."

Derrick walked up to the weapon and picked it up in his hands, struggling a bit due to the unexpectedly heavy weight of the gun. "Man... so this is how heavy an empty multidimensional death ray is? Yikes. I'd hate to be carrying this if it was actually loaded."

"Maybe I can give you some help, dude," Soos offered as he walked up to him.

"Actually, all of you are going to need help. Against me," Dipper said as his voice suddenly changed into something more deep and menacing as he stood behind the four threateningly, holding a sinister grin.

At that moment, Dipper was no longer Dipper, as he suddenly transformed and shifted into a giant spider-like creature with eight-long legs. Immediately, he turned his head toward the four and began to spit out heavy amounts of webbing from its mouth, blasting everyone one by one.

"AHH!" Soos screamed as he was webbed to the wall.

"HEY!" Derrick exclaimed as he was webbed along with the Destabilizer.

"EHH!" McGucket shrieked as his frontside got pinned to the wall with webbing.

"NOOO!" Ford shouted as he attempted to aim his wristwatch, but was too late to avoid the webbing.

With little time to react, everyone soon found themselves webbed to the walls of the tunnel in different positions and angles.

"What the hell?!" Derrick questioned in horror as attempted to struggle out of the web, but to no avail. "Dipper?!"

"That ain't Dipper! That's the Shapeshifter!" McGucket called out fearfully as his eyes were just barely able to glance at it with the position of his head.

"Oh no! My sequel theory was true after all! I shouldn't have let my guard down!" Soos shouted.

The Shapeshifter cackled as he transformed back from the spider creature into his normal, recognizable form. "Yes! After all this time... after all my planning... I knew it'd lead to capturing the author!"

He walked up to Ford, who continued to try and struggle out of the webs. As he approached him, he took one look at his face and then one look at his hands, verifying his six fingers.

"At long last... I SEE your face!" the Shifter said as he stared at Ford. "And now I remember... the first face I had laid eyes on when I had hatched. A face that I thought I would never see again. A face to be forgotten as a youthful memory. Until now... Stanford Pines..."

"It's been a while, Shifty," Ford greeted his old specimen with narrowed eyes. "I believe our last encounter ended with me freezing you after your remorseless attempt to lock up my partner and steal my journal."

"Yes, and a successful attempt it would have been had your partner kept his pathetic, stammering mouth shut," the Shifter said as he glared over at McGucket.

"Pathetic? S-S-Stammering?!" McGucket stammered, offended.

"Shut up," the Shifter ordered, already annoyed by his voice. "Anyhow, as you can see, I'm frozen no more! And it hasn't been the first time either. You think I've dug all these tunnels in four years? Early on during your absence, I managed to escape from my first freezing. Of course, no form I attained was prepared to break the hidden barriers you surrounded this place with. Still, as seen today, these tunnels proved to be good spots to set traps!"

"Wait a minute... so you put the Quantum Destabilizer here?" Ford realized. "But how did you know we were even looking for it?"

"Four years ago, when your assistant freed me under the impression I was the boy named Dipper, I took it as my chance to make an escape. However, your assistant's sudden return to the bunker surprised me and piqued my interest. If he were still around, I thought that perhaps, you were too. While not at that moment, I figured eventually. So rather than making my escape, I stayed behind and plotted for our reunion, occasionally following this yapper as he continued to come back again and again, dropping off even more frozen creatures that I soon learned were captured by you. But you never came down yourself. I figured I needed a way to lure you back in, so, during one of your assistant's visits, I stole a big weapon, assuming it would be more important. And important it was. I must've gotten lucky in picking the exact one you were searching for. You think I'm as much of a nerd as you are to know what your Quantum Destable-whatever is?"

"So you had a chance to escape, but you didn't because you wanted to settle a grudge with Ford?" Soos asked, chuckling. "I'm sorry, dude, but that just sounds way too obsessive."

"Tell me about it," Derrick nodded. "Put me alone in a room with Mabel with the door open, and you'd never see me sticking around."

"And if Shifty stole the Destabilizer from the bunker..." Ford said, thinking. "Then Fiddleford, you were right all along! You didn't misplace the weapon or forget where it was! It was in the weapon cache! Shifty just took it down here and also made your mind appear forgettable!"

"So... my mind isn't still that bad after all!" McGucket happily realized. However, his smile quickly vanished. "Hold on a second! Ya mean you've been following me around each time I've been down here? Aw, man! My paranoia of being constantly watched just skyrocketed all the way up to a thousand! Now the nightmares are just gonna get worse! Each and every single-"

THWIP!

"-mmm-MMM!"

At that moment, McGucket's mouth had suddenly been shut by a web, which had come from the spider-like creature that the Shifter had quickly transformed back into. He shifted back to his normal form yet again and looked on at McGucket with great annoyance.

"In the past four years he's been coming down here, I've grown EXTREMELY tired of listening to him."

"Well, listen to me now, Shifty," Ford demanded. "I froze you because you were too curious. Too dangerous to be let loose. Yet here you are now, having had a chance to leave for four years. And you've made a fatal mistake by not taking that chance."

"Oh, I plan on leaving. But let's not play dumb, Ford. Revenge aside, you know the REAL reason why I haven't left yet…" He held out his open claw to him. "There's been something I've been meaning to get my hands on…"

"I think he's talking about the journals, dude," Soos whispered loudly to Ford, unaware of how he was essentially pointing out the obvious.

"Well, you're out of luck," Ford told the Shifter smugly. "I've been rid of those journals for the same four years you've hung down here. Talk about irony, huh?"

The Shifter took a threatening step closer to him. "You're bluffing."

Ford grinned. "Hey, if you don't believe me, you can surely jump into the bottomless pit and see for yourself! That is if you're lucky enough to end up wherever they landed."

"LIIIIES!" the Shifter roared in denial, suddenly shifting into a large, scaly, and menacing creature with a giant split-jaw mouth that extended out toward him.

"Great Uncle Ford?! Where are you?!"

"Yo! Anybody here?!"

At that moment, everyone but the Shifter turned their heads to see Dipper and Wendy suddenly run up to the tunnel entrance. They quickly stopped and gasped as they noticed everyone hung from the walls in thick spider webs.

"Dipper!" Ford called out.

"Wendy!" Soos shouted. "You dudes are okay!"

"Guys! What happened here?" Wendy asked, growing concerned as she watched them hanging from the walls.

Right as she asked, the Shifter turned his head and looked over at the two in his current form. The two finally laid their eyes upon him and took notice as their hearts immediately dropped. Before they had a chance to process anything further, the creature opened and extended its split-jaw mouth at them, roaring viciously while unveiling its hundreds of razor-sharp teeth.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Dipper and Wendy screamed in horror.

---

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Mabel and Ryland screamed as they began descending to the ground on the baby dragon.

Having flown a fair enough distance away from the gnomes at that point, Mabel had figured it was a good time to land somewhere. Considering how easy it was taking off, she figured landing couldn't have been any harder.

That was poor judgment on her part.

After commanding it to land, the baby dragon's lack of landing experience kicked in and it proceeded to go for a hard landing. Rather than descending at a smooth and steady pace, it basically dropped down at a steep angle. And so the two held on for their lives as their smooth flying suddenly turned into a terrifying sky fall. Even Mabel was holding onto the dragon's neck so tightly that she almost drew her nails into its skin. But because she put her care for animals before her own safety, she resisted the urge.

