"Zombie Attacks? Never works, they don't follow orders. Blood rain? Ew, mess up my suit, not my deal."
Gideon was in his room looking through Journal #2 for the perfect thing to use for revenge against the Pines family. Especially Mara.
Mara.
Just saying her name made Gideon's fists clench in fury. She had tricked him, broken his heart, and then in the end ultimately turned Mabel against him. He would have given anything to get back at that one Pines triplet who infuriated him the most.
Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be anything helpful in the book, and it seemed that the more pages he flipped through, the more ridiculous the creatures in the pages were.
"Demon Caterpillars?!"
He slammed the book shut in frustration.
"There must be something that's perfect to exact my revenge on the Pines family. I need to take something from them. Something that will give me ultimate power."
Suddenly, Gideon's face light up with an idea.
"Wait, of course!"
He held up the popsicle stick model of the Mystery Shack.
"It's perfect."
"You've gone too far this time, Ducktective!"
"Quack quack."
Stan and the triplets were once again watching their favorite television show, "Ducktective." Stan was sitting on the couch, while Mabel and Mara were sitting on the floor in front of the TV, and Dipper was perched on top of the couch.
Just then, the doorbell rang, and Stan got up to get it.
He opened the door.
"Welcome to a World of Mystery!" Stan announced to him.
"Stan Pines" said the man seriously. He was wearing a fancy suit. Suddenly, Stan realized exactly why there was a man in a suit standing at his door with a stern expression on his face.
"The tax collector!" Stan exclaimed worriedly. "You found me!"
Stan threw down a smoke bomb and disappeared from the front porch. He then ran back into the TV room and panickedly reached up at a painting on a wall.
He pulled it off the wall and threw it aside, revealing a secret compartment with a gym bag stuffed with money in it.
He snatched the bag, and started examining the wall in alarm, pressing random stones in the wall.
"Which one of these is the trap door?"
"Mr. Pines" said the man, and Stan turned around worriedly. The man had let himself into the Mystery Shack, and was now slowly walking towards Stan, with not even a hint of a smile on his face.
"I'm from the winning coupons' saving contest" he said. "And you are our big winner!"
The man suddenly broke out into a huge grin and held his hands up into the air as he announced the news cheerfully. Stan looked at him in confusion as suddenly two women carrying a huge check with balloons walked into the Mystery Shack along with a camera man.
"Heh? My one and only dream" murmured Stan. "Which is to possess money, has come true!" He broke out into a huge grin.
"We're rich!" exclaimed Dipper in excitement. He then turned towards his sisters.
"I'm gonna get a butler!"
"I'm gonna buy a talking horse!" said Mabel.
"I would hold your talking horse if I were you" said Mara skeptically. "Since when does Stan actually use coupons? He steals everything instead of bothering to pay for them, so how is it even possible that he won a coupon savings' contest? Something's not right here..."
"Oh come on, Mara, lighten up!" said Mabel. "Where's that smile?"
Mara glared, and Mabel grabbed her sister's mouth and forced it up into a smile. Mara pushed her sister away.
The man in the suit held up a document to Stan. "Just sign here" he said.
Red flags went up in Mara's mind. Now they wanted his signature. If this was a trick like she suspected, they would need his signature to verify something official. Something was definitely wrong here.
"Grunkle Stan, don't do it!" Mara exclaimed as Stan picked up a pen to write his signature. "It's a trick!"
Grunkle Stan acted as if he hadn't heard her, but he secretly turned his head towards her and winked, smirking as he did so.
Mara relaxed after he had done that. So he was aware too, and wasn't going to sign the document for real.
Stan then wrote on the document.
Suddenly, Gideon burst threw the huge check that the two women were holding. He laughed triumphantly as he pointed at Stan.
"Stanford, you fool!" he proclaimed as he snatched the document. "You just signed over the Mystery Shack to wittle old me!"
Gideon started doing a little victory dance in the spurt of his joy.
Mabel and Dipper gasped, while Mara smirked.
"I called it" she said in a cool manner. She knew that Stan had not signed his actual name on the document.
"Uh, you might wanna take another look there" said Stan confidently. Gideon held up the document and looked at the bottom of the page. He started reading aloud.
"The Shack is hereby signed over to-"
Gideon's eyes widened when he saw Stan's signature.
"Suck a lemon little man?!"
Stan and Mara burst out laughing. Gideon ripped the document in half and seethed at them.
"How dare you?!"
Dipper and Mabel then joined in the laughing as well.
"I am not a threat to be taken lightly!" exclaimed Gideon angrily. He then reached up with his hands to signal the man in the suit to lift him, but unfortunately the man didn't seem to understand, leaving Gideon in a ridiculous position on the ground.
"I need your arms, hon" said Gideon to clarify what he meant, and the man then picked him up to Stan's level.
"I'll get you, Stanford Pines" he bellowed as the man walked backwards out of the shack. "And I'll get you too, Mara Pines. I'll get you all!"
But none of them seemed to take his threat seriously, that is everyone except for Mara.
"Guys, he's serious" said Mara. "I know he may seem like a joke, but we were so close to signing over the Mystery Shack to him, and so I think we need to take precautions..."
Stan only laughed at what she said.
"What, that kid? He's half your size without that wig. Besides, when do you of all people take precautions?"
"That's the mistake that everyone makes: underestimating your enemy. You can never be too prepared. Now that we know what he's after, we'll have a much easier time preparing for the next attack" she explained.
Mara was dead serious, but everyone else was looking at her as if she had just spoken another language.
"Wanna see what else is on TV while Killjoy over here makes plans to stop that pig in a suit?" asked Stan as the rest of them started to walk back over to the TV.
"Yeah, sure" said Dipper.
"My favorite part is the theme song" said Mabel.
And with that, the three of them sat down in front of the TV and started flipping through more channels, completely ignoring Mara.
Dipper and Mabel were playing chess together in the Gift Shop, while Mara was upstairs in their room making plans to supposedly stop Gideon.
"Little guy to black space nine!" said Mabel cheerfully.
Dipper, however, was annoyed.
"It's a pawn, that's not your color, and stop stealing the tiny horses!" he said irritatedly at his sister, who had taken all of the knights off the board and was stowing them in her sweater.
"They like it better in here" she said. "Don't you, my babies?" she cooed.
Dipper seemed to forget all about it though, he grinned as he moved on last piece on the board.
"And, checkmate!"
Mabel's eyes widened at the board.
"What? Boo!"
Dipper smiled, and took out a notepad, where he kept track of how many times each of them won a game. Mabel had zero, he had more than he could count, and Mara only had a few tally marks because she only played games that she knew that she could win. Otherwise, she would sit out and observe from the sidelines.
Dipper added another tally mark to his column, and grinned.
"Dipper wins again!" he announced proudly. "Man, do I wish Mara was down here so that I could crush her."
"Didn't she beat you last time?" asked Mabel.
"That was three years ago!" said Dipper, realizing that his sister had actually been correct. Now that she had brought that up, he was actually glad that paranoid Mara was up in their room making plans and inventions.
"Yo, Mabel, can you pass me that brain in the jar?" asked Soos, pointing to a shelf where jars with brains in them were sitting. One jar had a wig on it, and the other had a hat on it. "The lady one?"
Dipper started getting up from his seat.
"I've got it."
"Thanks dude, but Mabel's taller."
Dipper was shocked.
"No she's not!" he protested as he stood up next to Mabel. "We're the same height! We've always been."
Soos examined the two of them.
"Better check again, dude" he said, jumping down from the counter where he had been trying to reach the brain-jars.
Dipper took off his hat and stood back to back with Mabel, worried that she might actually be taller than him, while Soos took out a measure tape and measured their heights.
"Yup. She's got exactly one millimeter on you" announced Soos.
