Author's note: Thanks everyone for waiting! It was fun writing this chapter, hope you like it!
Episode 2. "The Legend of the Gobblewonker"
Another morning had arrived in Gravity Falls. The Mystery Shack was just waking up, and there was already a huge line of Louds rubbing their eyes and yawning. After bathing, the family was ready to have breakfast, but here, unlike their home, everyone fed themselves, so whoever was ready to spend the time and effort cooked eggs or pancakes, and whoever was lazier or less hungry was content with a couple of mugs of milk and a simple sandwich. Lynn and Lincoln were the latter type of people, so they tried to squeeze the last drops of syrup from two bottles of syrup onto pieces of bread. But it wasn't that simple: there was just enough syrup in both jars for one serving, so they made a bet that whose drop dripped onto the toast faster would take both pieces of bread with syrup for themself.
"Come on! Come on! Now!" drops began to flow down the sides of the bottle.
"Fall! Fall! Just a little!" a drop had already formed on the tip of the tube.
At the decisive moment, Lynn decides to cheat and hits the can from above, causing a drop to fall on the bread.
"YEAH! I won! Ha-ha!" Lynn savored the delicious taste of victory, taking her brother's bread and throwing it on her toast, thereby making herself a sandwich.
Lincoln decided to distract himself from the defeat and picked up the Gravity Falls news magazine, simultaneously addressing the readers.
«It's our usual morning at the Mystery House, or should I say... The Loud Shack? Anyway, Stan should be here soon and sending us off to work, so we should enjoy the free time while we have it».
Leafing through the pages, Lincoln found an interesting article and immediately turned to Lana.
"Ho-ho, Lana, just look at that!" Lincoln handed the magazine to his sister.
"Wow! Human-sized hamster balls!"
"No, no, Lana, this! A cash prize for the best monster photo. Did we take a photo of those gnomes?"
"No, we didn't, but there's a clump of beard left."
"Why are you keeping it?"
"I wanted to show it to my sisters, but they still weren't convinced. Lisa analyzed it and said it was probably just someone's old man beard."
«Oh! That was a whole other story. After our victory over the gnomes, Lana, Lola and I naturally wanted to tell the sisters everything, but no matter how hard we tried, we couldn't convince everyone. Some people believed us easily, while others, like Lori and Lisa, were stubborn and dismissed everything as imagination and other banal stuff».
Then Stan walked into the room.
"Hey, dummies. What day is it today?"
"Uh, some... anniversary?" Lincoln answered first.
"Merry Christmas!" Leni continued.
"Nah!" Stan slapped the newspaper at Lincoln, "It's Family Fun Day, genius's! We're cuttin' off work and having one of those, you know… bonding-type deals."
"Grunkle Stan, is it going to be the same as our last family holiday?" Lori asked.
In the dark room, green papers were hanging on ropes to dry. There were paints and lots of paper on the table. This was supposed to be the so-called "Grunkle Stan's Drawing Master Class."
"And you think this is Franklin? Looks like a woman," Stan scolded Lori and Leni as they drew dollars.
Then sirens started to sound and blue and red lights appeared outside the window.
"Oh, oh."
"Uh, it was so cold in that prison..." Leni shivered, remembering that day.
"Can I refuse that offer?" Lori didn't want to repeat that experience.
"Only if you're willing to spend the entire summer without the Internet," Stan countered deftly.
"Oh! Now that I think about it, that prison was literally cozy!" the Internet was a pretty compelling argument for Lori.
"Come on, kids, I may not be the best holiday organizer, but I swear we're going to have a blast today! Hurry up, put on your blindfolds and get in the car!"
"Wait, what...?"
The minivan bounced on the road while the entire Loud family sat in it blindfolded, except for Stan.
"I don't like this blind driving," Lincoln said around the next turn.
"Wooh! My other senses are heightened! I can see with fingertips!" Lana said excitedly, pestering her twin.
"Ugh! Get your dirty fingers off me- Ow!" Lola didn't have time to finish her sentence before the car bounced on a bump.
"Grunkle Stan, are you blindfolded too?" Leni asked sincerely.
"Ha-hah, of course not! But I have cataracts! What's that... woodpecker?"
CRASH!
After a while, the family finally got to their destination and Stan was ready to introduce place for the party to the kids.
"Okay, now you can take off your bandages."
Everyone started to take off their bandages and then...
"Ta-da!"