As the baby dragon touched the ground, the heavy impact caused it to bounce up in an attempt to regain control of its flight. The sudden bounce sent Mabel and Ryland flying off its back, soaring through the air for a brief moment before tumbling violently against the forest ground. Eventually, they stopped rolling, and they both lay flat on the ground in separate positions.

"Ow…" Mabel groaned painfully as the side of her face pressed against the dirt.

After a moment, she slowly sat back up, placing a hand on the side of her head. She looked down at her arms and legs, which were covered in bruises and scratches from the fall. She could feel similar pains from such throughout the rest of her body too. As for the dress, she didn't even wanna get started on how much fixing it was going to need between all the dirty splotches and ripped edges.

She could complain all day about the pain or the ruined dress, but her concern was suddenly drawn back to Ryland when she noticed him still lying on the ground. Unsure how bad his injuries might have been compared to hers, she quickly jumped back to her feet and ran over to him worriedly.

"Oh my gosh! Ryland! Are you okay?!" she asked as she kneeled down next to him, putting her hands on his arm and shaking him to check to see if he was conscious at the very least.

"Ughhh…" he groaned as he slowly sat up, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm okay... mostly..."

"Sorry... I can't say I've ever landed a baby dragon before," she said, gripping her arm awkwardly.

"You're good. Trust me. I've been in far worse bike accidents. I'm at the point where I can't even tell when I'm bleeding anymore." He sat silently for a minute, thinking. "Am I bleeding?"

"You got some scratches, but nothing that makes you any less cute."

"That's reassuring," he said with a flattered smile.

Suddenly, there was a faint cry from the baby dragon that grabbed their attention. As they looked up, they saw the dragon slowly walking toward them. It didn't appear like it was hurt or angry and simply approached them with ease. It then hung out its wingspan as it walked up to Mabel and lowered its head for her.

"Well, looks like someone's not tired of Mabel!" she said with a tender smile as she wrapped her arms around the dragon's head and began petting it again. "Eeee! So adorable you are!" She stroked her hand over the dragon's nostrils, which actually turned out to be much hotter than the rest of the dragon's face, prompting her to quickly retract her hand. "Wowee, that nose can burn!"

"So, now what? Is he, like, yours now?" Ryland asked her.

"That'd be so cool, wouldn't it? I mean, imagine me going back home to Piedmont with a fire-breathing dragon at the end of the summer! People at school will think twice before calling my clothing designs too silly! I can burn all of my enemies!"

Ryland grew uncomfortable quickly. "Uh... you okay there?"

She gave an amused laugh. "Don't be so serious. I'm just joking around."

"Oh. Phew."

"Well, sort of…" she admitted, prompting Ryland to look on somewhat uneasily again. "Anyway, as much as I'd love to add a dragon to my army, this big, little guy still has a momma to get back to. And I'd be just as bad as those gnomes if I kept him away from her."

"To be fair, you haven't kidnapped anyone," Ryland said. "At least, not to my knowledge…"

"True," she nodded before kneeling down and giving the dragon one final goodbye hug. "Goodbye, Firefly. Thank you for trusting me. Maybe someday, we'll meet again."

"Firefly?"

"He might not be mine to keep, but I'm still gonna name him."

Ryland nodded with a slight smile. "Fair enough. I like it."

Mabel smiled back at him before pulling away from her hug with the dragon. She stood back up and stepped away to give him some space. "Now, go! Be free! Find your mom!"

Firefly hesitated for a moment, as he still stood in place and stared up at her.

"Go on!" she told it again. "She's out there! Find her! Save her from the gnomes! Go be with her again!"

It still took a good minute of standing in place before Firefly finally started to comprehend and do as told. He huffed gratefully once more before turning around and spreading his wingspan. He ran forward a bit before leaping into the air, flapping his wings as he took off again. Similar to his earlier takeoff from the Gnomoseum, his flight pattern was uneven and a bit violent at first. But as he got higher, he let his wings glide more through the air, the flapping only aiding in keeping the flight even and smooth.

Mabel got a little bit emotional watching him fly off. Still, she smiled and was glad to see him going off on his own and hopefully, to rescue his mother from the gnomes.

"Bye, Firefly!" she waved at him with misty eyes. "Burn a few gnomes for me! Only if you have to, that is!"

Soon, he flew out of their sight, disappearing somewhere over the forest. Mabel sighed, feeling her heart going through the usual waves of grief when saying farewell to a wild animal. Of course, she knew it'd pass, and just felt grateful for the brief time she got to spend with him.

"Wow," Ryland said as he continued to stare up at the sky. "Some date, huh?"

Mabel chuckled. "Tell me about it. I mean, it's not every first date where you get to tame and fly a baby fire-breathing dragon." She then thought it over, tapping her chin with her finger. "Actually, that sounds like the kind of thing Pacifica might do… except maybe with a Stallion..."

"It's just so crazy. Don't you remember when you made up that story about knowing how to tame fire-breathing dragons that set gnomes on fire around the time we first met?"

Mabel's face reddened from guilty embarrassment upon the reminder. "Yep... I sure do remember..."

"Hey, I'm not bringing it up to bash on you," Ryland assured with a nudge to her arm. "I'm just saying that it's crazy how it actually kind of ended up happening after all. Like... some sorta manifestation into reality!"

"Manifestation? I think you mean Mabelfestation!" She thought for a moment as she sat down on a large tree stump. "Actually, that sounds more like a disease... or maybe like an infestation of Mabels... Eh, whatever. Mabelfestation!"

Ryland broke out laughing as he sat down beside her on the stump. "You're a riot, you know that? I've never met a girl, much less anyone, with as much personality as you."

"Ohhh, stop it," she dismissed blushingly. "I mean, yeah, I am pretty cool! But I'm not that cool, you feel me?"

"What makes you say that?" he asked with a chuckle.

"Mehhh, I don't know," she shrugged. "I don't even really know what I'm trying to say."

"I feel like you do know, but you're just having a hard time getting it out," he said, studying her body language.

"Well, my mind is kinda just... whoosh... right now."

"Try me. I feel like I'm good at reading 'whoosh'."

Mabel giggled a bit before awkwardly glancing to the side. "I guess my love life has never been all that... favorable, to say the least."

"Oh, you're telling me," Ryland said, shaking his head at the thought. "The dating game has not been particularly kind to me since I started high school."

"Yeah, but you're normal. I'm, well, not..." she admitted. "I have a pet pig, I'm constantly cheery, my entire wardrobe is full of bright childish colors and sparkles even though I'm sixteen, I'm easily excited, and I CAN GET REALLY LOUD FOR NO REASON AT ALL BECAUSE I LIKE THE SOUND OF MY VOICE!"

"Wow," Ryland said, put off slightly by her sudden screaming.

"And the thing is... I'm not ashamed of any of it. I have friends and family who support me and love me for who I am. But as I've gotten older, I've learned that a lot of guys don't really want to be someone so... weird."

Ryland turned ahead and stared forward for a moment as he thought. "Huh..."