"What?" exclaimed Dipper, putting his hat back on.
"Whoa" said Mabel. "Do you see what's happening, Dipper? This millimeter is just the beginning. I'm evolving into the superior sibling. I'm bigger, stronger!"
"Like some kind of alpha triplet!" said Soos.
Mabel started chanting excitedly.
"Alpha triplet! Alpha triplet! Alpha triplet!"
Dipper glared at her.
"You can't be an alpha triplet when you've only compared just the two of us" he pointed out stubbornly.
"Mara!!!!!" Mabel screamed for her sister. "Get down here!"
Two seconds later, Mara bolted down the stairs, a flamethrower in hand.
"What's wrong?" she said with a serious tone, clearly ready for action. "Did that miscreant, Gideon, break in?"
"We're seeing if I'm the alpha triplet" said Mabel smugly. "I'm the tallest, but Dipper won't accept it until all three of us have been measured."
Mara lowered the weapon, but didn't seem to be annoyed.
"Alpha triplet? You can't base that just on height alone" she said, but she walked up to her siblings anyways, standing back to back with both of them, while Soos re-measured all three of them with the tape.
"Hmm...It's really close, dudes, but Mabel's still the tallest."
"What?!" Dipper exclaimed.
"Dipper's next, and Mara's last."
Mara sighed, the statement had not really surprised her. She had been the smallest one of the three of them from birth, and had always been ever since. She didn't really care though. Being small meant that people tended to underestimate you, and when that happened they let their guard down and got cocky.
"No one uses millimeters anymore!" Dipper argued. "Only makes you taller than us in Canada." Mara noticed how upset he was getting about this.
"You know, I've always wanted a little brother and sister" taunted Mabel. "Who knew I already had both of them?"
Just then, Stan entered the room.
"I was awoken by the sound of mockery. Where is it? Show me the object of ridicule"
"I'm taller than both Dipper and Mara" said Mabel.
"By one millimeter" Dipper cut in.
"Two for me" said Mara in a careless matter. Why Dipper was so bothered by all of this was beyond her comprehension.
"Hey, don't get short with your sister" said Stan, then he burst out laughing.
"Now, Grunkle Stan, I hope you don't think little of them!" said Mabel. Stan laughed even harder.
"Yeah! And, uh, they're short!" he said, running out of puns. Mabel and he laughed anyways.
"Dude, maybe you should lean off a tiny bit" said Soos, unintentionally using a pun.
"Ha! Tiny Bit! Soos is in on it now!" said Stan, slapping Soos on the shoulder. He and Mabel then started laughing while Soos stared at them in confusion.
Dipper walked out of the room in fury, and Mara followed, not because she was bothered by the teasing herself, but to comfort her brother.
"No, I didn't mean it like that" said Soos, worried about hurting Dipper and Mara's feelings.
"Ah, Mara doesn't care about height" said Mabel as she walked closer to Stan. "And Dipper will forget. He's got a, three, two, one..."
"...Short Term Memory!" Stan and Mabel said at the same time. The two of them burst into laughter.
"Pow! We are on fire!" exclaimed Mabel as she and her uncle high-fived each other. However, Stan cradled his hand in pain afterwards.
"Ow."
"Oh, sorry" said Mabel. "I high-five hard."
Dipper was now pacing back and forth in their room angrily, while Mara watched him with concern.
"Stupid Mabel" he ranted. "I'm not short."
"You do realize that in the end, you're the one who's going to be the tallest no matter what because you're a boy" said Mara. "We're currently at the stage where girls shoot up in height, because we stop growing around sixteen, while you boys shoot up around that age and only continue to grow."
"I know, I know" said Dipper. "But does she have to tease me about it?"
"Do you mean, us?" asked Mara. "You do realize that my situation is worse than yours because I'm a girl, and I'm the shortest of the three of us, right?"
"Then why don't you seem to care?"
"I've accepted myself for who I am. There's obviously nothing I can do to change myself, so why should you bother to be so hard on yourself over it? Besides, it's only two millimeters, and that's less for you, actually."
Dipper grunted in response, then tried to reach up on the top shelf for the journal, but it was just out of his reach.
Mara sighed, and out of pity for her brother, she ran up the side of the wall and then flipped backwards so that she landed on the top of the shelf. She took up the journal, and tossed it down to her brother.
Dipper had forgotten that she could do parkour.
"Thanks, Mara" he said, as he opened the journal and started searching through its pages. "There's gotta be some way to make me taller" he said as Mara jumped off the top of the shelf, doing a front flip in the air and then landing like a cat on her feet.
Dipper seemed to have found a page, and he read aloud.
"Legends of miniature buffalo and giant squirrels has led me to believe that there are height-altering properties hidden deep within the forest..."
Minutes later, Dipper and Mara were wandering through the forest looking for these 'height-altering properties.' Dipper was determined to get taller, while Mara mainly tagged along to make sure her brother didn't get hurt.
And she was right to come along. Dipper was still reading the journal as they were walking, and he was so concentrated on it that he tripped over a tree root. He was about to go sprawling forward down an extremely steep hill when Mara caught him by the back of his vest.
"Th-thanks, Mara" he said gratefully as he stood right-side up again.
"No problem" she said, and she squinted, for something at the bottom of the hill had caught her eye.
"Hey, there's something shiny down there" she stated, and she made her way to an old-looking tree. She ripped off a thick chunk of its bark that was about her height. Then, she laid it on the ground, and stood up on it like a snowboard. She motioned for Dipper to get on the board with her, and reluctantly, he obliged.
She leaned forward and pushed, and the makeshift board was sent sliding down the hill.
Mara cheered with excitement, while Dipper was screaming and clutching his sister for dear life.
"How do you slow this thing down?!"
"Oh, you can't!" cheered Mara. "You can't really do that until you get to a more level part of the hill! But until then, you have to endure the intense, high speeds from the slope of the hill."
"What?!"
"Just sit back, and enjoy the ride! You're safe as long as I'm in control of the board....probably."
Mara seemed to have good control over the bark board, and once they were near the end of the hill, she slid the board horizontally in front of them so that the long side was facing the bottom of the hill. Eventually, the board slowed down and skidded to a stop.
"That was awesome!" Mara cheered.
"Ugh" Dipper groaned as he let go of her and got off the board. "I'm gonna be sick."
After Dipper took a minute to recover, the two of them looked around to see that they had landed in a part of the forest that was filled with crystals. They were growing on the ground everywhere that seemed to have a slight glow. Mara got the feeling that they had something to do with the height-altering properties that they had read about.
It was then that they noticed that there was a buck the size of a squirrel standing next to them. It scampered off when it saw them.
"Whoa" said Dipper, as they saw the buck scamper off to a herd of deer that were the same size. Mara saw an eagle that was the size of a bug fly right in front of their faces.
Suddenly, they heard something growl, and they looked up in alarm to see a mountain lion approaching them.
Dipper squinted. "Is that mountain lion tiny, or just far in perspective?" he asked.
It was then that the mountain lion decided to charge straight at them, it was full sized. It leaped in the air at them.
"Perspective! Perspective!" Dipper screamed in terror, covering his eyes as well.
Mara hurriedly looked around, then picked up the first crystal she could get her hands on then aimed it at the mountain lion.
The crystal caught the sun's light, tinting it pink, and then hit the mountain lion. It shrunk to the same size as the tiny deer had been.
It landed inside Dipper's vest, and he started laughing as the mountain lion tickled him and crawled around his body. Dipper picked it up with one hand, and the creature meowed, and bit his finger.
"It still hurts, but less" he said cheerfully as he put the tiny mountain lion on the ground and let it go.
Mara was staring at something deeper in the forest.