The Lauds got a view of Lake Gravity Falls. In the distance, they could see the residents already swimming in boats, and on the shore there was a sign that said: "FISHING SEASON! OPENING DAY".
"Fishing season?" Lori began.
«On the one hand, what could you expect from a lonely old man? But on the other... Damn, I wish we were drawing money again...»
"Grunkle, you have something in mind, right? We didn't just come here to-" Luna was interrupted.
"You'll like it! The whole town is here," Stan pointed towards the lake.
And sure enough, there was an older woman catching fish straight into a frying pan. Some pseudo-reporter, somewhat resembling a goblin, was taking pictures of a resident who had caught a huge fish. And then there was a family of redheads, led by a big dad, who caught a fish with his bare hands and was hitting it with all his might.
"Now that's what a vacation is!" Stan concluded.
"Stan, I don't want to sound rude, but the last time I went fishing I was so bored I almost puked," Luna wasn't kidding.
"Come on, this is gonna be great! I've never had fishing buddies before. The guys from the lodge won't go with me: they don't "like" or "trust" me," Stan said.
"Looks like our old man is just a little lonely," Lynn whispered to Lincoln.
"I know what's gonna cheer you up, kids," Stan pulled out a bag and pulled out a pair of fishing hats, "Bam! Loud family fishing hats! These are hand-stitched."
"Aww, Grunkle Stan, you're getting the hang of it!" Leni said.
"Leni helped me out a little..." Stan added reluctantly, "Just you, me, these hats, and ten hours of fishing!"
"How many hours?!" the whole family yelled in unison.
"I'm starting to feel nauseous..." Luna grumbled.
"And I brought a joke book!" Stan continued.
The eyes of the entire family widened in pure horror, well, except for Luan, apparently, and it was obvious why.
"We have to get out of here somehow," Lucy whispered.
"I SEEN IT AGAIN!" a short old man with a long beard jumped out of the crowd and ran, his arms flailing in all directions.
"I SEEN IT! I SEEN IT AGAIN! The Gravity Falls Gobblewonker! Come quick before it scrabdoodles away!" the strange man began to dance in place.
"Oh! He's dancing the Jig of Happiness!" Leni commented.
"NOOO! I'M DANCING THE JIG OF GRAVE DANGER!" the old man said, taking Leni by the shoulders.
"Go away, go away!" the lake caretaker came out of the booth, "I asked you not to scare the customers! Last warning, father," the caretaker began to spray water on the old man.
"But this time I have proof, by gummity!"
A group of people followed the old man and they saw a broken boat on the shore.
"The Gravity Falls Gobblewonker did that! He has a neck like a giraffe and wrinkled skin like that guy," the old man pointed at Stan.
"Huh?"
"It chawed my boat up to smitheroons, and shim-shammed over to Scuttlebutt Island! YOU GOTTA BELIEVE ME!"
"All units, we got ourselves a crazy old man here!" Sheriff Blubs joked, after which everyone except Louds laughed at the old man, and his own son shook his head in disdain.
"Aw, donkey spittle!" the old man cursed in disappointment and left.
"Well, it looks like this man eats a lot of nuts, because he's all nuts! Ha ha!" joked Luan, laughing at her own joke, after which she caught several reproachful glances in her direction, "Ha... Okay, that was an offensive joke..."
"Alright, let's untie the boat and sail," said Stan, getting into the boat.
"Lana! Did you hear what the old man said?" Lincoln turned to his sister.
"Aw, donkey spittle!" the girl parodied.
"No, the Gobblewonker! We'll get its picture, get the prize, and split it in half!"
"Only after I do it!"
Lana and Lincoln turned around. Lynn stood in front of them, looking determined.
"Someone talking about contests? Well, don't think you'll get by without competition. Without a lot of competition!"
"What? You're not even prepared, what are you going to take a picture of a monster with?" Lincoln asked.
"Luckily for me and unfortunately for YOU, I overheard you at breakfast, so don't worry about me!" Lynn took out her camera and waved it at her brother.
Lincoln glared at his sister.
"Okay! We accept your challenge!"
(thunder sound in background)
"What is this? I smell a competition," Lola appeared out of nowhere, "So, guys, what's the fight?"
"Oh, L-Lola! It's nothing, Lynn and I just had a bet about who would be the last one to get off the boat, so-" Lincoln was interrupted.
"My brother and I made a bet that whoever took the best picture of the monster on the island would get $1,000!" Lynn said.