"I mean, I've never had any trouble getting a date, but most of those guys never really liked me for me. Then on the flip side, here in Gravity Falls, it feels like I only ever attract weirdos."

"Like the gnomes?"

"Exactly," she nodded with a smile. "But I guess what I'm trying to say is... you're the first truly normal guy I've liked here who actually seems to like me for me. And I don't know, I guess I don't really know what that's like. Maybe that's part of why I used to get so nervous around you before I told you how I felt."

Ryland glanced over at her. "Well, what do you expect going forward?"

She stared at the ground. "I'm not sure what to expect, to be honest. What about you?"

He smiled. "I just expect you to keep being yourself. Keep being cheery, keep wearing childish colors and sparkles, keep getting excited, and keep being... weird, if that's what you wanna call it. Just keep being you. I mean, only you could keep on attracting gnomes four years later and tame a dragon as easily as you do."

Mabel scoffed with a blushing smile. "What can I say? I guess I'm just... irresistiblllle."

As she spoke, she lightly flailed her arms around in front of her, which caused the two to burst out laughing together in amusement.

Once they settled down, Mabel set her hand back down on the stump. Without even looking, Ryland then found his hand lying on top of hers. They both looked down at their hands and then back up at one another in slight surprise. With neither of them making an effort to retract their hands back, their faces both flushed red as they began warmly smiling at one another.

"Yeah," Ryland said as his eyes awkwardly glanced to the side for a moment before looking back at her. "I guess you are."

Mabel wasn't sure if her smile could get any wider or if her face could get any redder. But it felt like they both could the longer she looked into his green eyes. The same way he felt about her as he watched her curly, brown hair blowing around in the light summer breeze, the sunlight shining brightly upon her already brightened face.

It was clear that the moment had naturally presented itself, and the two shut their eyes as they leaned for each other's lips. As soon as they touched, it felt as though everything that had built up between them since they met had finally been released. Like the weight they had been carrying for so long had finally been let go.

Sure, it wasn't either of their first kisses, but it was their first kiss. And finally sharing it after everything they had been through in the few weeks they had known each other just felt right. Especially for Mabel, who was just glad to have finally found a great guy and scored a relationship that wasn't rushed into from the start.

This was the epic summer romance that she had been dreaming of.

---

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

As Dipper and Wendy screamed, the Shifter reverted back to his normal form, which sent an even bigger chill down their spines than did the form he had taken before.

"The Shapeshifter!" Wendy shouted fearfully as he revealed himself.

"Oh no! We were too late to warn them about it!" Dipper realized as he looked back up at everyone hanging from the giant spider webs.

"You..." the Shifter said as he pointed over at the two. "I remember you two! Of course, I was one of you a moment ago. How time has passed. Your older form isn't as useless as your younger one. Not that that's saying much..."

"Don't let him get to you, Dipper!" Ford called out to him. "You have improved immensely over four years! Don't let him tell you otherwise!"

"You know, Ford, I've noticed that you seem rather defensive of this boy who had searched for you years ago. And you must have enough trust in him to bring him along. Is there a correlation that I'm missing here?"

"Uh, duh…" Soos chimed in. "The dude's name is Stanford Pines. Dipper's name is Dipper Pines. Is it not crystal clear at this point? I mean, he doesn't call him 'Great Uncle Ford' for nothing."

"SOOS!" Dipper and Ford called out irritatedly.

"Soos, why would you tell him that?!" Wendy asked, also frustrated with his absent-minded contribution.

"Sorry, dude. I just thought it was obvious," Soos apologized, realizing his mistake.

"A great-uncle, huh?" the Shifter questioned before turning back to Dipper, beginning to approach him. "Well, perhaps, if you don't have the journals, Ford, then you must've trusted them in the hands of your nephew."

"The journals?" Dipper questioned, slowly backing up.

"Dude, the journals have been gone for, like, years already!" Wendy said as she backed up along with him.

"Yeah! We threw them out into the bottomless pit!" Dipper added.

"Lies! The same lies that rolled off of Ford's tongue!" the Shifter continued to deny. "Why should I believe that one would put so much time and effort into three intricately designed books only to throw them all away?"

"They were problematic and brought more misfortune to this family than benefit!" Ford intervened as he continued trying to struggle his way out of the webs.

"Well, your family is about to have even more misfortune in a second if Dipper doesn't hand those journals over!"

"You think he's lying?!" Wendy asked.

"I'm telling you! The journals are gone! You hear me?! Gone," Dipper repeated. "Unless you jump into the bottomless pit yourself, then the chances of you ever getting your hands on them again are zero to none!"

Suddenly, as he continued walking backward, Dipper tripped on a wire that he didn't notice and fell backward. He fell on top of his backpack, and the pressure pushed his journal right out of the bag and into the open, flipping to a page with an illustrated creature on it. The Shifter's eyes immediately darted over to it in surprise.

"Oh no!" Ford said under his breath.

"Uh oh…" Dipper said to himself nervously.

"What's this? Another journal? With NEW forms?!" the Shapeshifter realized.

"No! It's not!" Dipper tried to cover up as he crawled backward and grabbed his journal from the ground, closing it before standing back up. "It's just a book of mine! It's not what you're looking for!"

"What I'm looking for is another index of transformations to add to my collection! And if you claim that Ford's journals are gone, then that blue journal will fill the same purpose just nicely! So if you're wise, then you'll HAND IT OVER!"

"Dipper!" Ford called out from the tunnel. "RUN!"

"BOOK IT, MAN!" Wendy shouted in agreement as she pushed Dipper back, forcing him to get a move on as they started running back to the lab.

"COME BACK HERE!" the Shifter demanded angrily before shifting into a large, brown roly-poly monster. He let out a loud, ear-piercing shriek before rolling up into a ball and chasing after them through the tunnels.

"Aw, man!" Derrick shouted worriedly.

"MMM-MMMMMM!" McGucket tried to scream through the web around his mouth.

"What do we do now?" Soos asked anxiously as he turned toward the others. "We need to go help them!"

"Yeah, we need to get out of these damn webs!" Derrick shouted as he continued to try and struggle out of them but to no avail.

"I'm already on it," Ford said as he looked over at the webbed-up wrist where Meridian lay beneath. "Meridian: activate laser function at intensity - twenty-five."

Beep-beep.

Suddenly, beneath the webbing, a red light glowed indicating the activation of Ford's wristwatch laser going off. There was a buzzing noise that paired along with it, which seemed to indicate the laser was cutting through the webbing, albeit at a slow pace.

"This might take a while," Ford admitted, his expression becoming annoyed as he gave into the waiting process.

---

"This way, dude!" Wendy called out behind her to Dipper as they ran through the lab.

Having a solid lead on the Shifter, there were many different routes they could have gone. The tunnels or somewhere else next to the lab equipment were viable options. But with most of their team left behind and tangled up in webs, there was only so much that running could do for the two. They needed to take the time to devise a plan, and they weren't going to do that if they continued running in circles.

So to buy them some time, Wendy pointed back toward the observation deck. With the door back into the decontamination chamber left open, the two quickly ran inside and pushed the door back onto the deck itself open. Entering the deck, they closed the door again behind them. As an extra precaution, Wendy put her hands on the door's valve and locked it shut before exhaustedly dropping to the ground with Dipper.

