It was the start of a bright morning in Gravity Falls, and inside the large house called the Mystery Shack, Patrick was lying on his back on the floor of the kitchen, as Mabel and Dipper were on their knees next to him. Each holding a bottle of syrup.
"Are you ready for the ultimate challenge," Mabel asked her twin brother while holding up a bottle that had a head that looked like William Shakespeare and had the title Sir Syrup on it.
"I'm always ready!" Dipper exclaimed, holding up a bottle that had a Canadian Mountie head, with the title Mountie Man on it.
"And I'm still wondering why you two are using me for this game," said Patrick. He was lying on the floor while facing up towards the ceiling.
"Because we wanted to include you," Mabel said. "And this could only mean one thing."
"Syrup race!" She and Dipper both exclaimed. Seeing that as his cue, Patrick opened his mouth wide. The twins opened their bottles and tilted them back to drip a drop of syrup down to their cousin's mouth.
"Go, Sir Syrup!" Mabel exclaimed.
"Go, Mountie Man!" Dipper exclaimed.
"Go! Go!" The two chanted, as the syrup drops from each bottle slowly came down towards Patrick's mouth.
"Almost... almost..." Mabel tapped the bottom of the bottle, causing the syrup to drip into Patrick. "Yes!" she cheered as Patrick sat up and started coughing a bit. "I won!"
"Yeah," Patrick said with a strained voice, before coughing one more time. He then took a moment to taste the syrup. He nodded his head with an approving expression. "That's not bad."
As Patrick was getting off the floor, Mabel and Dipper got up as well and sat at the table. The male twin then grabbed a newspaper and started reading. Only to find something that caught his interest and excitement. "Ho ho, no way! Hey you guys, check this out," he said, showing the two what he was looking at.
However, Mabel was looking at something else on the other page. "Human-sized hamster balls?" she asked, looking at the ad. She then gasped with realization and got excited. "I'm human-sized!"
Patrick chuckled at her. "Yes," he said, rubbing her head, making her giggle, "yes you are."
"No, no, Mabel. This." Dipper pointed at the thing he was really trying to get them to look at. It was an ad for a photo contest involving monster pictures. And the prize money was 1000 dollars. "We see weirder stuff than that every day! We didn't get any photos of those gnomes, did we?"
"Nope, just memories," Mabel said, before holding up a small amount of gray hair. "And this beard hair."
"What the hell?" said Patrick in disgust. "Why did you save that?" She responded with a shrug and an 'I dunno' sound. "Well, it's not like we should actually go looking for any monsters."
"That's because we should let the monsters come to us," Mabel said matter-of-factly. "For if you go looking for a monster, you're not going to find it."
Patrick nodded with a smirk as he sat down at the table. "Right you are."
Just then, Stan walked into the kitchen area with a newspaper in his right hand. "Good morning, knuckleheads," he said to them with a grin. He pointed a finger at them. "You two know what day it is?"
Dipper thought for a moment. "Um... Happy anniversary?"
"Happy... You-Not-Dead Day?" Patrick asked, trying to mess with him too.
"Mazel tov!" Mabel cheered. Stan hit Patrick and Dipper upside the head with the newspaper.
"It's Family Fun Day, geniuses!" Stan said before throwing the newspaper on the table and turning towards the fridge. "We're cuttin' off work and having one of those..." He opened the fridge and grabbed the milk. "...you know..." He sniffed the milk with his big nose. "...bonding-type deals."
"Yeah, bonding-type deals," Patrick said rhetorically as he straightened his boonie hat. "Just like the last time we had a 'Family Fun Day'."
—(flashback)—
The last Family Fun Day that he was referring to was when he had all three of them make counterfeit money while in a dark cellar. The twins painted the dollars, Patrick dried them off with a blow-dryer, and Stan examined the money.
"You call that Ben Franklin? He looks like a woman!" He told them, right before police sirens were heard from outside the building. "Uh-oh."
—(Present)—
Mabel shuddered at the memory. "The county jail was so cold," she whispered.
"All right, maybe I haven't been the best summer caretaker," said Stan as he walked behind Patrick and Dipper, with Mabel in front of his chest. The old man placed his hands on the two boys' shoulders. "But I swear, today we're gonna have some real family fun. Now, who wants to put on some blindfolds and get into my car?"