Lincoln was ready to burn Lynn.
"Oh! Then I'll join you too! But I don't have a camera, so you'll have to get me one!"
"Oh, no, sis, I'm not splitting my winnings with anyone, join Lincoln's team."
Lincoln looked away awkwardly and sighed heavily.
"Okay, I guess we can split it three ways..."
"Four ways," Lori chimed in.
"Lori? What do you need it for?"
"Money is never a bad thing, Lincoln."
"Argh! Okay! Plus Lori."
"Add me too," Lisa said suddenly.
"LISA!"
"I'll build you an artificial monster," the girl whispered.
"Hey! No cheating!" Lynn protested.
"Okay, okay! So, we have me, Lana, Lola, Lori, and Lisa."
"And Luna!"
"And Luan!"
"And Lucy..."
Lincoln wasn't even scared by the last sister, but just stared into nothing with irritation and finally sighed.
"Okay, okay, let's say there are eight of us. Then, if we win, each of us will get... Uh..."
"One hundred twenty-five dollars," Lisa finished her brother's thought.
"Well, it's better than nothing, so we can work with it..."
The family went to their Grunkle with their plans.
"Grunkle Stan, we've changed our minds!" Lana began.
"We're going to take a boat to Scuttlebutt Island and find the Gobblewonker!" Lincoln said.
"Monster Hunt! Monster Hunt!" the whole family shouted.
"Monster Hunt! Monster..." the old man chanted, as he joined in.
Everyone turned to look at him, confused.
"Eh... I'll go," he said, and left.
Suddenly, a horn blew. Everyone turned to see...
"BOBBY!" everyone shouted in unison.
"Hey, guys!" Bobby replied.
"Boo-boo bear!" Lori rejoiced, jumping onto his boat and hugging him.
"Hey, bro!" the guy turned to Lincoln.
Bobby and Lincoln greeted each other with their signature fist bumps and other weird gestures.
"But, but... how did you end up here!?" Lincoln was incredibly surprised to see his other best friend.
"Didn't Lori tell you?"
Lori shrugged.
"My family sent me and Ronnie Anne here for the summer to visit some distant relatives, I don't know, it's kind of weird since I'm supposed to be running the store in town, but my family was REALLY persistent. Then again, if your whole family is stuck here for the holidays, it can't be that bad! By the way, did you guys yell something about hunting monsters?"
"Oh! We want to take a picture of a monster that probably lives on Scuttlebutt Island, can you give us a ride?" Lana asked.
"Well, that's fine with me! How about you, Lori?" Bobby turned to his girlfriend.
"I don't think that's really a good idea-" the guy looked at Lori with puppy eyes, "Sigh. Okay, I guess once can't hurt..."
"All right, all right, let's think this through," Stan intervened, "Ya kids could go waste your time on some epic-monster-finding adventure, or! You could spend the day learning how to tie knots and skewer worms with your Great Uncle Stan!"
All the Louds looked at Bobby, then at Stan, then at the island, then at each other, and now they were in their friend's boat.
Except for Leni.
"Leni, don't you want to come with us?" Lori asked.
"Guys, looking for monsters is fun, but Grunkle Stan will be all alone, you can't do that!"
"Well, whatever!" Lincoln said, as the boat with the Louds was already sailing away towards the island.
"Ingrates!" Stan shouted after them and sullenly got into the boat.
"Don't worry, they will come back," Lori tried to console.
"So, to win the contest, and Lynn, you always need to have a plan!" Lincoln «The Man with the Plan» began to say in front of the sisters lined up, "Obviously, our advantage is our numbers, the more eyes and dexterous hands - the more chances to catch the monster on camera! So, I have prepared seventeen disposable cameras for all of us: two for each of you and one under my cap! We will not miss it for anything! Okay, people, check your cameras."
Bobby accidentally clicked the flash and dropped it in the water in surprise.
"Did you see? That's why it's important to be prepared, there are still sixteen left."
"Ouch! Bird!" Lola threw the camera at the bird.
"Fifteen!" Lincoln said with displeasure, "Okay, guys, stop throwing cameras already!"
"What, you weren't allowed to throw them?" Luna asked.
"NO!"
"And I just threw two."
"Thirteen! Okay! That's thirteen more cameras left," Lincoln slammed the table... With camera on it, "Twelve. That's twelve more."
"So what's the plan? Keep throwing cameras overboard?" Luan asked.