"You good, man?" Wendy asked Dipper through her panting.

"Yeah, yeah," Dipper nodded as he sat back up tiredly. "Are you?"

"Not at all."

Suddenly, they heard a belligerent roaring coming from back in the lab. They glanced at one another fearfully before deciding to crawl back over to the dashboard of buttons and computer monitors. They got on their knees and looked over at one of the screens displaying live camera footage of the lab activity.

In the monitor, they soon saw the Shapeshifter rolling up from his roly-poly form into the middle of the lab. He then shifted straight into a Gremloblin and began aggressively flipping over equipment and smashing monitors. He continued to glance around the room, keeping an eye out for Dipper and Wendy before soon letting out a loud, frustrated roar.

"SHOW YOURSELVES!" he shouted before marching offscreen to continue his search.

Dipper and Wendy looked on at the screen in horror but also felt a slight sense of relief at the fact that they had thrown the Shifter off their trail.

For now, at least.

"Looks like we're safe for a bit," Wendy said as she sat back down on the floor, leaning her back against the dashboard as she tried to think. "I was REALLY hoping I wouldn't have to see that thing again."

"UGH! This is all my fault!" Dipper exclaimed as he pulled down on the ears of his hat.

"Woah, what? What do you mean?"

"I shouldn't have asked you to come along for this," he said as he slumped back against the dashboard. "This was just supposed to be a harmless adventure, but instead, I dragged you into another nightmare that almost got you killed and put us against the Shapeshifter yet again. Instead of just respecting your decision not to come, I pushed you closer to your fears. I know you're probably under enough stress as it is with your move coming up, but I just wanted us to have a chance to hang out a bit more before then. I didn't mean to get you involved with all of this."

Wendy looked at him for a moment, processing his remorseful words. But then, she smiled gratefully as she put a hand on his shoulder, prompting him to look back up at her.

"Hey, man, it's okay. I mean, at no point so far today have I come close to pinning any of this stuff on you. At the same time, you need to keep in mind that I came along at my own will. If anything happened to me, the only person I have to blame is myself. And what have I told you before? If I didn't think I could handle any of this, I would've left already."

"But, the Shapeshifter… I thought you were afraid of it."

"Yeah, sure. That thing freaks me the hell out. But you know what freaks me out even more? Knowing that the people I care about are in danger. And not to sound self-conceited or anything, but from what we've seen today, if I hadn't been here, who exactly would've been around to free you from that cabinet or even help go after Ford and the others?"

"That's true," he admitted as he rubbed his arm.

"You see? And as long as the Shapeshifter is free and everyone else is in trouble, I'm still not going anywhere. Regardless of how terrifying it might be, we came into this bunker together. And I'll be damned if we don't come out together with that gun to help Stan." She then offered her fist out to him. "Understood?"

Dipper looked at her for a second but then smiled as he bumped her fist back with his. "Understood."

BANG!

The observation deck shook violently as a large metal bang suddenly occurred somewhere within the lab. The two glanced around at one another fearfully as they lost balance for a brief moment.

"REVEAL YOURSELVES AT ONCE, SINGLE-FORMED WEAKLINGS!"

"Alright, so how exactly are we gonna beat him then?" Dipper asked, trying to think it over.

"I guess the only way is by getting him back inside one of those freezing tubes," Wendy suggested.

"Right," Dipper agreed as he glanced back at the screen displaying the live feed of the cooling system. "Then the next question is, how are we going to get him in- OH NO!"

Seeing his panic, Wendy looked over at the screen displaying the cooling system feed. The two looked on in shock as they saw the Shapeshifter in a large rock monster form smashing and destroying each empty cooling system tube.

"I know you kids think you're clever!" he shouted out aimlessly as he punched through another tube. "But your old tricks won't work again! You'll have to try harder than a little refrigeration!"

"Well... crap…" Wendy said as she watched the Shifter destroy the final empty cooling system tube. "What do we do now? Those tubes were our only way to freeze him!"

Dipper's eyes widened as she said this and was suddenly reminded of the new adjustments to the system that McGucket had made.

"Maybe not!" he said upon realizing.

He pressed a button on the dashboard to switch between the various live camera feeds. Eventually, he landed on the feed of a camera pointed toward an outer section not too far beyond the cooling system. There was a steep slope that led to a valve that was surrounded by a pool of water. It only looked moderately deep, but the pit was fairly wide, which seemed to make up for the depth.

He smirked confidently. "I think I have an idea."

Wendy caught his smirk and smiled along. "Shoot."

---

Outside, the Shifter continued searching around the laboratory for Dipper and Wendy. He inspected every single area and destroyed every single piece of equipment in his way as he searched. But still, he continued to find nothing. And the longer he searched, the angrier and more impatient he got.

"If you wish to make your death quick and painless, you will hand me your journal now, Dipper! But should you make me wait any longer, I'll enjoy slowly tearing you apart, limb for limb; cataloging each and every single piece of your human flesh as a transformation to show to your uncle!"

"My, oh, my!" Dipper said as he stepped out into the open with his journal in hand, pretending to sound intrigued as he read through. "I gotta hand it to myself! I did a great job at drawing ALL THESE MONSTERS! I can't believe I actually managed to draw SO MANY!"

At the brink of his anger, the Shapeshifter immediately changed into a large monster with multiple legs and multiple eyes and let out a vicious, deafening screech, prompting Dipper to even cover his ears up.

"GIVE ME THAT JOURNAL, BOY!"

Having obtained the Shifter's attention, Dipper spoke no more. He tucked his journal under his arm and made a run for it. The Shifter continued to chase him within the menacing form, his speed gaining on him. Dipper glanced over his shoulder once to get an idea of the distance between him and the Shifter. Realizing that the Shifter was gaining, he pushed himself to run even faster.

Eventually, Dipper reached the top of the slope leading down into the pit of water next to the valve. He glanced back at the Shifter once more before jumping down and sliding his feet against the slope while using his hand to help slow him down. All the Shifter managed to see was him jumping down the slope.

As such, the Shifter made a giant leap over the edge, plummeting down and landing fiercely at the bottom of the slope. He splashed in the middle of the shallow pool of water below right before Dipper.

The Shifter switched back into its normal form as it stood back up, now drenched from head to toe in water. "NOWHERE LEFT TO RUN, DIPPER! Now, hand over the journal or SUFFER!"

"Dang, looks like someone really needs to cool off," Dipper said smugly. "NOW, WENDY!"

BEEP!

At that moment, Wendy pressed a red button on the observation deck to start the freezing process of the cooling system. She then sat back with a smug look on her face as she watched the process take place over the live feed on the monitor.

With the system activated, a blue substance began running through a long tube that ran down the slope and into the pit of water. With a second tube running into the water from the opposite end of the slope, the blue substance was spreading throughout the water at a fast rate.

"What the...?" the Shifter asked as it looked around at the water, beginning to feel an intensifying cold that was beginning to make its movements slower. "What's happening?!"

"Oh, nothing. It's just that the bunker's improved cooling system has another liquid vessel to run through to begin the freezing process," Dipper told him, folding his arms as he watched above the slowly freezing pool of water.

"WHAT?!"