"Dipper, look!" she said, pointing at the thing. In the middle of the forest was a huge crystal, bigger than the two of them. There was a beam of sunlight shining onto it, and the light was getting reflected from two beams of light that were on the opposites sides of the crystal: one beam of light was pink, like the one that Mara had just shot at the mountain lion, and the other was blue.
Dipper and Mara walked towards it to get a closer look.
"Whoa" said Mara. Just then, a butterfly started flying towards the lights of the crystal. It first flew threw the pink light, which shrunk it, and then through the blue light, which made it grow. The butterfly was so large that when it landed on a nearby pine tree, the tree bent underneath its weight.
"What the heck?" said Dipper, as he looked down at the ground to see crystals that were much smaller.
Mara picked a red screwdriver out of her toolbelt, then bent down and used it to pry a crystal free from the ground.
She and her brother examined it fascinatedly, then Mara handed it to Dipper.
The two of them managed to make it back to the Mystery Shack in one piece, and were now in their room examining the crystal. Mara had attacked the crystal to a flashlight by a piece of string, and now Dipper was experimenting with it.
He flipped the crystal, and turned on the flashlight. A blue beam of light shone from the flashlight. He then turned off the light and flipped the crystal to the other side. He turned it back on, and a pink beam of light shone from it.
He aimed the flashlight at a lone chess piece.
"Smaller."
He turned it on, and the pink beam of light hit the chess piece. It shrunk.
He then turned it off, and flipped the crystal. Then, he re-aimed it at the now tiny chess piece.
"Bigger."
He turned it on, and the blue beam of light hit the chess piece. It grew so large that it went through the roof of the room.
"Too big!" Mara exclaimed, snatching the flashlight from her brother and flipping the crystal. She shot a pink beam of light at the chess piece, and shrunk it back to normal size. The chess piece had left a hole in the ceiling. There was sunlight shining through the new hole.
"Well, I've always wanted a view of the night sky" said Mara.
"If anyone asks, you created a missile and shot it through the roof" said Dipper. He then took the flashlight from her and flipped the crystal. He then shot himself with the growing beam, but only a little bit so that he only grew an extra millimeter.
He then handed the flashlight out to Mara.
"Wanna grow yourself?" he asked, but Mara shook her head. "I'm pretty satisfied with my height. Besides, I've got other things to worry about."
She walked over to her bed, which had a cork board easel in front of it. Pinned on the cork board were several blueprints and pieces of paper with illegible writing on it. There was now a picture of Gideon pinned onto the board, which a sticky note posted on it which read "Operation: Keep Mystery Shack out of Gideon's chubby hands."
Dipper shrugged, then made his way down to the Gift Shop to show Mabel.
"I've been buying big clothes now" said Mabel to Soos as she sat on the counter. "I'll grow into them."
Just then, Dipper walked in through the door. Dipper was looking particularly confident.
"Hey guys" he said. "Notice anything different about me?"
Soos examined the boy.
"Holy hot sauce, you've grown an extra millimeter!"
"Whoa whoa, what?!" exclaimed Mabel, hopping down from the counter. She stood back to back with Dipper, and Soos measured them again. They were now equal height.
"What can I say, sis?" said Dipper. "Growth spurt."
But Mabel didn't seem to be too bothered by this fact.
"Yeah, but mine happened first. I'm gonna be taller in the end, it's science, Dipper."
On the contrary, Dipper knew that she was wrong, and wondered why she still believed that she was the alpha triplet.
"What? But we're the same height now!"
"Alpha triplet! Alpha triplet!"
Dipper started working another plan in his head.
"Oh yeah? Something tells me I've got another growth spurt coming on right now."
He walked away and hurried back up to his room, where Mara was now building something that looked like one of the blueprints. It looked like a robotic softball.
"Oh hey, Dipper" she said. "Back so soon?"
"It's not enough to be the same height" said Dipper, grabbing the flashlight from his bed where he had left it. "I have to be taller than her to prove that she's not the alpha triplet."
"What does this 'Alpha Triplet' business mean to you?" asked Mara as Dipper used the flashlight to make himself grow by about two inches.
"It would be nothing to me if she didn't shove it in my face all the time" said Dipper.
"There has to be a reason that she's shoving it in your face" said Mara. "Mabel doesn't just pick on people just to pick on them, well at least not in the way that she's doing right now anyways."
"Who cares why she's doing it?" said Dipper. "The fact is that she's doing it, and I need to do something about it."
Suddenly, Mabel burst into the room.
"Give it up, Dipper!" she exclaimed, as she walked right up to her brother. However, she was shocked to find that he was much taller than her now.
"What happened?" she asked.
"Oh you know" he said. "Puberty and stuff."
"This doesn't make any sense" said Mabel. "Just a second ago, you were...wait a minute! This is some kind of magic-y thing, isn't it?"
"You're not far off" said Mara.
Mabel turned on her, and started walking towards her sister.
"Was it a wizard or something, Mara? I bet there's a wizard in this closet, isn't there? Isn't there?" Mabel stopped interrogating her sister and walked up to the closet.
"What?" said Mara in confusion.
"No!" said Dipper.
"You're telling me that there's not a wizard in this closet" said Mabel furiously. "You're telling me that if I open this door right now..."
"Fine" said Dipper with an irked tone. "Open it."
Mabel swung the closet door open, revealing two red shirts, one of them plaid, hanging on a rack, and a pair of boots.
"An invisible wizard!" exclaimed Mabel. "Really guys?"
The doorbell rang downstairs, and Stan got up to get it. He looked down to see the last person that he wanted to see.
"Oi, you" he said in irritation.
It was Gideon.
The boy was holding a bat in one hand and a jar that looked like it contained glowing red bugs in the other.
"Well howdy, Stanford!" said Gideon cheerily. Then, his eyes narrowed. "Listen closely: inside this jar I have one thousand cursed egyptian super-termites. Hand over the deed to your property or I'll smash this jar with a bat and they'll devour this shack with you inside!"
Stan suddenly pointed in a random direction to the left.
"Hey, what's that?"
"Huh?" Gideon turned around in confusion, but he dropped the jar in the process. The jar's lid came free when it hit the ground, and the termites flew out in a swarm, devouring the bat in Gideon's hand, then swarming around his poofy hair.
"Oh no!" exclaimed Gideon. He screamed, and ran from the Mystery Shack. "Get 'em off! Get 'em off!"
Stan laughed.
"Hey, Soos!" he called. "Get in here! I wanna take pictures of this!"
Gideon turned around in a fury, the glowing red termites still swarming around him.
"You may have won the battle, but mark my words your family has a weak spot, and I'm gonna find it!" Gideon yelled, then he turned and ran away. "Ow! My hair!"
"Does he only respond to incantations?" Mabel asked Dipper and Mara, who were watching her in absolute bewilderment. Mabel turned towards the closet and raised her arms, and started chanting random words.
"Expecto Wizardio! Whizzle! Whizzle!"
Dipper was getting really irritated.
"It's not a wizard!" he bursted, picking up the flashlight. "I grew myself using this magic flashlight."
"Way to keep it a secret, Loudmouth" muttered Mara. Mabel turned around and caught sight of the flashlight in Dipper's hands.
"Let me see that thing!" she demanded, and she lunged at Dipper, who in the spur of his panic tossed the flashlight to Mara.
Mabel's attention was redirected at Mara, and one look at the expression on her sister's face told her that she needed to run.
As Mabel lunged at her, Mara ducked underneath her arms and bolted out the door and down the stairs. Dipper followed suit, and Mabel turned back to the closet before she took off after her siblings.
"I'll be back for you later" she said to the "invisible wizard," and with that, she bolted down the stairs after Dipper and Mara.
Mara managed to escape outside, with Dipper right on her heels and Mabel right behind him. Unfortunately, Mabel caught up to Mara and tackled her from behind.
