We picked ourselves up off the ground and cheered at our success.
"That was awesome!" Y/n smiled as tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "And check out this surveillance room!" she said, observing the computers, dials, switched and other things surrounding us.
From behind me, I heard Mabel say, "Hey bro, you forgot your vest."
I kept my eyes on Y/n who was running her fingers through the switches. After briefly checking out some beakers on the shelf, she stepped in what looked to be some sort of metal closet.
"OHMYGOSH! Hey, Dipper! Look what I found..." Mabel gasped, drawing my attention to her.
I spun around and saw that she had retrieved my vest. I took it from her and was about to say thank you when I noticed a paper in her hand. I knew exactly what it was, my little speech that I had made yesterday to tell Y/n I liked her. I was too scared to do it, so I had just crumpled it up in my vest. I knew I should have taken it out.
"Give me that!" I demanded, snatching it out of her hands and hiding it back in my vest.
"I knew it! I knew it! I knew it! You're not over Y/n at all! And you were gonna tell her today?!"
"No, I changed my mind; it's a bad idea. I'd just embarrass myself and ruin our friendship."
"Dipper, you should just tell her already. One way or another, you'll feel better afterwards."
"Look, Mabel, I can't tell her no matter how much I want to, so just drop it OK?" I looked over at Y/n and decided I'd had enough of this conversation. "This never happened," I said, then turned and joined Y/n by the metal closet thing.
I wish Mabel would just leave me alone about Y/n. I just can't tell her. I can't. It'd just ruin everything between me and her. Why can't Mabel understand that? I knew this wouldn't be the last I'd hear about it from her, but hopefully I could get through the rest of this mystery hunt without Mabel bothering me.
Once I was standing by the closet, I heard Mabel run up behind me. She placed her hands on my shoulders and said, "Brother, whatever happens I just you need to know something: this is for your own good."
"What?" I asked, confused.
And with that, Mabel shoved me into the closet with Y/n and slammed the door behind me.. Of course, Mabel would pull something like this! She can be so infuriating sometimes. I picked myself up and found myself eye to eye with Y/n. There was barely and room between us. I felt a heat grow on my cheeks. With any luck, Y/n couldn't tell that I was blushing in the darkness of the closet.
I turned and began rapidly pounding on the door. "MABEL! Let us out!"
"Oh, I'll let you out Dipper, as soon as you tell Y/n that thing you've been wanting to tell her! You'll thank me for this later!" Mabel said in a sing-song tone from the other side of the metal door.
"Tell me what?" Y/n asked curiously.
"Nothing!" I lied. "Mabel's just been eating raw sugar packets again."
"That's besides the point!" Mabel defended herself from the other side of the door.
I pounded on the door again. "Let us out RIGHT NOW!"
"Where are the lights in here?" Y/n speculated as she pulled down a cord.
Water gushed down on us, like we were in a shower. Suddenly, a blast of hot air pushed us against each other. We both stepped back, just as a tone sounded. The closet was illuminated red as a sign flashed "Decontamination Complete". A set of doors opened behind Y/n, revealing a wrecked underground room. The place was dimly lit, but I could still see fine. Scrap metal was laid carelessly on the ground. The broken chamber and cage were particularly eye catching. I wondered what kind of creature was strong enough to break them. We both stepped out of the closet, er, decontamination chamber.
"Whoa!" I said, happy from both finding this place and escaping the situation Mabel had put me in. "A hidden lab! Maybe the author did experiments down here."
"Hm... What do you think dug all of these tunnels?" Y/n speculated as we continued to walk further into the room.
I looked to the walls which were covered in roughly made tunnels, they were even on the ceiling too.
"Let's hope we don't find out," I said uneasily.
A growl arose from within one of the tunnels. Startled, me and Y/n charged back to the decontamination chamber door. We clutched our fists and banged on the door.
"Mabel, open up, for real! There's a monster in here!" I yelled, terror-struck.
"Ha ha, nice try! The only monsters are your own inner demons, Dipper!" Mabel replied.
Me and Y/n glanced back and saw a dark figure begin to crawl out of one of the tunnels.
"Dipper, just tell me whatever Mabel wants you to, so we can get the heck out of here!" Y/n tried to convince me.
"Come on Dipper! Now's the time, bro!" I heard Mabel say.