"Yeah, the process is gonna continue spreading to whatever water it can find," Dipper explained. "And considering your entire body was submerged just a second ago…"

Just as he spoke, the freezing water began to spread upwards little by little from the Shifter's waist. Each second, it began growing colder and slower as the water started to turn to ice.

"NOOOOO-"

The Shifter was soon cut off as its face suddenly froze. At that moment, he had been frozen from head to toe, with its lower half being submerged below in the frozen water and its upper half sticking out from above. Dipper let out a sigh of relief as he and Wendy defeated it once again.

"WOO-HOO-HOOOO!" Wendy shouted ecstatically as she made her way over from the observation deck. "We did it!"

"Yeah, we did!" Dipper shouted happily as he slid the rest of the way down the slope onto the ice, looking on at the frozen Shifter. "Woo! Nice work, Wendy!"

"Hey, I just pressed up a button, man! You're the one who lured it there!" she praised from above. "Those running legs of yours really come into play when in need, huh?"

"Derrick's right. Maybe I should consider trying out for track next year. Heh."

"I'll say," Wendy nodded in agreement. "God, I'm just glad we stopped that thing."

"I gotta ask though, did you feel like that was a bit too easy?" Dipper asked as he glanced back up at her. "Like, I don't know, I guess I figured he'd be as much of a fight as last time."

"Maybe we just got better at this kinda thing," she assumed. "I mean, this isn't our first rodeo with the guy. We knew what we had to do and we did it! What more can we ask for?"

"Can't argue with that," Dipper nodded. "I guess we should probably go back and free the rest of the guys now, shouldn't we?"

"Probably a good idea," she said with a chuckle.

CRACK!

Their attention was then alerted by a sudden cracking sound. As they glanced around for a moment, their eyes eventually glanced back down at the frozen Shifter. They soon noticed a number of various cracks expanding among its frozen upper half.

"I... will... be… FREE!"

The Shifter burst through his frozen stasis, freeing the entire upper half of his body. Dipper was blasted by the various ice shards that spiked out as the Shifter burst free.

While the Shifter had his upper body freed, his lower body remained underneath the ice. That didn't hinder his ability to switch forms, however, and he shifted into his large rock monster form, nearly tripling his size. With his enlarged form, he managed to easily pull himself out from the rest of the ice, stomping his feet down to smash any shards that still remained attached.

Completely freed, his attention turned back to Dipper and Wendy, who stared at it dreadfully. Angered by their attempt to freeze him, he let out a loud roar, which prompted the two to take a few steps back in fear.

"Yeeeaaahh... figured that was too easy…" Dipper said nervously as he stared up at the Shifter.

---

"Dammit!" Ford shouted as he looked on at his wristwatch, which still lay underneath the thick webbing. The laser was still running and cutting through the webs. "Why is this taking so long?"

"Didn't you set that thing to a low intensity or something?" Derrick asked.

"Yes, but if I set it any higher, I'll start cooking my hand under here."

"Sounds like a small price to pay for freedom," Derrick said. "Set it to a hundred and let it blast for a few seconds. You'll have to deal with a second-degree burn for a few days, but you'll be able to make work with that watch so we can go and help."

"Son, with the amount of power I've installed into this watch, if I set this laser to a hundred, I'll be dealing with a lost hand. Not a second-degree burn."

Derrick thought for a moment. "You're the uncle who's been through dimensions and stuff, right? I'm sure you've been somewhere where you can get a new six-fingered-hand or-"

SNAP!

"...AH!"

At that moment, Derrick's webs had suddenly snapped loose, resulting in him falling to the ground, much to the surprise of Ford, Soos, and McGucket.

"Woah! Derrick, dude! You're free!" Soos exclaimed.

"But... how? I wasn't even moving," Derrick questioned as he sat up in confusion.

Ford looked down at the snapped webbing and noticed the Quantum Destabilizer lying on top of most of the web that had come off. "Perhaps, your weight combined with that of the Quantum Destabilizer was enough to weaken the web with the constantly exerted pressure."

"But if it was the weight, then how is Soos still hanging?" Derrick asked before his eyes glanced over at the man himself. "No offense, dude. It's a genuine question."

"No worries, dawg," Soos assured him with a smile. "Heck, I was wondering that myself."

"Whatever might've caused it, all that matters is you're free now," Ford settled on. "Now come and free us too."

"Alright, but for the record, I don't know any of you people well enough for this not to be weird for me," Derrick said as he placed his hands on Ford's webbing and began pulling on it.

"Yeesh, dude. It only gets uncomfortable when you say things like that," Soos said as he gave Derrick an odd look.

"Mmmm-mmmmmm. Mm-mm-mm-mmmmm," McGucket muffled through his webs in agreement.

"AAAAAAHHHH!" screamed Dipper and Wendy from the tunnels.

"Derrick, hurry! It sounds like the others are in trouble!" Ford shouted worriedly.

"I'm trying!" Derrick said, tugging on the webs with full force. "These webs are just so damn thick! What kind of spider even made these?"

"In that case, forget about us! Go and help the others yourself!"

"What?! How am I supposed to help? I'm the only one down here who's never even faced that thing before!"

"That doesn't mean anything!" Ford assured. "Trust me! Despite the many forms it can take, they all retain one weakness of his! And that's his impatience!"

"Impatience?" Derrick asked, confused. "What does that mean? I have to annoy it to death?"

"You'll understand what I mean! Now go!" Ford ordered.

Derrick looked hesitant for a moment, but he then nodded at his request. He turned around and made a run for the tunnels to rescue his friends, leaving the others behind to dangle from the webs.

---

"Wendy, run!" Dipper shouted up to her from below as he tried to run toward one of the other tunnels out of the pit.

"Oh no, you don't!" the Shapeshifter shouted, swapping from his rock monster form into his spider form. He quickly jumped onto the wall and rapidly shot an abundance of webs that stuck to Dipper's back amidst his run.

"NOO!" Dipper screamed as he was pulled back by the Shifter.

As he reeled Dipper in, the Shifter then shot another web directly at Wendy as she tried to run. However, instead of sticking to her, she grabbed a metal panel from the side and quickly tossed it behind her, allowing the web to stick to that instead. Having evaded the shot, she continued running away as fast as she could from the Shifter.

"Get back here!"

Wendy paid no mind to it and continued on her way. Soon, she reached the observation deck door and quickly ran inside.

"Ah, forget it!" the Shifter dismissed before pulling on the webs that he had shot, and dangling Dipper right in front of his face. "I already have just who I need!"

"No! Wait!" Dipper pleaded.

"Hand over the journal this instant, boy!" the Shifter demanded as it drew a set of claws with one of his legs and held it up to Dipper's throat. "Or am I going to have to pry it from you?"

"Hey, ugly!"

Eyes then turned back over in Wendy's direction all the way across the lab and beside the door to the observation room. Despite the distance, they were able to see her visibly holding out a red booklet of some sort in her hand. On the front of it, there was a hint of gold that looked like a six-fingered hand. The entire booklet resembled one of Ford's old journals.

"Look what I just found in the observation room!" she said while holding it out to them. "You know, Dipper's journal is great and all, but why settle for that when you could have one of the originals just like you wanted?"