The two kids and one teen cheered: "YAY!"
However, Patrick stopped in the middle of his cheer and said, "Wait, what?"
---
A few minutes later, the Pines family was on the road inside of Stan's 1965 El Diablo convertible—or as Mabel called it the Stanmobile. They were driving down the road in the forest that led away from town. In the backseat were the kids, each had blindfolds over their eyes. Patrick was seated in-between the twins. Stan leaned down to adjust the radio, causing the tires screech as the car swerved a bit. This made Patrick grab each of his cousins with a hand and hold them protectively.
"Explain to me why we're having to wear these," he demanded.
"I know," said Dipper, hugging his legs close to his chest. "Blindfolds never lead to anything good."
"Wow!" Mabel whispered, being more positive than the others. "I feel like all my other senses are heightened." She then started touching Patrick's face. "I can see with my fingers!" Be ticklish, this caused Patrick to laugh. However, they stopped when the car jumped, causing them to jump off their seats before coming back down.
"Stan, please tell me you're not wearing a blindfold," said Patrick.
"Haha. Nah, but with these cataracts, I might as well be," Stan responded, before squinting his eyes to look closely at something in front of him. "What is that, a woodpecker?"
He ended up driving straight through a wooden guardrail, making the twins and teen scream.
---
After that, they were at their destination and out of the car. The twins and teen, still blindfolded, stood in front of the car, which now had branches, sticks, and leaves sticking out of the grill.
"Okay, okay. Open 'em up!" Stan told them. The three did, first had their eyes adjust to the sunlight before fully seeing where they were. "Ta-Da!" Stan extended his arms out, standing on a tackle box, wearing a fishing vest and hats, and holding a pair of fishing rods, revealing that they were in front of a large lake with a tall sign that said 'Fishing Season OPENING DAY'. "It's fishin' season!"
"Fishing," Mabel asked.
"You," Patrick asked.
"What're you playin' at, old man," Dipper asked, pointing a finger at him.
"You're gonna love it!" Stan told them before turning around and gesturing towards the lake. "The whole town's out here!"
As they looked out onto the lake, they saw that almost everyone was out on the water. Lady Susan, a dimwitted and sluggish waitress from the Greasy Diner who had a lazy eye, was waving a pan over the water. "Here, fishy fishies!" She called to the fish. "Get into the pan!"
And over at one of the wooden docks, Toby Determined, a small glass-wearing newspaper editor that solely owns the Gravity Falls Gossiper, was taking a picture of a man who caught a large fish. "Say cheese," Toby said to the man, before taking the picture with the flash on. This caused the man to fall back into the lake.
And on another was Manly Dan, a big, extremely masculine lumberjack with red hair on almost every part of his body. In the boat with him were his three sons, Marcus, Kevin, and Guts. "Uh, is this good," asked the oldest son, holding up a fishing pole.
"NO!" Manly Dan exclaimed, grabbing the fishing pole and snapping it in half with his knee. "I'll show you how a real man fishes!" He then scanned the waters, waiting for something. He then quickly reached into the lake and pulled out a fish. "Ha ha ha ha ha!" Manly Dan laughed heartily, before throwing the poor fish onto the boat, jumping on it elbow-first, and then beating it repeatedly.
"Dad! Dad! Dad! Dad!" The three brothers chanted.
Then a boat that had Tyler Cutebiker, the local enthusiast, pulled up and he said, "Get 'em! Get 'em!"
"That's some quality family bonding!" said Stan, but his grandchildren weren't convinced.
"Stan, what is this," asked Patrick. "Why do you wanna bond with us all of a sudden?"
"Come on, this is gonna be great!" Stan walked up to them with encouragement. "I've never had fishing buddies before. The guys from the lodge won't go with me." He then started using air-quotes. "They don't 'like' or 'trust' me."
"I think he actually wants to fish with us," Mabel said quietly.
"Hey, I know what'll cheer you sad sacks up," said Stan, before slapping on fishing hats on Dipper and Mabel's heads. "POW!" He then threw to Patrick a fishing vest. "And Pow! Pines family fishing hats and vests!" The three grandchildren looked at their gifts with uncertainty and saw that their names were stitched onto the hats and vest with big colorful letters. "That-that's hand stitching, you know."