"Wait! No! Okay, you'll be the lookout, Bobby will take the helm, and I'll be the captain."
"Lincoln, you may have forgotten, but I don't want to repeat that experience where you were in charge," Lori interjected.
"That was the only time! I've learned from my mistakes!"
"Okay, we'll both be captains."
"There can't be two captains!"
Lori sighed and turned to the lake.
"Oops!" sister "accidentally" threw her camera overboard.
"Okay! You talked me into it! Be co-captain!"
"Hey! Can I be third captain?" Bobby said.
"As co-captain, I give you my permission!" Lori approved.
"Well, as first captain, the first step in the plan is to lure the monster with this," Lincoln pointed to a barrel labeled "FISH FOOD".
"Oh! I've never eat fish food! Can I try it? Please, please, please!" Lana begged.
"Well, I guess?" said Lincoln.
"I give you permission to try it," said Lori.
The tomboy took a small bite, and then something happened that no one expected.
"BLARGH! Oh, that's disgusting, my God!" Lana began to cough and wipe her tongue. It seemed disgusting even to her.
"Wow! Looks like you bought this from a GROSS-ery store! Ha-ha! Get it?" Luan joked out of habit.
"Traitors..." meanwhile Stan sat sullenly in his boat and looked jealously at his family, "Tell me, why don't they want to fish so much?"
"I don't know, maybe they don't like boating?"
Stan looked at Leni, confused.
"But they're literally boating right now."
"Oh! Um, well... Then I don't know..."
Stan's face sank, not knowing how to continue the conversation, all the topics he brought up were very difficult for his niece to understand and she often simply forgot what they were talking about. Seeing the sad expression on her Grunkle's face, Leni decided to cheer him up.
"Hey, Grunkle Stan, maybe you could teach me how to fish?"
Stan perked up.
"You really want to learn it?"
"Well, I've just never picked up a fishing rod before, so I'd like to try it at least once!"
"You've turned to a professional, Leni Loud! I, Grunkle Stan, will teach you how to fish properly!" Stan stood up and raised his fist to the sky in a pompous manner, "Oops, I think the boat is leaking."
Meanwhile, the Louds were already approaching the island, although the fog limited their vision.
"Hey! Why did the pelican cross the road?" Luan opened the bird's mouth, making a deep voice and showing off her ventriloquism skills, "Because it had a chicken in its mouth!"
"Luan, leave the bird alone," Lincoln reprimanded.
"I don't mind at all," Luan continued to grimace.
"Aren't you supposed to be doing look out?"
"Look out!" Luan picked up Lynn's ball and threw it at Lincoln, "Haha! But seriously, I'm watching. Ow!"
The boat hit the shore.
"See? We're here! I'm a great lookout!"
The entire group got out of the boat and began to move around the island.
Meanwhile, unnoticed by the others, Lynn slipped into the thicket of the forest.
Passing by the sign "Scuttlebutt Island", Luna and Luan stopped.
"Hey, sis, check this out!" Luna covered the «Scuttle» with her hand, "Butt Island"
"Luna, you are so witty!"
"Lincoln, why aren't you laughing?" Luna came up to the boy and started teasing, "Are you sca-a-ared?~"
"Pff, I am not-"
"Yeah, you are!"
"Hey!" before Lincoln could finish, Luna started poking him all over, "Quit it! Uhh, stop, Luna, eh, eh"
Then a possum ran up and dragged the lantern lying on the ground into the fog.
"Our lantern! Ah, now we can't see anything..."
"You know, maybe it's not worth it?" asked Lori.
"What? Not worth it? Guys, imagine what would happen if we took a picture of him!" Lincoln indulged in a daydream.
He was in a studio, talking to a serious guy in a business suit.
"Today on our program - adventurer and ghost catcher, Lincoln Loud, who took a picture of the Gobblewonker of Gravity Falls! Tell me, Lincoln, what is the secret of your success?"
"I never run from anything! Well, except for one case with Grunkle Stan, whom I abandoned to look for the Gobblewonker."
"How right you were to do so. He looked like a real piece of work. I don't often do this, but I feel the need to give you an award!" having put a medal on Lincoln, the paparazzi began to photograph them. Suddenly, a crack was heard, it was Lincoln's sisters, each of whom had their own accessory, which they only dreamed of.
"CHARLIE! WHY WON'T YOU INTERVIEW US?!" all the sisters ran to attack the studio.
"A-A-A-AHH!"
End of dreams.