Dipper's eyes widened. "Wendy, what are you doing?!"

The Shifter squinted his eyes in disbelief while looking at the distant booklet. "No... could it really be?"

"You want it? Come and get it!" Wendy said before running back onto the observation deck with the book in hand.

Taking Wendy's challenge, the Shifter went ahead and chucked Dipper aside before blasting him with a web to stick and entrap him on a nearby wall. With him out of the way and unable to move, the Shifter then lept off from the wall, shifting back into his roly-poly form to ball up and roll quickly over to the observation deck.

Hanging from the wall, Dipper squirmed repeatedly within the thick webbing that kept him entrapped. But it was no use at all, as he found it difficult to even move within the webs. Still, he pushed his arm out through the webbing as hard as he could, raising it desperately in the direction of the observation room.

"WENDY!"

---

As the Shifter rolled up to the door of the observation deck, he swapped into his rock monster form again. Without hesitation or withdrawal, he smashed straight through the door, decimating the decontamination chamber entirely. He then transformed back into his normal form as he carefully stepped onto the deck.

He glanced his head around for Wendy while walking inside. "Where are you, Wendy? I've grown tired of your little games of hide and seek! Reveal yourself and surrender the journal at once!"

As he looked around the deck, he failed to take a moment to glance behind his back to spot Wendy in the corner. There, she silently crouched with her axe wielded and ready to strike.

Unnoticed by the Shifter, she stood back up and charged at it with a vicious battle cry.

"AAAAAHHHH!"

Caught off-guard, the Shifter turned around to face her but was too late. Wendy managed to successfully lay a hit in on his chest. The blade of the axe had pierced straight through the Shifter's skin, prompting him to cry out in agony as the wound oozed green blood.

Knowing it wouldn't be enough, she pulled the axe out and continued to hack at it. Each time she hit, she grunted and yelled viciously, putting her all into every single swing. She struck him in the side, the leg, the back, and in his swollen arm, not holding back with any blow she made.

They had already tried to freeze him and that failed. Now, she was handling things her way.

After striking him multiple times throughout his body, she decided that she had made her point. She stood back with her axe - the blade covered in green ooze - and watched the Shifter as he coughed and sputtered weakly with deep cuts all over him.

"Had enough yet?"

To her surprise, the Shapeshifter began to laugh. As he turned back toward her, she held her axe back up readily.

"Foolish child. Have you forgotten? I'm a shapeshifter! Any part of me that you break…"

Wendy looked down at his body, watching as he suddenly regenerated and healed every single wound that she had struck into him with her axe.

"...I can easily repair!"

Wendy narrowed her eyes. "And I can easily break again!"

She charged back at it again. However, she was quickly subdued as the Shapeshifter made a rapid switch into the Hide-Behind and swiftly evaded her charge before making yet another switch into the Gremloblin and kicking her hard in the back, sending her flying into a wall and bashing the side of her face.

She kneeled down in pain for a moment, but soon stood back up and gave the Shifter an angry glare as she wiped some blood that dripped down the side of her face from her nose.

"Is that the best you got?"

The Shapeshifter looked at her curiously. "Why do you insist on fighting me, human? Do my monstrous forms not intimidate you?"

"They did at first. But then you started switching forms so much that now, I can hardly tell them apart from one another. So I don't care what you turn into anymore. They all look the same to me! So, go ahead! Hit me with your scariest form!"

As she entered a fighting stance with her axe, the Shifter switched back into his normal form and smirked at her request.

"If you insist…"

At that moment, the Shifter swapped forms yet again. This time into an exact look-alike of Wendy in her current state; a complete physical mirror of her, injuries and all.

"How's this?" he asked while grinning at her with her own smile.

"Oh, man... I had to open my mouth…" Wendy said with growing dread.

"YAHHH!" the Shifter screamed, now mimicking her voice. He jumped up into the air and tackled her to the ground, forcing her axe out of her hands.

Both of them took immediate notice of the unwielded axe on the ground, which commenced an immediate fight with one another to reach it. Being in essentially the same form, many of the same moves and fighting tactics that one person used were repeated by the other. Every punch that Wendy threw, the Shifter repeated. And with every kick the Shifter made, Wendy repeated.

Though, the moves were more harmful to Wendy than the Shifter, as she didn't have multiple other forms to switch out and into to keep the battle going. But despite how even the fight had been turning out, the Shifter remained persistent in copying her form, which ultimately came off as distracting for her to have to fight. Meanwhile, the Shifter's perspective of her stayed the same throughout their encounters, so there was nothing to distract him by comparison.

Eventually, the Shifter got the better of Wendy and managed to get his hands on her axe before she did. He then kicked her in the face, sending her back down to the ground as he jumped on top of her with the axe in hand.

"Spare me your time-wasting shticks, human. The only person you're going to hurt in this fight is yourself. So make things easy for the both of us and hand over Ford's journal!"

"Oh, you mean this thing?"

Wendy pulled out the booklet resembling Ford's journal from her shirt. However, a closer look verified that the booklet wasn't actually Ford's journal at all.

She smirked. "This isn't the journal, genius! It's just some old manual with a journal cover on the front that I found in a file cabinet. I just showed it to lure you here. Worked like a charm!"

"AH! You've tested my patience for the last time!"

"What are you going to do? Keep threatening me?"

"You must be stupid for thinking you could fight me alone!" the Shifter said as he held the axe closer to her face. "You may have beaten me last time, but it wasn't something you managed on your own! Now, all of your friends are trapped and can't do anything to save you! And once I'm done here with you, I'm going to finish them next!"

"Man, my voice does not suit the evil monologuing kind…" Wendy said, feeling weirded out from hearing her own voice talking back to her with such an odd vocabulary that she'd never use the way the Shifter did.

"I've already run out of patience!" the Shifter said as he put a boot on her throat before lifting the axe above his head with both hands. "Enjoy your NEW form!"

Wendy's eyes squinted fearfully as she prepared herself for the Shifter's final blow.

However, the Shifter was suddenly kicked from behind, sending him flying right over her and through the open security room door. As his body touched the ground, he fell on top of multiple different trigger blocks, enabling the room. The room's doors shut and locked tightly, leaving him trapped inside by himself. Soon after, the room itself shook for a moment before blocks began to slowly protrude outward from the floor, walls, and ceiling.

"What the...?!" the Shifter questioned as he watched the security room begin to close in. "No, no, no!"

He turned into his giant rock monster form and began aggressively punching a wall of blocks. When that worked to no avail, he turned into a multi-legged creature with a head that resembled a hand, which he clenched into a fist and slammed down on the floor blocks. When that didn't work, he turned into the spider-like creature and began rapidly shooting webs everywhere, coating the walls, floor, and ceiling in an attempt to slow or stop the blocks from moving. But still, the attempt failed just like the others, and the room kept slowly moving in on him.

"NOOOOO!" he cried out hopelessly as he banged on the wall with his fist in his normal form.

Wendy stared at the closed security room door in shock. She then turned back around and glanced up behind her, her eyes widening in surprise.

"Derrick?!"

"Oh, hey!" Derrick greeted as he flicked his fingers at her. "You do know my name!"

"I don't understand," she said, scratching her head in slight confusion. "How'd you know which one of us was which?"