The L on Mabel's name peeled off.
"It's just gonna be you, me, those goofy hats and vests on a boat for ten hours!"
"Ten hours," Dipper asked.
"What are we going to do out there for ten hours," Patrick asked, "other than fish?"
"I brought the joke book!" Stan held up a book that had the title 1001 Yuk 'Em Ups, much to the three's horror.
"No! NO!" exclaimed Dipper in horror, as each of the three expressions filled with terror at the possible boredom that was in their future.
"There has to be a way out of this," Mabel whispered.
"How," asked Patrick. "It's not like the opportunity for adventure is gonna come."
"I SEEN IT!" Patrick and his cousins turned their heads in the direction of the voice and saw it was a short old man sporting a long white beard with a Band-Aid, a large, pink nose with a few warts on it, blue eyes, a few missing teeth and a golden one, and a cast on his right arm. He was wearing an old brown hat, brown overalls that were covered by his long beard, and a white bandage on his feet.
"I SEEN IT AGAIN!" He yelled hysterically, pushing two fishermen out of his way, as he ran from the docks, crashing into a fishing pole rack, flipping over a table, and even smashing a sandwich out of the hands of a fisherman.
He ran over to Patrick and grabbed him by the shoulders. "The Gravity Falls Gobblewonker!" He exclaimed into the feared-out teen's face, before pushing him aside. "Come quick before it scrabdoodles away!" The old man then started dancing frantically. "Eh, eh, haha hoo," he slapped his knee, "Ah, hee-hee..."
"Awww... He's doing a happy jig," Mabel said, while Dipper was just as weirded-out as Patrick.
"NOOO!" The old man yelled at her, making Patrick pull her away from him and stand in front of her protectively. "It's a jig of grave danger!"
Just then a man with a sprayer came out of the store. "Hey, hey!" He shouted at the old man. This seemed to make the elder back off and try to shield himself. "Now what did I tell you about scaring my customers?" The man then started spraying the old man. "This is your last warning, Dad!"
"But I got proof this time, by gummity!" The old man begged.
The three Pines kids looked at each other with curiosity.
The old man then led everyone over to the end of a dock and pointed at something. "BEHOLD!" he yelled, pointing to a destroyed boat that was torn in half.
Next to the dock was a police patrol boat, and on it were the two sheriffs of Gravity Falls. The first one was Sheriff Blubs, an old black man that was lazy and bumble headed with a gray mustache. Next to him was his partner, Deputy Durland, a dimwitted, incompetent policeman that was tall and thin, with big ears and a big nose.
"It's the Gobble-dy-wonker what done did it," exclaimed the old man, continuing his panic. "It had a long neck like a gee-raffe! And wrinkly skin like..." he pointed at Stan, who was cleaning out his ear. "Like this gentleman right here!"
"Huh?" merely said Stan.
"It chawed my boat up to smitheroons, and shim-shammed over to Scuttlebutt Island!" The old man pointed towards the silhouette of an island in the distance, shrouded in a cover of fog. He then grabbed his son's arm and tried to pull him towards the island. "YOU GOTTA BELIEVE ME!"
Sheriff Blubs then said, "Attention all units! We got ourselves a crazy old man!" This caused himself, his partner, and everyone else around, excluding the Pines family and the son, to laugh and point at the old man, who looked very sad by all the humiliation that he was getting. Even his son, though his eyes couldn't be seen, shook his head in shame.
"Aww, donkey spittle!" exclaimed the old man, before walking away sadly. "Aw, banjo polish!" Soon the others on the dock left, leaving the Pines family the only ones left.
"Well, that happened," said Patrick.
"Right! Now let's untie this boat and get out on that lake!" Stan told them, stepping into a rowboat that looked like it was about to fall apart at any moment. I had the name Stanowar on it, and began to untie it. It was an old, worn old, hold-filled fishing boat that looked like it could fall apart at any second.
Patrick, while hesitant about getting into the boat, stepped towards it, only for Dipper to grab his hand and pull him back. "Patrick, wait," he said. "Did you two hear what that old dude said?"
Mabel joined the conversation by mimicking the old man. "'Aww, donkey shpittle!'"