The flashlight rolled out of her grasp, and was turned on. A blue beam of light shot out from the end of the flashlight, and it hit a nearby caterpillar, which grew until it was the size of the Mystery Shack. It then crawled away, causing the ground to rumble as it did so, and then crushed a car in its path. The car's alarm went off as the caterpillar escaped into the forest.
Mabel reached down and picked up the flashlight, turning it off. She then held up her hand and turned the flashlight back on. The blue beam hit her hand, and caused it to grow until it was about the size of her head. Mabel yelped in surprise and dropped the flashlight.
"It's ok!" said Dipper, picking up the flashlight and flipping the crystal. "It can shrink things too."
He then hit his sister's hand with the pink beam, and made it shrink back to its normal size.
"Normal hand karate chop!" exclaimed Mabel as she chopped the flashlight out of Dipper's hands and started running off.
"Hey!" exclaimed Dipper.
As Mabel turned and aimed the flashlight at Dipper, Mara saw exactly what was going on in her sister's mind.
"Mabel, don't!" she yelled, but Mabel didn't listen to her, flipping the crystal and then firing the flashlight at her brother.
A blue beam hit only Dipper's head, and caused it to grow about five times its normal size. Unfortunately, Dipper's normal sized body couldn't hand the weight of his newly enlarged head, and Dipper went stumbling backwards into the Mystery Shack.
It was then that Mara decided to intervene. She grabbed snatched the flashlight from Mabel's hands, flipped the crystal, and fired it at Dipper's head, shrinking it back to its normal size.
Unfortunately, Mabel wasn't very happy about that, and she started to lunge for the flashlight. Acting completely on instinct, Mara fired the flashlight at her sister without even thinking.
A pink beam hit Mabel in the head, and shrunk it to about one eighth of its normal size. Mabel didn't seem to think that it was an accident, for she tackled Mara to the ground in fury, and snatched the flashlight back, flipping the crystal, and then firing it at a random spot on Mara's body.
The blue beam hit one of Mara's ears, which grew to about three times its normal size. Just then, Dipper tackled Mabel from the side and grabbed the flashlight. He flipped the crystal and fired it at Mara. She ducked to the side, but purposely let her inflated ear get hit by the pink beam so that it shrunk back to its normal size. Then, Mara lunged at him and snatched the flashlight from his grip.
The triplets seemed to have all turned on each other, each of them fighting for themselves. They wrestled each other for the flashlight, finally coming to a point where all three of them were holding the flashlight, and were doing a sort of tug-of-war with it. Suddenly, it flew up into the air by the force of all of them pulling at it.
They watched in horror as it started to fly towards an angry Gideon, who was still holding the empty jar from his first attempt to steal the Mystery Shack.
"Curse the Pines family! Curse them! Curse Dipper! Curse Mara! Curse-"
Just then, the flashlight landed right in front of his feet. Gideon picked it up and stared at it in amazement.
"My my! What the lyfull man-hickey do-thingy is this?"
"Oh my gosh, what do we do?" said Dipper.
"Whatever you do, don't reveal anything" cautioned Mara.
"Maybe he didn't see us using it and doesn't know it's a magic flashlight that can grow and shrink things" whispered Mabel, but unfortunately she was a loud whisperer, and Gideon was standing right in front of them.
Mara face palmed. Mabel never listened to her.
"Really?' said Dipper.
Gideon turned on the flashlight, and a pink beam was shot up into the air.
"Boop boop" he said, and Mara knew exactly what he was going to do. Evidently, so did Dipper and Mabel.
"No no no no!" All three of them said, but Gideon aimed the pink beam right at them.
The triplets watched in horror as the world around them suddenly grew in size, and they shrunk to about two inches in height.
Dipper, Mabel, and Mara hugged each other fearfully, unsure of what was going to happen next.
Gideon giggled evilly, but from their size it sounded several pitches lower. He then bent down and trapped them in the jar that he was holding.
Bud Gleeful sounded the air horn at his used car convention three times. He was advertising his used cars to a group of people. He was talking so fast that no one could really understand what he was saying though. "Friends! I wish I was a highway so that I could have the honor of being rode upon by automobiles as fine as these ones right here!"
He patted one of the cars proudly, and suddenly a possum peaked its head out of the hood of the car. Bud slammed it shut.
"Auto-possum for no extra charge" he added.
McGucket held up several dollar bills happily. "I want that there car!" He started handing Bud his money. He wasn't alone. All of the people in the group started to cheerily hand Bud their money until he was holding an entire pile of dollar bills.
Just then, he saw Gideon arrive home. However, he noticed that his son was carrying a jar and trying to keep it hidden from everyone.
"Son, what's in the jar?" asked Bud.
Gideon turned around and enlarged his eyes to make himself look "cute."
"Dit my wittle favorite" he said with an "adorable" voice.
"Aw!" said everyone, even though none of them understood what he had just said. Gideon giggled, and then turned around, the expression of cuteness disappearing off of his face.
"Mouth-breathing fools" he muttered. He then entered the house, where his gray-haired mother was nervously vacuuming the house. Gideon walked right past her without even looking at her.
"Mother" he said with a low voice, not expecting a response. He then entered his room, and held up the jar over his desk.
"Let us out, you fat-cheeked jerk!" screamed Mara, pounding against the glass. "You're lucky this jar has air holes in it, Mara" said Gideon, as he unscrewed the jar and dumped the tiny triplets onto his desk.
"You three" Gideon said in a dark voice.
"What are you going to do with us?" asked Mabel fearfully.
"Why, Mabel!" said Gideon more cheerfully, using his finger to ruffle her hair. "I wouldn't hurt a hair on your itty bitty head...if you agree to be my queen!" he said more darkly.
Mabel shoved his finger away.
"We live in a democracy!" she said angrily. "And never!"
Gideon wasn't happy about her answer.
"Maybe you'll change your mind after this!"
He suddenly picked her up by the back of her sweater. Mabel started fighting him angrily.
"No! I will fight you until the day I die!" screamed Mabel in protest.
"Hey!" Mara exclaimed furiously. "Put her down!"
She looked around for something, anything really, and caught sight of a lone toothpick. She ran over to it, picked it up, and threw it like a javelin, aiming at Gideon's eye.
The toothpick hit its mark, and Gideon screamed out in pain and dropped Mabel in the place where he had been intending to drop her: a bag of gummy koalas.
Mabel gasped.
"Gummy koalas!" She grabbed one of the gummies and munched joyously on its head.
"You're lucky that you're still alive, girl" seethed Gideon in pain as he pulled the toothpick out of his eye. "Do you have any idea how painful that is? You're getting on my last nerve."
He then turned towards Dipper.
"And as for you, boy" Gideon was now addressing Dipper. He lowered the lamp so that it was now shining directly on Dipper, who was now trying to protect his other sister while he still could.
"Tell me, how exactly did you come upon this magic item, hm? Did someone tell you about it? Did you read about it somewhere?" Gideon interrogated him.
Dipper looked down at his vest, where the journal was stowed, then looked briefly looked back at Mara from behind his arm that he had held out in front of her. He didn't say anything out loud, but Mara could read the question that he was asking her with his eyes:
"Should I tell him? He might let Mabel go if I do."
"No, let's not take any chances" Mara responded with her eyes back. "As much as I want to free Mabel, we don't know for sure if he'll let her go if you tell him."
"What do I do, then? We have to free Mabel!"
Mara looked around at their surroundings, then caught sight of the air horn lying on its side.
She turned back towards her brother.
"I've got an idea" she said with her eyes again. "Get him to lean his head closer, preferably with his ear facing towards us."
Dipper gave her a very slight nod, then turned back towards Gideon. He then looked around, pretending to look for anyone who might listen in on what he was about to say.