"Well, Ford told me that the Shifter's main weakness is impatience. I wasn't sure what that meant, but then when I caught two yous fighting, one kept saying she was out of patience. I put two and two together and yeah." He walked over to the sealed security room door and leaned his back against it victoriously. "Now, that thing's going to die by being slowly crushed. Talk about irony, huh?"

"Wow," she said, still in utter disbelief that Derrick, of all people, was the one to come and save the day.

She didn't know him all that well and therefore never had much thought about him, but after what he had done, she had gained a whole new level of respect for him.

She smiled. "That's good stuff, man. You get major credit for that one. Thanks."

Derrick smiled back at her earnestly. "Just happy to be useful for once."

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"LET ME OUT!" the Shifter cried out as he banged his fist on the blocks of the wall connected to the observation deck.

"Give it up, man!" Wendy shouted through the door as she stood back up on her feet. "We beat you! This time, for good! It's over!"

The banging on the wall had stopped at that moment, only to soon be replaced with sinister laughter from the Shifter.

"Maybe for me... but not for you…"

"Dude, are you still trying to be scary?" Derrick asked. "The shtick died when you got whopped by a bunch of teens."

"Oh, you don't even know it, child," the Shifter said with a chuckle as the walls continued to close in on him. "But a grave future awaits you and your friends. Most specifically, your redhead friend there. Soon, she'll let her guard down, and before she knows it, she'll make the greatest mistake of her life."

Wendy rolled her eyes carelessly. "Keep talking crap. I've already made the greatest mistake of my life when I got myself kicked out of college. Whatever I do next won't compare to what I've already been dealing with."

"Whatever you say, kid. But you're wrong," the Shifter said as the blocks started to tightly confine him within a corner. "You may think the worst is behind you, but an even greater threat awaits. You feel clever now, but in time, you'll be feeling REAL dumb again. And THIS will be the last thing anyone will ever remember you for..."

Just as the blocks started to close in against the Shifter, he quickly swapped into his form of Wendy, pressing himself against the wall as he began to get crushed. As he shrieked painfully for the last time, he made sure that the voice heard beyond the walls wasn't his own, but hers.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-"

SLAM!

The scream cut off as the security room finally finished closing in, finishing him off once and for all.

Wendy and Derrick stood back on the observation deck, staring at the locked security room door in sheer horror at what they had just heard. Wendy was substantially more uncomfortable than he was, as the sound of her own dying scream echoed through her head to the point where she couldn't help but drop to her knees. It was all over, but she couldn't feel sicker inside.

Derrick put his hands in the pockets of his hoodie as he walked up beside her. "You, uh... you okay?"

Wendy nodded while continuing to look on at the door. "Yeah... maybe..." She shut her eyes for a few seconds before letting out a deep sigh. "...I don't know, man."

Derrick sighed as well. "Yeah, I know the feeling..."

---

Hours passed as Derrick and Wendy went back through the bunker to go and free their friends from the Shapeshifter's webbing. It had also been explained that the Shifter had been killed by the security room. Neither Ford nor McGucket had appeared to mind greatly, both agreeing how dangerous the creature was and that it was for the best that he be eliminated for good rather than risking him destroying all of them.

Once everyone was freed and the lab's damages were inspected, it was decided that it was time to finally leave the bunker. It was a bit of an unnerving process, as they had to get past the reopened security room, which still contained the crushed remains of the Shapeshifter. Despite turning into Wendy before he was crushed, the Shifter's remains appeared as though he had reverted to his normal form at the last moment. Even with that in mind, Wendy had refused to even look at the remains and just insisted on getting back up to the surface as quickly as possible.

After everyone had finished exiting, McGucket closed up the bunker once again. Nearly everyone stood outside with either a look of exhaustion or dread on their face as they continued to go through the various stages of mental recovery following the day's events.

"Well, I'd say that was a satisfying sequel adventure!" Soos said as he suddenly put on a cheerful smile. "I'll admit though, I'm not too sure if it was better than the original or not. It was definitely way edgier. Maybe repeated too many of the same plot points as well. Hmm... guess I'll have a lot to consider when I write my video review."

McGucket looked down at his hands, where he held the drained Quantum Destabilizer that they had retrieved from the bunker. "Well, Stanford, despite all that we've been through today, at least we managed to retrieve the Destabilizer."

"Yeah, that's a plus," Ford admitted while examining the weapon. "Now, all we gotta do is figure out how to repurpose it to destroy Bill in Stan's mind. That's a whole 'nother task in itself though. It'll probably take days to piece together a viable schematic."

At that moment, the winds started picking up as a helicopter began flying overhead to the group. McGucket waved at the pilot as it started to land on the open path ahead.

"If ya want, I can take ya back over to the mansion and we can go over all the old schematics for designs I never finished. Might be able to find somethin' for us to work off of."

"Sure, I have time. But, what's going to happen with the bunker? The Shapeshifter really tore the lab apart."

"I'll worry about cleaning up all the messes down there," he said as he started walking over to the landing helicopter. "Then, I say one of these days, we both come back and redesign my redesigns together. Ya know, make the place viable for the both of us this time."

Ford smiled. "That sounds like a plan."

"Dudes, can I come with?" Soos suddenly asked. "The Avenging Heroes: Age of Ultra Robot Guy starts in an hour and I think it'd be pretty dope to watch it in all its 4k glory in the old Northwest screening room!"

"We have a screening room?" McGucket asked, scratching his head at the revelation. "Huh. Guess that's another room for the butlers to clean. But, sure, fella! Hop aboard!"

"Yes!" Soos cheered as he fist-pumped the air before climbing on board the helicopter ahead of Ford and McGucket. "This helicopter ride will finally give me a chance to eat the bean burrito lunch that Melody packed me!"

"Bean burrito lunch?" McGucket repeated questionably.

Soos pulled out his brown lunch bag and pulled out a wrapped-up burrito. "Yeah, Melody makes them just how I like them too. Loaded up with so much cheese, beans, onions, and garlic. Can't lie, it makes my breath smell terrible, but it's so worth it, dude."

As Soos took a bite out of the burrito, Ford looked over at McGucket with dreading eyes. "Terrific. And I have to sit next to him."

"As you said, Ford. A man worth studying one day," McGucket reminded. He then walked over to the other side of the chopper and entered the passenger seat beside the pilot.

From the side, Dipper approached the chopper, walking up to Ford. "So, that's it for us, I'm guessing?"

"For now, yes," Ford nodded. "Fiddleford and I will begin drafting schematics at once until we have something viable to use against Bill. But worry not, my boy. There will be further work for us to do soon enough."

"Sounds good, but after today, can't say I'm in a huge rush," Dipper said with a humble smirk.

Ford chuckled. "Yes, I believe all of us could do with a few recovery days. Nonetheless, you did good today. And I'm sure our next mission in the field will be far less intensive. I can only hope so, at least."

"I guess we'll just see you and Soos back at the Shack then."

"Right. We'll see you kids later," Ford said before taking his place in the backseat beside Soos.

"Avenging Heroes!" Soos shouted triumphantly as the helicopter's propellers accelerated and began to fly upward.

Back below, Derrick walked up beside Dipper and watched as the chopper flew off. "Let's hope that burrito breath doesn't kill the pilot."