"Who's with me?" Lincoln began.
"We're with you!" the others picked up.
With renewed enthusiasm, the group moved forward.
"Lucy, do you think there are vampires here?" Luna started chatting out of boredom.
"Until we find a huge mansion, the chances of finding a classic vampire will be minuscule, although at the same time there is a wild type of vampire, similar to werewolves, which can live in such forests," Lucy began to shine with her knowledge of vampires.
"Guys, guys! Do you hear that?" Lincoln interrupted the conversation.
And indeed, someone's roar was heard in the distance again. Then the group saw the silhouette of a monster in the fog.
"This is it! This is it!" Lana was happy.
"Let's go faster, just don't scare him!" Lincoln commanded.
Bobby picked up a stick from the ground, similar to a spear, in case he had to fight off the monster.
Coming closer, Lincoln stopped everyone and pointed to a log lying on the shore of the lake. Everyone got the hint and darted to hide behind the log.
"Everyone, get your cameras ready!"
Everyone took out their cameras and turned them on.
"Ready? GO!"
The whole family jumped out of their hiding place and ran towards the monster, randomly clicking their cameras. Running to the lake, the fog cleared and then everyone saw that the monster was actually an overturned broken boat and a couple of branches on which beavers were actively discussing something.
"What? Is this just some wooden debris?!" Lincoln was very disappointed and went up to the structure to get a better look.
"BOO!" suddenly, Lynn jumped out of the hole at him.
"AAAAAH!" Lincoln almost had a seizure.
"Hahaha! Oh my god, Link, you should have seen your face right now! I should have taken a picture of that, haha!"
"Lynn?! Really? You did this on purpose?!"
"Yeah, why? We need to compete somehow, so I decided to create a distraction!"
"Okay, but did you at least find the real monster?"
"Not yet."
Lincoln could only sigh as Lana clicked away, taking pictures of the beavers.
"When you tie the hook, use a sheet knot! No, no, you have to do two turns, not three. And here you have to put the line through this hole. No, not this one!" Stan sighed. He had been trying to teach Leni how to tie a sheet knot for two hours now, but no matter how hard he tried, she couldn't remember past the first two steps, "It's no use..."
Leni hung her head - she felt guilty. She knew she couldn't do anything about her airheadness, but she still felt ashamed of herself. She blamed herself for being so useless at most things.
"Hey, Leni, don't be sad," Stan tried to cheer up his niece, but it didn't work. He had already told her this five times, "You know, when I was younger, I felt like a good-for-nothing too..."
Leni looked up.
"I can just remember coming home with terrible grades and berating myself for not being able to pull myself together. But look at me now, yeah, I may not be that age or in that state of mind, but I have the Mystery Shack and most importantly," Stan lifted Leni's chin, "I have such a wonderful family."
Leni started to tear up.
"We are a terrible family... What are we going to tell Grunkle Stan? We shouldn't have left him," Lori sat sadly on a boulder and looked at her reflection in the water.
Suddenly, the reflection distorted and the water trembled. Then the boulder Lori was sitting on suddenly fell into the water and Bobby quickly came to her aid. When the girl reached the shore, the tail of the monster appeared from the water, and then the monster itself.
"It's him!" Lana screamed and quickly took out her camera, "Come on, this is our chance!"
The girl turned around and saw the frozen faces of her family.
"It can't be..." Lisa said.
"What's wrong with you?" Lana spoke up when the monster had already pulled its head out of the water, "It's okay, you just need to point and press, like this," the tomboy turned back to the lake and saw the monster in full growth, after which it roared at her.
"Run!" the whole group screamed and started running towards the forest.
Frightened, Lana dropped her camera and joined the fleeing family. The monster decided to keep up and, having completely emerged from the water, began to pursue them.
The family did not know where to run, so everyone relied on memory and prayed that they would eventually run to the boat. Lynn realized that this could be her last chance to take a picture of the monster, so she took out her only camera and turned around, not looking at the road. Having successfully taken a photo, she accidentally tripped over a snag and fell to the ground. At that moment, Gobblewonker knocked over a pine tree, which began to fall on Lynn, which Lincoln noticed. The boy quickly came to his senses and rushed to his sister, at the last moment pushing her out from under the tree. Unprepared for this, Lynn accidentally snatched the camera from her hands, which the monster had already crushed.
"A picture of the monster!" the girl screamed in despair.
"Never mind it! We need to stay alive now!" her brother snapped.