"Lean closer and I'll tell you" he said with a quieter voice to Gideon, who grinned widely and did so.
"Well don't mind if I-"
Mara pressed the button of the air horn, which went off loudly.
Gideon screamed out in pain from the loudness of the air horn. He covered his ears and turned around to hide the blush that was forming on his cheeks. How could he let her trick him again?
He was furious. He turned around in one angry swift motion, only to find that Mara was already right next to the koala gummy bear bag. She pushed with all her might, and managed to tip the bag over, dumping the contents including Mabel onto the table.
Gideon growled, and raised his fist.
"I could squash you right now!" he bellowed, sweating in anger as he was about to bring his fist down. Dipper backed up, using one arm to shield Mabel and the other to shield Mara.
Suddenly, Gideon changed his mind, and put his fist down as he forced himself to calm down.
"Control yourself, Gideon" he told himself. "You can use them. You can use them."
Stan walked into the room of the Mystery Shack to see Soos, who was putting up mirrors all over the room. The entire room was now filled with mirrors.
"Soos, this maze of mirrors is your best idea that I'm taking credit for yet" said Stan. "I'm gonna make a fortune."
He walked up to one of the mirrors and took off his fez, setting it down on the table in front of it. It had been the first time in years since Stan had actually taken off his fez, and he was able to see a clear reflection of himself in the mirrors all around him. His huge ears were exposed without the fez.
"Man, have my ears always been this big?"
Just then, the phone started ringing, and Stan left the room, leaving his fez on the table.
"I'm coming!" he called.
While he was gone, Soos walked up to the table where Stan's fez was now laying. He took off his own hat, and then put on Stan's fez. He looked at himself in the mirror, and put his hands on his hips.
"One day" he said.
Stan carelessly picked up the phone in the kitchen. Instead of saying "hello," he grunted into the phone.
"Stanford Pines" said Gideon's voice. On the other line, Gideon had a phone in one hand and a brush in the other one, which he was using to comb through his marshmallow hair.
"Listen to me very closely" he continued. "I have your nieces and nephew. Hand over the deed to the Mystery Shack, or great harm will fall upon them!" He paused, and realized that he had forgotten to say who he was. "This is Gideon by the way."
On the other end of the line, Stan was laughing boisterously.
"Oh yeah, this has gotta be your worst plot yet" he said with a light tone as he opened a can of pitt cola. He was barely paying attention to the phone call. "They're fine. I saw them playing in the yard minutes ago." He took a sip of the pitt cola.
Gideon was furious.
"I have them in my possession, you don't believe me? I will text you a photo!"
"Text me a photo?" asked Stan in confusion. "Now you're not even speaking english."
"But-"
Stan hung up the phone.
"H-hello? Hello?!"
In fury, Gideon threw the phone against the wall. It shattered against it, and its pieces went flying everywhere. Mara tackled Dipper and Mabel to the ground to avoid the three of them getting hit.
When it was safe, Mara stood and helped her siblings up. The three of them then turned towards Gideon, who was suddenly laughing maniacally, only this time it sounded more like a Joker laugh.
The triplets looked at each other worriedly, wondering what was coming next.
"What am I doing?" said Gideon evilly. "I don't need ransom. I have this!"
He held up the flashlight. "I'll shrink Stan and take the shack for myself!"
The three siblings looked at each other with panicked expressions.
"And you'll all be helpless to stop me" Gideon continued, placing four wooden figures of Stan, Mabel, Mara, and Dipper in front of the triplets.
"Because if you step out of line..."
He ripped the heads off of the wooden figures.
"SMASH!!!"
The wooden heads toppled in front of the three siblings, who looked at them in horror as they rolled across the table surface.
"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Gideon was now laughing evilly.
"Gideon!" Bud suddenly called. "The ice cream truck is here!"
Gideon dropped the evil act entirely, and now looked like an excited little kid. The Pines triplets had forgotten that he was actually a ten-year-old boy.
"Coming!" said Gideon eagerly, and he started giggling as he made his way to the door. However, at the very last second he turned around and walked back to the triplets. Dipper shielded his sisters when he saw that Gideon was returning.
Gideon reached down and took out a hamster cage from underneath the table. There was a guinea pig inside of it. GIdeon opened the cage door and set the guinea pig on top of the table right next to the triplets.
"Guard them, Cheekums" commanded Gideon, then he turned cheerfully around towards the door and left to get ice cream from the truck.
"I'm coming!"
For a moment, the three of them stood there in fear of the very large guinea pig. However, the guinea pig didn't seem to be doing anything harmful to them. Dipper picked up a Q-tip and reluctantly poked the creature in its stomach. It squeaked, but didn't move. It was then that they marked the guinea pig off as nonthreatening.
"We've gotta get out of here and save Stan!" said Dipper determinedly. "I know!" said Mabel, who was making her way towards the spilled gummy koalas. She found the one that she had been working on before, and tucked it into her sweater.
"I will see you later" she said to it.
"Ok, so how are we gonna do this?" said Mara, although she saw that her brother was already pacing back and forth thinking of a plan.
"Gideon's got magic and like a gazillion inches on us" he said. "On the bright side, at least we're all finally the same height again."
Mara punched him in the arm.
"Really?" she said.
Mabel squinted to look at Dipper's height. "Actually..."
Mara groaned in frustration. "Guys, now's not the time to be worried about your heights!" she argued as Mabel and Dipper were taking a ruler out of a pencil pouch and standing it up to measure their heights.
"We're wasting time! We have to get out of here before Gideon gets to Stan!"
"We'll only be a sec" said Dipper determinedly as he took off his hat. "Gideon can wait."
"No he can't" muttered Mara as Mabel and Dipper stood back to back against the ruler. It looked like Mabel was still a bit taller.
"You're still taller than me?" exclaimed Dipper. "How did this happen?"
"I guess it's another mystery" said Mabel.
"It's another reason we've gotta get that flashlight back" said Dipper as he put his hat back on. He peered over the side of the desk, and saw that they were very high up; too high to just jump.
He turned to see that Mabel was now on top of Cheekums the guinea pig, trying to get him to move.
"Cheekums, to freedom!" said Mabel.
Cheekums didn't move.
"To freedom!" she repeated, patting his rear. Mara was standing behind him, and she poked his rear with a Q-tip in an attempt to urge him to move.
He still didn't move.
Mabel smiled, and laid down on cheekums, patting him and using her arms to hug him. "Aw, you're just a big dummy-dum" she said cheerfully.
"Ok" said Mara. "Let's try Plan B. Dipper, how far down is it?"
"About thirty feet" said Dipper. "From our perspective that is."
Mara nodded, and then made her way over to a piece of printer paper lying on the table. "Dipper, I need you to take that corner, and fold this way. Mabel, take that other corner and fold it the same way but reflected...good."
The triplets were folding the piece of paper in what seemed to be in a series of random folds.
"Mara, what are we doing?" asked Dipper in confusion as he and Mabel got up off of the piece of folded paper and Mara was pressing down onto it, standing on top of it and using her weight to keep it down.
Mara then leapt off of the folded paper. Suddenly, the folded paper sprung into a new shape: a paper airplane.
Mara grinned.
"Sometimes, simple really is better" she said. "After you."
"Awesome!" Mabel cheered, clearly excited for the ride. She then climbed into the paper airplane.
Dipper, however, was a little more cautious.
"Uh, are you sure this is safe?" he asked skeptically.
Mara rolled her eyes. "It's a paper airplane. Of course it's not safe!" she said cheerfully. "But do you have any ideas?"
Dipper reluctantly got into the plane after Mabel.
Mara was now pushing the paper airplane off of the table from behind. "Welcome to Paper Plane Airlines!" she said cheerfully like flight attendant as she was pushing it off the edge. "Please keep all hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times, no gum, drinks, or food inside the plane, and make sure your seatbelts are fastened at all times!"