"Pfft... shut up, man," Dipper said with a light laugh as he elbowed him in the shoulder.

"Woah! McGucket has a helicopter now?" a voice said from behind.

"Man, I wanna ride a helicopter one day," another voice said.

Dipper and Derrick then turned around to see Mabel and Ryland soon walking onto the scene from a grassy path through the forest.

"Hey, Dipper!" Mabel waved. "And Derrick..."

"Oh, great..." Derrick said, rolling his eyes at the sight of her.

"Hey, there you are," Dipper greeted as he looked over at the two.

Glancing down, he noticed she and Ryland were holding hands, fingers locked very comfortably between one another.

He raised an eyebrow and smirked. "I take it that the date went well?"

"Super well," Mabel nodded with a gleeful smile, hugging Ryland's arm with her other hand.

"Didn't really go as planned, but we made it work in the end," Ryland said, smiling as he looked at Mabel.

"Gross," Derrick remarked as he looked at the two uncomfortably.

"I know you are," Mabel shot back. "Anyways, how did the bunker trip go?"

Dipper glanced to the side uncomfortably. "It was, uh... You didn't miss much..."

"It sure looks like it," Mabel remarked while scanning his dirtied and scratched-up appearance.

"You know what we shouldn't miss though?" Ryland asked. "The TV premiere of The Avenging Heroes tonight!"

Mabel gasped. "You're right! I almost forgot. We could go back to the Shack and watch it there!" She paused for a moment. "Actually, scratch that. Grunkle Stan is at the Shack, and I know for a fact he's gonna try to be annoying toward us again..."

"My place then?" Ryland offered. "I mean, my folks can be annoying too, but they usually leave the living room TV free around this time."

"I like the way you think!"

"Hey, uh, not to impede on your time together, but Derrick and I like the Avenging Heroes too," Dipper said as he and Derrick approached the two.

"Oh, sure! You two can join us!" she said with a sly smile.

"Wait, seriously?"

"Yeah! I mean, if you two can put up with us kissing during all the boring scenes..." Mabel said as she looked up at Ryland flirtatiously. Her words had suddenly put him off-guard and caused his eyes to suddenly go wide, having had no prior knowledge of these so-called plans of hers.

Dipper and Derrick's faces immediately put on looks of disgust as she brought this up. Derrick remained just a bit more curious though.

"What does she consider boring?" he asked Dipper.

"It's a superhero movie, so basically all the scenes where people aren't punching each other."

Derrick squinted. "So, like two-thirds of the whole movie? Yeah, no thanks. I'd rather projectile vomit everywhere."

"Suit yourselves!" Mabel said as she began walking off with Ryland. "More microwaved popcorn for us!"

Ryland frowned slightly while walking off with her. "But... I kinda like the boring parts..."

At that point, Dipper and Derrick were left behind as the new couple proceeded to go on their way.

"Ah, whatever. We can watch the Avenging Heroes at my place instead," Derrick offered. "My granddad's probably sleeping in the living room sofa chair though, so we'll have to move that out of the way first, but we should be good after."

"Yeah, that's fine, I guess," Dipper shrugged. "And hey, man, I'm sorry for being kind of a jerk earlier. I mean, sure, you're a bit rusty around the edges with the stealing and stuff, but at the end of the day, you're still just as much a friend to me as the rest of these guys. And since you beat the Shapeshifter, maybe you really are starting to get a grasp of things around here. Even then, I'm sorry if you've been feeling pushed to the side."

"It's cool, man," Derrick said with a forgiving shrug. "It's not like you were really wrong anyway. I do have to work on myself, so I wouldn't say I have a grasp of anything just yet. As I told Wendy, I'm just happy to be useful for once."

"For once? Hey, it wasn't the first time, and I can assure you that it won't be the last time," Dipper said before giving him a brotherly punch in the shoulder.

"Thanks, man," Derrick said with a smile. He then noticed a pay phone to the side and gestured over to it. "Anyway, I'm gonna go call my granddad real quick. Whether he answers or not will say if he's awake or asleep."

"Hey, would it be cool if I invited Wendy? She's usually one for movie night."

"Go for it. Though, she still might be a little shaken up from you-know-what."

Realizing what he was talking about, Dipper turned his head back over to the bunker tree. There, he saw Wendy still standing next to it, staring right up at it. Throughout all the exchanges made since exiting it, she hardly moved an inch and only continued to keep her eyes fixated on the tree while her mind ran.

"Right..." Dipper nodded sympathetically. Nonetheless, he casually made his way over to her. "Hey, Wendy!"

Despite the call of her name, she continued to stare up at the tree. Her face displayed a variety of mixed emotions at that moment, between confusion, sorrow, guilt, and anger.

He couldn't see her face, but he knew that something was up based on her lack of response and general posture. "Wendy? You okay?"

She heard him previously and heard him again. However, the second time, she acknowledged that she was still alive and that the adventure was over now. And so, she let out a grateful sigh before smiling as she turned back to him.

"Yeah, I'm good."

"Well, if you're up for it... Derrick and I were wondering if you wanted to head back to his place to watch Avenging Heroes," he offered as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Since it'll probably be one of the last times we get to have a movie night for a while. But, you don't have to go if you don't want to…"

"Oh, don't start with that junk, man..." she said with a chuckle as she shoved him in the arm. "Trust me, I'm down. Especially after an adventure like that, I think I could use a little superhero movie brain-frying."

"Well, I just called home and my granddad didn't pick up," Derrick said as he stepped back over to the two. "So that's pretty much a guaranteed sign that granddad's sleeping and we gotta move his chair first."

"That's fine by me," Wendy shrugged. "I call not being the one who has to move his feet though."

"Me too," Dipper quickly jumped on. "Sorry, Derrick."

"Wow, even after defeating the bad guy, I'm still the guy that my friends like to screw," Derrick said somewhat annoyedly as he crossed his arms, though giving off a slight smile to assure his words weren't all in bad taste.

"Nah, you're cool, man," Dipper reassured him.

"Yeah, I just don't wanna touch an old man's feet," Wendy said.

"You think I want to either?" Derrick asked.

"Well, he is your granddad," Dipper reminded.

"Yeah, but we're watching the movie at my house."

"Your house where we have to move your gramp's chair first before we even sit down to watch it," Wendy argued.

"How about we just rock, paper, scissors it on the way there?" Dipper suggested. "Loser has to move his feet."

"Alright, now that's an idea I can get down with," Derrick nodded.

"This is so stupid," Wendy chuckled while shaking her head.

"You're still going to miss this type of banter when you're gone, aren't you?" Dipper playfully asked.

She gave a warm smile as she turned over to him. "Yeah... I'm definitely gonna miss this."

Dipper's question was meant to come off more as humorous than sentimental. But looking back over at her, he couldn't help but give a warm smile back. The day was rough, but it was nice to see that by the end of it, they could still share the same old smiles and laughs they knew each other for.

Leaving the darkness behind in favor of embracing the light.

---

9-3-5 2-1-7-19 13-5-12-20 23-5-14-20 12-5-6-20 15-21-20 6-15-18 20-15-15 12-15-14-7

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(Chapter updated as of March 15, 2024)