"Easy for you to say! You have a ton of cameras!" Lincoln ignored this and, taking Lynn's hand, began to run away from the monster.
After a while, the group began to leave the forest for the shore, which everyone was incredibly happy about.
"Everyone to the boat!" Bobby shouted.
Everyone climbed onto the boat and began to quickly sail away from the shore, but Gobblewonker did not leave them alone and continued to pursue them.
"Great! Here's my chance!" Lincoln said, taking out a camera, "Damn! The lens is crooked! Does anyone else have a camera?"
"Here! Here! Take that!" Lola threw cameras at the monster.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
"Oh, there's only one left, don't worry!" Lola threw the camera to Lincoln, but missed and it crashed into the wall.
At that moment, Gobblewonker was already catching up with them, and then Bobby turned the boat up to maximum speed.
"So, what do you think about this monster? Is it real?" Leni wanted to ask, as a huge wave of water covered her and Stan.
Meanwhile, the Louds had already passed the port and were racing along the mouth of the lake.
"Look! Beavers!" Lori screamed before the boat crashed into some debris with beavers on it.
The collision caused the debris to fly apart, and the beavers were thrown into the air, after which they began to fall on the Louds.
"Beavers! Horrible!" Lola screamed.
The beavers began to land on the boat and began to gnaw everything in sight: the boat, the handrails, and even the passengers on board.
"Ow! Ow!" Luan tried to fight off the animals while they were biting her.
"Luan!" Lori exclaimed, then punched two beavers, freeing Luan from her misery.
Next one flew away from a blow from Lola's elbow, the second one was carefully lowered overboard by Lana, and the third successfully jumped on Lincoln's face, starting to bite it.
"Lincoln!" the combative princess began to beat the beaver with all her might.
On the eighth beat, the attacker lost its grip and flew out of the boat.
"Thanks, Lola…" said the boy, coming to his senses.
"Don't mention it! Wait, I caught some kind of feeling of deja vu..."
Having somehow fought off the small animals, the group again took control of the steering wheel and headed straight down the river. The monster was already catching up with the boat and had already managed to smash its cabin, when Lisa saw a dead end, which they were all quickly approaching.
"Where to swim next?!" the girl screamed.
Lincoln quickly opened his journal and began to turn the pages in panic.
"Let's swim to the waterfall! There might be a cave beyond the stream!"
"MIGHT BE?!"
Trusting in fate, everyone closed their eyes and drove into the waterfall, behind which there really was a cave.
The entire crew of the ship was thrown onto dry land and began to come to their senses, when Gobblewonker appeared, who tried to reach the Louds.
Luckily for them, it soon became clear that the monster's neck could not reach.
"It's stuck!" said Lori.
"Ha-ha! Yeah!" Lincoln exclaimed triumphantly, "Wait, stuck?"
The boy quickly ran closer to the monster to a safe distance, intending to take a proper photo of it, but he could not find his camera.
"Looks like you forgot something, bro," said Luna, walking up to her brother and picking up his cap, under which was the last camera.
"Oh! Thanks!" Lincoln began to take a bunch of pictures of the monster, dancing with joy.
"Didja get a good one?" Lynn asked with a smile.
"They're all good ones! Wait. Aren't you mad right now? You kind of lost..."
"You know, Link, I may have lost this race to you, but The Settlers of Cat-Land made me realize that when the whole family is against me, I don't stand a chance against you guys, and besides, this trip was unforgettable! When else will I get a chance to run away from a huge monster while fending off beavers?"
"Yeah, hah, really, heh-heh," Lola, Lana, and Lincoln laughed nervously.
"So enjoy your victory while you can, Lame-o!" Lynn gave her brother a friendly punch in the shoulder.
A stalactite fell on Gobblewonker from above, causing the monster's head to sparkle and fall into the water with a dull thud.
"What the?" Lisa approached the monster to take a closer look, "Huh?"
Knocking on the "skin", a metallic ringing sound was heard throughout the cave. Then the four-year-old girl decided to climb onto the monster's body.
"I'll try to climb, don't worry!"
"Be careful there, Lisa!" Lori worried.
"Guys! Go look!" the girl lisped.
After the whole group climbed onto the body, they saw the hatch cover on the Gobblewonker's back, opening it, all the Louds and Bobby had a view of a small control room filled with monitors and indicators, in which the same old man with a huge hat sat on a simple chair.