"There are no seatbelts!" Dipper exclaimed panickedly.
"And in the event of the plane plunging down headfirst at speeds of up to a hundred fifteen miles per hour, we hope that you enjoy your last flight!"
"Wait, WHAT?!"
"And lift off!"
Mara gave the paper airplane one last shove, and then jumped onto the back of the plane as it glided from the desk.
"Aaaaaahhhh!" screamed Dipper as he clutched the sides of the paper airplane for dear life.
"Wheee!" squealed Mabel. Her hands were up in the air as if she were on a rollercoaster.
Mara was concentrated on steering the airplane towards the door, bending the back of the paper airplane's wings to do so.
The plane then glided out the door, and landed a few feet out it, skidding to a stop against the carpet.
Dipper was so shaken that Mabel and Mara had to pry his hands off of the sides of the paper airplane and carry him off of it.
"W-w-we almost died" stuttered Dipper.
"But we didn't!" said Mabel cheerfully.
The triplets walked all the way to the living room, where Gideon and his father were sitting on a couch were eating ice cream. Gideon was eating it greedily, and there was purple ice cream smeared all over his face. He suddenly stopped eating it, and held up his hands.
"Clean me!" he commanded, and his father got up from the couch and wiped his son's face with a napkin.
Then, Gideon became a little more polite.
"Father, could you give wittle old me a ride to the Mystery Shack?"
"Oh I'd love to, sugar pie, but I have a heck of a lot of cars to sell" said Bud, as he reached over and, just for fun, started to tickle Gideon.
"Gitchee gitchee goo!"
Gideon started laughing, but it looked like he was getting furious.
"DON'T TICKLE ME!!!!" He screamed in rage, getting up from his father's tickling and throwing his bowl of ice cream against the wall right in front of his anxious mother.
The triplets gave each other looks of bewilderment.
Gideon then turned on his father, who was looking very worried.
"Never, never tickle me! What have I told you, what have I...look at me, what have I told you?" demanded Gideon angrily.
"Tickling is no laughing matter" said Bud with an ashamed tone. He sounded like a child being scolded by a parent, when it was quite sickly the other way around.
Gideon then patted his father on the chin.
"There we go."
"Do you still need a ride?" asked Bud. "I'll just take the bus!" Gideon yelled, and he made his way to the front door, kicking over a lampstand before he kicked open the door and slammed it shut.
"Precious memories" said Bud. However, Gideon's mother seemed to be terrified.
She kept her attention focused on the vacuum.
"Just keep vacuuming, just keep vacuuming" she muttered fearfully to herself.
The triplets were quite disturbed by what they had just seen, but Dipper forced them back into reality.
"Come on!" he said, and he started running towards the door, his sisters following suit. They exited the house through the doggie door.
The three of them were now out in the parking lot of the used car sale.
"We need to get higher" said Dipper. "Yeah, especially you, because you're short" said Mabel. She had completely given up on teasing Mara, because she never got much of a reaction out of her.
Dipper, however, ignored her. Then, he suddenly got an idea. He turned towards Mara.
"Mara! You were working on something upstairs to stop Gideon's next attack, weren't you? What was it?"
"Well I actually made two things" said Mara. "First, amped up the security system of the Mystery Shack, not like there was much of one in the first place. There are now security cameras everywhere"
"Wait, you did what now?" said Mabel.
"I created a new security system for the Mystery Shack that is designed to detect intruders. I programmed the system to especially look out for Gideon, so it will set off an alarm and publically announce where he is in or near the Mystery Shack. Stan should be warned by the system if we don't make it to the shack in time, so he might be prepared for him."
"Mara, I am both relieved and disturbed right now" said Dipper. "Cameras everywhere? Even in the bathrooms?"
Mara shrugged.
"You never know."
"And what was the second thing?" asked Mabel.
Mara took something out of her tool belt. It was a medium-sized white sphere the size of a baseball (from their perspective) with a small screen and keyboard built into its curved surface.
"A relocating device" she said. "For in case Gideon breaks in. In the event of us needing to get rid of him without harming him, you just type in the location that you want to send the person, turn the top and bottom half of the device in opposite directions, and the device will project a portal that will lead to said location. It can take you anywhere on Earth, just not anywhere in space"
Dipper's face lit up.
"That's perfect!" He took the invention from her and typed in "Mystery Shack." He then turned the top half of the ball in one direction, and the bottom half in the other. The device popped open slightly, splitting down the middle where he had turned it by about a fourth of an inch, and started glowing a purple hue.
"We can use this device to transport ourselves to the Mystery Shack!" He then looked at the device curiously after he had finished typing in the location, turning the ball in his hands.
"What do I do now?"
Mara took the device from him. "This thing used to be a baseball before I turned it into a portal device. You simply...throw it!"
She threw the ball and it hit the side of the car tire that they were standing next to. Suddenly, the ball disappeared and exploded into a purple colored glowing portal.
"It's one of those one-time-usage kind of things. Each one only gets you one portal. I have some more back at the Mystery Shack."
"Cool!" said Mabel as she walked towards the portal. "Me first!" She plunged into the portal, and Dipper reached his arm out towards her worriedly.
"It worked!" Mabel's voice rang out from the other side of the portal. "I'm at the Mystery Shack!"
"Come on, Dipper" said Mara. "It's our turn."
And with that, the two of them leapt into the portal, which closed behind them.
They emerged from the other side to find that they were, indeed, at the Mystery Shack or rather, they were on the Mystery Shack.
They were standing on its roof, looking down onto the ground.
"Mara, you never cease to amaze me" said Dipper with admiration.
"Look!" said Mara, pointing at something in the distance. They looked to see where she was pointing to see Gideon, getting off of the bus and heading towards the Mystery Shack with the flashlight in hand.
"But how are we gonna stop him?" asked Dipper.
Just then, a woodpecker appeared behind them and started pecking at his head.
"Ah! Shoo! Shoo!" Dipper exclaimed, and the woodpecker flew off, but not without dropping a feather, which floated down over a banner of flags which extended all the way to the gift shop.
Mabel suddenly had an idea.
"Leave that to Mabel" she said.
Gideon started walking towards the Gift Shop. He stopped at the door. "I'm coming for you Stanfor-"
Suddenly, a green gummy koala head landed in his hair. He stopped, and tried to get it out of his hair.
"I'm sorry Gummy friend" said Mabel.
"It's for the greater good" said Dipper.
"Rest in peace, green gummy koala head" said Mara.
Gideon was tugging at his hair in a panic.
"One of those inferno gummy koalas has gotten into my perfect hair!" he exclaimed, and he started using both hands to get the gummy out of his hair, dropping the flashlight in the process.
"I can't defeat Stan looking like this!"
He turned and hurried away to the edge of the gift shop porch, picking the green gummy out of his hair, then spraying his hair with hair spray.
Meanwhile, the triplets had managed to loosen the banner from one end to use as a rope. They climbed down it and landed right next to the flashlight.
"Quick!" said Mabel to her siblings. "Get in front and I'll regrow you."
"Ok" said Mara in agreement. "Once we're regrown, I'll use the flashlight to regrow you."
"Wait, you're gonna regrow us to equal height, right?" asked Dipper skeptically.
Mara elbowed him.
"Dude, seriously? Let it go, already!"
"Yeah, Dipper, that doesn't matter right now!" said Mabel.
"Well if it doesn't matter, then why don't you just do it?" argued Dipper.
"Dipper, now's not the time to be concerned about that!" Mara protested angrily. "We have to save Stan!"
Mabel groaned in annoyance at Dipper.
"Urgh! Why are you acting so weird? Why can't you just accept that I'm a little bit taller than you?"