"Y/n, I— I—" I stumbled. I couldn't do it. "I'm gonna find another way out!"
I grabbed her hand and pulled her in the other direction. We ran down one of the tunnels. Roots were springing out of the walls tangled around a water pipe lining the tunnel. We splashed through puddles as we ran.
Then, we were met with a dead end.
"What now?" y/n said breathily.
"I don't know!" I replied hastily.
We watched as the creature grew closer. Right now, all we could see was his shadow on the wall, but he was fast-approaching. The creature looked like some giant, mutant caterpillar paired with claws and fangs. I scanned my surroundings for something to fight it off with. Our best pet was probably to rip off some pipes for the wall and give our best shot to fight it. Even with Y/n's natural-born fighting skills that I had witnessed during the zombie attack a few days, I wasn't feeling overly hopeful about our seemingly dire situation that I had admittedly gotten us into.
I looked back to the mutant shadow portrayed on the dirt walls and awaited its approach. Just before the creature could turn the corner, a shadow of a man joined him on the wall. The man tackled the creature then threw a few punches at him. The creature opened his mouth, maybe to bite the man. Before the creature had the chance, without hesitation, the man reached into the creature's mouth and ripped out the monster's tongue!
"Back, back you heinous beast!" the man yelled, sending the creature in retreat.
The man reared the corner and finally became visible to us by more that just a shadow. His steps were solid and rhythmic, his breathing heavy.
"Well, I just ripped out a monster's tongue," he said casually. He threw the tongue on the ground in front of us. It landed in a puddle, sending splashes our way.
With my mouth open and eyes wide, I stammered, "It's, it's you!"
I stared in utter amazement. I had finally found him! The author of the journals was standing right in front of me!
He gestured for us to follow. "Hurry now, I scared it off, but it'll regenerate," The author explained as he led us down the tunnel. "I wasn't expecting guests. I've been down here for a very long time. Years! Weeks, maybe! I miss orange juice."
We were now back in the main room of the bunker. I could see the author better in this light. He had a grey beard and mustache, which matched his hair. I couldn't see his eyes as he wore thick googles which was paired with his worn attire.
The author didn't seem to realize why I was excited about being here. "You don't understand, you're the guy I've been looking for!"
"He's the guy?" Y/n asked suspiciously.
"Y/n, he's the guy!" I exclaimed.
I watched Y/n's face light up after I confirmed that this guy was the author.
"The guy?" The author questioned, clearly confused.
"We've got like a gillion questions!" I said. "Why did you write the journals? Who was after you?"
"Yeah, and why did you build this bunker?" Y/n jumped in.
Maybe later I could even ask him for some information about Bill...
"Heh. Children, I'd love to discuss this in time. We have more pressing matters. It's one of my experiments, a shape shifter. Able to take the form of anyone or anything it sees. It broke free from a cage of solid steel! I've gone half crazy trying to catch the creature alone. But now you're here!" the author knelt down to our height and lifted his goggles. "Will you help me catch it?"
The real author was actually asking me to help him! I had dreamed of this moment. Imagine how awesome it would be if we actually caught the shape shifter!
"Yes!" I gasped in excitement.
"Definitely!" Y/n agreed.
"Absolutely!" I continued.
"Magnificent! Now, follow me, children. We have much to discuss," he explained as he led us down a new tunnel. He parted a tarp that was being used as a doorway and gestured for us to follow him again. "Come in, come in! I apologize for the state of things! I don't get many non mole-people visitors. Now the beast must have some weakness we can exploit. I just wish I had my research on me. But alas, I lost my journals so many years ago."
"Journals?" Y/n gasped, raising here eyebrows.
"Dude! We found one of them! That's how we tracked you down here." I pulled the journal out from my vest and held it out for the author.
"What?! Could it be?" he reached out and took the journal from me. "My boy! I can't express my gratitude!" he opened it and began flipping through pages. "Oh yes, after all these years..."
The author continued to skim through pages for quite a long time, understandably so, seeing as he had been without it for so long. He had turned away from us while he flipped through each page one by one, absorbing all his old research.
After a while, me and Y/n took a seat on the dirt floor, surrounded by rocks, scrap metals and used cans.
"Yes, yes. It's all here," The author said to himself. I couldn't see his face but I knew he must be ecstatic.