"Work the bellows and the… eh? Aww, Banjo Polish!" the man cursed, looking at his exposers.
"W-what? But-but that can't be... All of this, all of this was done by you?!" Lisa was stunned.
"But why?" Luna added.
The old man scratched the back of his neck and said with a little sad, "Well, I… I, uh… I just wanted attention..."
"What do you mean?" Luan asked.
"Well, first I just hootenannied up a biomechanical brain wave generator, and then I learned to operate a stick-shift with mah beard!"
"Well, okay, fine, but why did you do it?" Luna continued.
"Well, when you get to be an old fella like me, nobody pays any attention to you anymore. My own son hasn't visited me in months! So I figured maybe I'd catch his fancy with a fifteen ton aquatic robut! Sigh... in retrospect, it seems like a bit contrived. You just don't know the length us old-timers go through for a little quality time with our family..." the old man sadly said.
The Louds looked at each other, took out their fishing hats and remembered Grunkle Stan, whom they had abandoned.
"I feel like burying myself alive..." Lucy said with great sadness.
"Guys, the real monsters are you. Heh, heh, sorry, I just thought, suddenly" Bobby said, and Lori, sobbing, fell on his shoulder.
"Have you ever told your son how you feel?" Lucy asked.
"No, because I was always building robots, I made a lot of robots!" a slide show of newspapers began to appear behind the old man, "Like when my wife left me and I created a homicidal Pterodactyl-tron. Or when my pall Ernie didn't come to my retirement party and I constructed an eighty ton SHAME BOT THAT EXPLODED THE ENTIRE DOWNTOWN AREA!" He said and laughed like a maniac, "Well, time to get back to work on my death ray! Say, do any of you kids have a screwdriver?"
"Well, so much for the photo contest..." Lincoln said sadly.
"Y'know, there's still one roll of film left.," Luan noted.
"And what do you want to do with it?"
Stan swam with Leni towards the shore. Leni noticed that her Grunkle had completely lowered his head, not even looking at her.
"Hey, what happened again? We had such a good time!" Leni cheered happily.
"Leni, listen, I really appreciate you staying with me, but you're the only one out of 10 people who decided to do this. The only one out of 10 people. You're just an exception to the rule that says, "Stan Loud Is The Biggest Loser Who Is Not Appreciated Even By His Own Family," Stan hung his head again.
But then someone shouted.
"Grunkle Stan! We're here!" Lynn greeted the old man, then clicked her camera.
"What's that? Kids? Looks like you went off to kill time with Bobby!"
"Yeah, we spent the day looking for a «legendary» dinosaur," Lana said.
"And we realized, the only dinosaur we wanna hang with is right here!" joked Luan.
"You all save your sympathy! We all had a great time withoutcha'! We caught fish, broke fishing rods, made holes in the boat, and almost drowned once."
"So there's no room in the boat for ten more?" Lincoln asked sheepishly.
At that moment, all the Louds put on their hats, which brought a big smile to Leni's face.
"You knucklehead's ever seen me thread a hook with my eyes closed?" Stan asked.
"Five bucks that you can't!" said Lola.
"Deal!" Stan agreed.
"And five more bucks that you can't do it while I'm telling my best jokes!" Luan chimed in.
"Bets are on!"
Finally, the entire Loud family, including Bobby, boarded the boat.
"Now, let's all say FISHING!" Lincoln got his camera ready to take a photo.
Then the real family fun began: Lincoln and Lana argued over who could catch the biggest fish, Stan and Luan told each other jokes, Lori and Bobby took romantic selfies against the sunset, Lola slipped a fish bait into Lynn's hood, Lucy wrote a poem about a happy family fishing in a lake, Leni came up with a new outfit for Luna with a sea theme, and Lisa somehow made a bait that caught every fish in a five-meter radius.
After a long day, the whole family was heading to the shore, when suddenly something hit their boat.
"Hey, did you feel that?" Lincoln asked.
"Felt what?" Lana asked.
"Nah, never mind," Lincoln waved his hand and relaxed again.
But they had no idea what kind of danger was floating beneath them at that moment.
"Who want's to hear a joke?" Luan decided to try her ventriloquist skills on the poor pelican again.
"Not me," Lucy replied.
"Ho-ho! Okay! I'll tell you now: why did the pelican get kicked out of the seafood restaurant?"
"I don't care."
"He came with his own food! Ha-ha! Get it?"
Lucy groaned.
"Oh, come on! That was a good one!"
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