"Just listen to her, Dipper! You're the one who's going to be taller in the end, so just let it be already!" added Mara in irritation that they had already wasted time.
"Stay out of this, Mara! Why do you have to be so involved in everything?" said Dipper in annoyance, he then turned towards Mabel.
"And you say that I'm acting weird? You're the one who keeps calling me names and stuff!" said Dipper
"Oh, what? You mean like little..."
"Don't say it!"
"...Little Dipper" someone suddenly said, and the triplets turned to see that Gideon was standing right there. He then picked picked them up by the back of their shirts, sweaters, and vests. He brought them closer to his face.
"I daresay you may have defeated me...if it wasn't for your sibling bickering!"
He then turned towards the Gift Shop door and kicked it down.
Suddenly, a blaring alarm went off.
"Gideon Alert! Gideon Alert! Gideon is in the Gift Shop" an automated voice said, echoing through the entire Mystery Shack. Mara smirked.
"Ah!" Gideon covered his ears, and in the process, dropped the triplets onto the ground. They scrambled out of Gideon's line of sight.
"What? Since when did we have a security system?" Stan's voice said from somewhere inside the Mystery Shack. "Gideon alert? That little scoundrel is in the Gift Shop?!"
It sounded like he was now stomping towards the Gift Shop. His fez came into view.
"Wait, no!" Mara exclaimed, but no one could hear her except for Dipper and Mabel. Gideon aimed the flashlight at the newcomer with the fez and fired. The pink beam shrunk him, and the fez landed right over him.
Gideon grinned. He then bent down and picked up the fez from the ground.
"I've got you now, Stanf-"
It was not Stan. Instead, there was a shrunk Soos underneath the fez. He squinted, examining his new surroundings.
"Something's definitely different..." he said, then he caught sight of Dipper, Mara, and Mabel. His face lit up.
"Dudes!" he said, as he started to make his way toward them.
"No, Soos-" said Dipper, but it was too late. Gideon already spotted the triplets the instant Soos had pointed them out.
He bent downwards and picked all four of them up. They all struggled in his grip as his hand closed around them, and brought them closer to his face.
"Well well well" he said. "Looks like I've found the three of ya'll again." He leaned in closer to Soos.
"Where's Stanford?"
"I'll never tell you!" replied Soos at first. "Down that hall, second door to the left" he continued, pointing to the hallway.
Gideon smirked, and dropped them onto the ground.
"I'm coming for you, Stanford!" he said giddily, holding up the flashlight as he hurried down the hall.
"Wait! Stop!" Mabel cried as they tried to follow him, but Gideon slammed the door in their faces, completely blocking their path. And there didn't seem to be a gap underneath the door.
"Hey!" Mara yelled angrily, pounding helplessly against the bottom of the door. Her siblings were both doing the same as her. "Open this door!"
Gideon hadn't heard them.
Finally, the three of them saw that their efforts were useless, and they slumped down against the door.
"Sorry dudes" said Soos with a clearly ashamed face. "I guess I kinda 'soosed' that thing up, didn't I?"
Dipper sighed.
"It's not your fault, Soos. I'm the guy who went into the forest to get the crystal for the shrinking device."
"Yeah, but I was the one who actually build the shrinking device" said Mara.
"Don't blame yourself" said Dipper. "I wanted you to build that thing. If I had just listened to you before, I wouldn't have even ventured into the forest in the first place. I'm sorry guys."
He then turned towards Mabel. "It's just that you kept teasing me, Mabel, like all day. What was that all about?"
Mabel looked at him guiltily, then handed him the notepad that he always used to keep track of the number of times that the three of them won.
"I guess that it's just, you're better than me at like everything. And I know that there's a select few games that Mara will play and win, but unlike her, you always rub it in my face. Chess, checkers, ping pong, croquet..."
Dipper flipped through the notepad and saw all the tally marks that he had and Mabel didn't.
Mara looked over his shoulder at the notepad.
"Wait, you actually keep track of how many times each of us wins at something?" she said with disbelief. "As if you needed anything else to inflate that big head of yours."
"I guess that I felt like I was finally winning at something for once" said Mabel.
Dipper looked at her guiltily.
"Oh man. Now I feel like a big jerk."
"Don't you mean, a little jerk?" asked Mabel jokingly, and the three of them all started laughing.
"Alright, I walked into that one" said Dipper. Then, Mara held out her fist.
"Are you all cool now?" she asked, and Dipper and Mabel smiled.
"We're cool" they said at the same time, bumping their fists together.
"Am I cool?" Soos asked, holding out his fist. Mabel bumped her fist on top of his.
"You're cool, Soos" said Mabel.
"Yes!"
Gideon walked right into the room where Soos had told him Stan was, flashlight in hand. However, he was taken aback by surprise.
The entire room was filled with mirrors, and on each surface of the mirrors were reflections of Stan.
"Stanford!"
"Oh hi, Gideon!" said Stanford cheerfully. Because of the apparent alarm system that the Mystery Shack had, he knew that Gideon had broken into the Mystery Shack and was looking for him, and had decided to have a little fun with the kid.
"I've been looking for someone to try out my new mirror maze. Then again, you're an idiot. That's the end of the sentence."
Then, all the Stan reflections disappeared from the mirrors. Gideon was furious.
"You come back here!" he demanded, starting to run through the mirror maze.
"Try and find me, twerp!" Stan called back. "Ah ha ha ha ha!"
"Ok, guys, push...harder!" said Mara with a strained voice. The four of them were holding up a huge screwdriver to the air vent lid on the wall, and were using all their strength to try and pry it open.
They gave one last push, and the lid was pulled free from the wall.
"Ok, guys. Now let's get that flashlight before Gideon gets Stan" said Dipper.
The four of them then jumped into the air vent, and managed to navigate their way to the room with the mirror maze in it, where Stan and Gideon were.
They managed to find a hole in the air vent that was directly above the mirror maze, and it looked like Gideon was about to walk right below them.
"Ok, guys, on my mark" said Mara determinedly. "Three, two, one...now!"
All four of them jumped from the hole in the air vent, and managed to land in Gideon's hair, which broke their fall very well. Dipper looked around, and found the flashlight in one of Gideon's front pockets.
"There it is!" he said, pointing at the flashlight. They jumped down onto Gideon's shoulders, and started to walk behind Gideon's head to reach the flashlight. However, they got a good view of Gideon's hair for the first time, for they had not exactly gotten to see it from a slight distance when they had landed in it.
The hair seemed to sparkle.
"Whoa" said Mabel in amazement. "His hair is so shiny!"
Mara grabbed her sister and yanked her back.
"No!" said Dipper to Mabel. "Don't look directly at it!"
Soos, however, had other ideas. He laid down in Gideon's neck fat, which was kind of disgusting.
"Whoa!" he said in amazement. "His neck is so squishy!" He then moved his arms and legs up and down the same way that one would do to make a snow angel.
"Hey look! I'm making fat angels!"
Unfortunately, Gideon felt the new movement.
"Ew, termites!"
He slapped the back of his neck where Soos was lying, and he fell off of Gideon. Soos started plummeting to the ground.
"Tell my story!" he yelled as he plunged to the floor. Fortunately, he landed in a soft rug instead. He looked around, and something caught his eye in the rug.
"Oh there you are!" he said happily, picking up an old chip out of the carpet. "Thought you could get away from me, eh cornchip?" He then took a bite out of the cornchip.
Dipper led his sisters towards the pocket with the flashlight in it. They were still on Gideon's shoulder.
Meanwhile, Gideon was looking around the mirror maze for Stan, and ran right into a reflection of Stan, which was on three mirrors.
"Ah!" Gideon screamed in surprise, fumbling for the flashlight. He pulled it out of his pocket, and fired a pink beam at the mirrors with Stan's reflection on it.