"Y/n! Isn't it amazing we're actually meeting the real author?" I whispered to Y/n who was examining a nearby can.
I was expecting her to be as excited as I was, which she was earlier, but something had changed. She looked uneasy as she looked down at the empty can she was holding.
She bit her lip and whispered, "Dipper..."
She handed me the can. It was Baron Num Nums High Flyin' Beans... and on it was a picture of the author, or the guy who was pretending to be the author. I felt my heart sink. I was so excited when I thought this guy was the author, but he's really the shape shifter! And he has my journal... we need to grab it, then get the heck out of here.
Me and Y/n both stood up. I walked up behind the shapeshifter.
"Uhh, you know what? We should probably get going. Can I have my journal back?" I said slowly.
He waited a moment then turned his head 180 degrees, backwards on his body. Watching it gave me a sickening feeling.
He took at deep and cynical tone. "You're not going anywhere."
He ran towards the wall and crawled up it, his head still backwards, his neck elongating as he did. Four spider-like legs grew at his sides. He crawled up onto the ceiling. His eyes glowed white then his mouth opened, releasing an ear-piercing screech.
"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" me and Y/n screamed in terror.
The shape shifters eyes returned to normal and his screaming halted. In the blink of an eye, the shape shifter morphed into an off-white being with four short legs and two long arms, one narrow and one muscly. His eyes seemed empty in their maroon colour. The teeth coming out of his unhinged jaw were jagged.
"How do you like my true form?" he taunted. "Go on, admit it, you like it!"
"You! What did you do to the real author?!" I demanded.
"You'll likely never find out. That six-fingered nerd hasn't been himself in thirty years! But I thank you for bringing me his journal. He used to write it while I was in my cage. So many wonderful forms to take!"
He flipped through the pages of the journal again, transforming into the Gremloblin, a gnome then the Hide Behind, laughing between each transformation.
"We've gotta get that journal back!" I whisper yelled to Y/n.
She nodded and scanned our surroundings. She picked up a bean can and yelled, "Hey shape shifter!"
The shape shifter morphed into a giant toad just before being hit with the can Y/n had thrown. Angered, he lashed his tongue out at Y/n, but she was too quick for him. Y/n picked up a piece of scrap metal, spun herself around then hurled it at the shape shifter. He was hit right in the eyes. He winced in pain, dropping the journal. I ran to it and picked it up, then slid it in my vest.
I turned to Y/n. "RUN, RUN, RUN!"
Me and Y/n bolted away. We kept running until we came to an intersection in the tunnels. I threw a flashlight from my vest down the right tunnel, hopping it would throw the shape shifter off our trail. I quickly hid myself in the left tunnel with my back pressed against the wall, side by side with Y/n.
The shape shifter, who had taken a new form, stopped at the intersection. He looked down the right tunnel and must've seen the light from the flashlight as he let out another scream before rolling down the right tunnel.
Me and Y/n quickly ran further down the left tunnel, but were quickly halted after colliding with someone-or something. The world blurred until I landed on the ground. I pulled myself off the ground and was face to face with Mabel and Soos!
The four of us exchanged excited greetings until a thought crossed my mind.
"Wait!" I held my arm out in front of Y/n and we slowly took a few steps back. "How do we know they're not the shape shifter?"
"Maybe I am!" Soos gasped. "Mabel, inspect my shape!" He lifted his shirt.
"Poke!" Mabel beamed, poking his stomach.
Soos let out his familiar chuckle. "Do that again!"
She smiled and poked his stomach again. "poke!"
He laughed again. "Even better the second time!"
I retracted my arm from in front of Y/n, no longer needing to take a protective stance.
"It's definitely them," we said in unison.
"So, what happened?" Mabel asked in a concerned tone.
"We were attacked by the shape shifter," Y/n explained. "He tricked us. And now, he's after Dipper's journal."
An unsettling thought came to mind. "Imagine if he escapes to the town! He can transform into anything! We could never trust anyone ever again!"
"What do we do?!" Mabel exclaimed.
I looked around our small group to see if anyone was formulating a plan. My eyes landed on Y/n who had a mischievous grin plastered on her face.
"I've got an idea," She stated. A dangerous fire was alit in her eyes, confirming that this shape shifter had messed with the wrong girl.