However, the beam of light bounced off of the mirrors and started ricocheting wildly off of all of the mirrors around him. Gideon screamed and ducked for cover, managing to not get hit by the beam.
The pink beam actually hit a taxidermy moose head that was hanging on the wall. The moose head shrunk to the size of a post stamp.
Stan laughed triumphantly, and Gideon threw the flashlight at one of the mirrors with Stan's reflection on it in anger.
The mirror was shattered as the flashlight hit it.
"Hey, watch the merchandise!" scolded Stan in anger.
It was then that Gideon suddenly got an idea of how to find the real Stan.
He started smashing mirrors left and right, shattering each and every one of them.
Just then, the real Stan appeared from behind one of the mirrors.
"You little troll!" he yelled furiously. "These mirrors cost me ten-er, twenty, twenty-five... five hundred dollars each! And you're paying for all of them!"
But Gideon didn't even seem to be intimidated.
"Oh contraire, it'll be you who pays!"
Mabel looked at her siblings worriedly.
"Oh no! Grunkle Stan is doomed!" she exclaimed.
Just then, Dipper got an idea.
"Not completely doomed!" he said happily. "To his armpit!"
"No way!" said Mara stubbornly. "It's already creepy enough that we're walking on the little twerp's body. I draw the line at his armpit."
Mabel didn't like the idea either.
"Mm Mm" she shook her head.
Dipper placed a hand on each of his sister's heads, and pushed them down, forcing them underneath Gideon's shirt.
"Just come on!"
The triplets started wiggling their way to Gideon's armpit.
Meanwhile, Stan was looking at the flashlight in Gideon's hands. The crystal in the flashlight was glowing a pink color.
"Whoa, what is that thing?" he asked. He started backing up, and Gideon started walking forwards towards him, pointing the flashlight at him.
"Finally after all these years, after every humiliation, your business, your family, everything will finally be mine!"
He managed to back Stan up into a wall.
"You have no one to protect you now!" said Gideon triumphantly. "Prepare for the wrath of Gideon Glee-"
He suddenly dropped onto the ground and clutched his sides, laughing wildly as he rolled on the ground.
Stan looked at him in confusion.
"Uh, I don't even know how to respond to this."
Gideon continued to roll on on the ground laughing.
The triplets were actually inside Gideon's armpit tickling him, which was causing him to laugh and roll on the ground.
"Stop it!" yelled Gideon, but this was blared out by more laughter.
Stan scratched his head in confusion.
"Look, kid, I think this "rivalry" thing is getting to you" he said as Gideon rolled on the floor in laughter.
"I understand, I mean, I'm a formidable foe, what can I say?"
Gideon was trying his best to aim the flashlight at Stan, but the triplets tickling him in his armpit was making it impossible.
He was now laughing so hard that he was slobbering. Stan bent down to Gideon's level.
"Hey now, you'll get me one of these days" he said. "You know, run your evil plan by some friends next time, huh? Workshop it. But first, get your issues in order there."
Gideon was still laughing, and Stan stood up. He then started to kick Gideon out the door awkwardly, rolling the child on his side.
"Up! Over the carpet, there we go, round the end table, and out the door."
He rolled Gideon out of the Mystery Shack, and the triplets were on top of Gideon now running backwards to avoid getting squashed. Then, they all leapt in different directions off of Gideon. They hurried inside the Mystery Shack before anyone could close the door.
Gideon recollected himself, and searched his pocket for the flashlight, but it didn't seem to seem to be anywhere.
He reached out towards the Mystery Shack where he knew he must have dropped it.
"My light!"
"You're the light of my life too, pal" said Stan sarcastically, and he slammed the door in Gideon's face.
"Whoo, freakshow" said Stan, as he walked back to the TV room. The triplets hurried towards the maze mirror room, and found the flashlight sitting there.
Dipper flipped the crystal.
"After you" he said to Mabel.
"It's ok, you can go first if you want" said Mabel.
"If none of you are gonna go first, then I'll go first" said Mara, and with that Mabel pressed the button and grew Mara back to her normal size. Mara in turn, grew Dipper back to his normal size.
Once Dipper was back, he took the flashlight and grew Mabel to her normal size.
The triplets then stood back to back against each other, and found that Mabel was the tallest, then Dipper, then Mara.
"Hey! You let me keep my extra millimeter!" said Mabel to Dipper.
Mara smirked.
"How do you know that I just didn't grow Dipper a millimeter shorter than he was before?" she said.
The three of them chuckled.
"She earned it" Dipper replied.
"Aw, thanks..." said Mabel, putting her siblings both in a light headlock.
"...Little brother and sister" she added.
"Stop it" said Dipper immediately, but Mara simply laughed.
Mabel let her siblings go, and turned the flashlight around in her hands.
"Well I guess we should destroy this thing, you know so that it doesn't fall into the wrong hands and junk."
"Seems like the smart thing to do" said Dipper.
Mara detached the crystal from the flashlight, and smashed it against the ground. It shattered into several pieces. She then stomped her cargo boot on it to make sure it was destroyed.
"Die!" said Mabel, and Mara chuckled.
"There you dudes are!" someone said, and all three of their eyes widened when they realize that they had forgotten all about Soos.
They looked down to see a shrunk Soos, who had used the pieces of some shattered mirrors to spell out the phrase: "Help Soos."
He waved his arms. "I've been trying to get your attention."
The triplets then looked at the shattered pieces of the crystal on the floor in front of them.
Mara took out a glue bottle from her tool belt.
"Glue?" she asked.
"Glue" confirmed Mabel.
"Lots of glue" added Dipper.
Gideon was now pacing back and forth in the living room of his house. His parents were sitting on the couch behind him.
"Aw, son, don't you mind Stanford Pines" said Bud with his usual cheerful tone. "You'll get your revenge one of these days."
"NO!" In fury, Gideon flipped another couch in the living backwards. Then, the turned on his parents.
"It's not just about revenge!" he yelled. "I want that shack! The physical building."
"Why?" asked Bud.
Gideon sat down on the couch next to his father.
"Cause it holds a secret you couldn't possibly imagine" he said evilly. Gideon then started to laugh wickedly.
"Uh, sweetie, you want some ice cream?" asked Bud, holding up a spoon of pink ice cream to Gideon's mouth.
"Did you pick out all the nuts?" asked Gideon, and Bud nodded. Gideon opened his mouth.
"Ah."
Bud then put the spoon of ice cream into his son's mouth. After Gideon swallowed the spoon of ice cream, he continued his evil cackle.
"Ah ha ha ha ha ha!" He then paused. "Little more?" he asked his father, who happily placed another scoop of ice cream into Gideon's mouth.
After he swallowed once again, Gideon returned to his evil laughter.
"That's good."
A few weeks later, Stan and the triplets were sitting in the living room watching more TV when the doorbell suddenly rang. Stan got up to get it, and opened the door.
At his doorstep was a man in a suit, with a camera man next to him. There were two ladies a few yards away holding up a huge check and balloons.
"Mr. Pines" said the man in the suit. "I'm from the winning biosphere environmental savings contest, and you are our big winner!"
Stan looked at them with a bored expression, and slammed the door in their faces.
"I guess we'll have to give the prize to our runner-up winner" said the man as he held up a piece of paper with the list of winners on it.
"Fiddleford H. McGucket?"
Old man McGucket made his way to the man in the suit, laughing with his usual maniacal laughter.
The man bent down to McGucket's level.
"How would you like ten million dollars?" he announced.
"It's my dream come true!" exclaimed McGucket excitedly, taking the huge check from the ladies and then taking a huge bite out of it. He chewed happily.
The man then stood up again and turned towards his camera man.
"Cross this town off our list."