"'Aw, banjo polish!'" Patrick mimicked just like her, causing the two to laugh with each other.
"The other thing," Dipper said with excitement. "About the monster." He then pulled out the magazine he was showing them back at the Mystery Shack out of his vest. "If we can snag a photo of it, we can split the prize evenly between the three of us. Giving us each over 333 dollars."
"That's like three 3s," Mabel said.
"Imagine what you could do with three Hundred. Thirty-three. Dollars!"
Right after he said that, Mabel turned away and looked upwards, seeming to let her imagination take over. However, Patrick looked at her with a deadpan expression. "Lemme guess: you want the human-sized hamster ball. You'll shame a hamster for having one. You'll take it for a stroll and impress those two teenage boys from the one gay high school movie."
She nodded her head, but was still in her own little world.
"Mabel!" Dipper started snapping his finger in front of her face. "Mabel?"
"Dipper. Patrick," she turned towards them with a serious expression, "I am one million percent on board with this!"
They then looked at Patrick, waiting for his answer. He looked at them for a second before crossing his arms and placed a hand on his chin. Thinking for a second before stretching the back of his head. "I don't know, you two," he said. "There's no guarantee that we'll find anything out there. And then there's the possibility that we do come across this 'Gobblewonker', it could be hostile and attack us."
"But if we don't go, we'll be listening to Grunkle Stan's jokes all day," Dipper pointed out.
Patrick didn't need another second to make his decision. "Stan!" He went up to the oldest Pines member with a big smile. "Change of plans: we're taking that boat to Scuttlebutt Island, and we're gonna find that Gobblewonker!"
"YAY!" Dipper and Mabel cheered together, facing one another. "Monster hunt! Monster hunt!"
The crazy old man from before tried joining the chant. "Monster hunt!" The twins stopped and stared at him. "Monster... Eh... I'll go."
A large honking was then heard, making them look in the direction of the source. Patrick was surprised to see it was Soos pulling up to the docks in a large, better-built boat that had the name S.S. Cool Dude. "You dudes say somethin' about a monster hunt," he asked.
"Soos!" exclaimed Mabel, happy to see their friend.
"Wassup, hambone!" Soos and Mabel then fist-bumped each other, and the making explosion sounds.
After they were finished with that, Patrick walked up to Soos and said, "I didn't know you had a boat."
"Oh yeah, dude," he said. "And you can totally use it for your hurt. It's got a steering wheel, chairs; normal boat stuff."
"All right, all right," said Stan, looking confident and proud, "let's think this through. 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!"
Patrick and the twin first look at Soos. He does the robot dance. They smiled and looked at their grunkle, as his boat leaked and sniffed his armpit. Their smiles dropped to frowns, and looked towards Scuttlebutt Island in the distance. This brought back their positivity and they grinned at one another.
"So, whaddaya say," asked Stan, more than convinced that they were going to go with him.
However, his response was the three on the other boat, driving away from the dock. Laughing as they head towards Scuttlebutt Island.
"We made the right choice!" Mabel could be heard saying in the distance.
"Yes!" said Soos.
Stan looked shocked and then angry. "Ingrates!" he yelled at them, waving a fist at them. "Aw, who needs 'em? I got a whole box of creepy fishing lures to keep me company." He looked at his tackle box, in the place where he kept his bait. However, the lures, which were dead fish, were starting to attract flies with their smell. This caused Stan to cringe in disgust and close the box.
Back on the S.S. Cool Dude, Patrick stood on the stern of the boat, with one foot on the guardrail, now wearing a yellow life vest like the others. He held his hat in place, preventing the winds from taking it. The teen then turned around and called out, "Hoist the anchor!"
Soos pulled up a cinder block for his anchor.
"Raise the flag!"
Mabel and Dipper held up two towels.
"We're gonna find that Gobblewonker," exclaimed Mabel, as the boat speeded towards Scuttlebutt Island.
"We're gonna win that photo contest," Dipper exclaimed.
"Do any of you dudes have sunscreen," asked Soos.
"Wait, what," asked Patrick, making the boat stop completely.
"I don't have sunscreen on me and was wondering if you guys had any."
Patrick sighed. "Okay, we're gonna... go get sunscreen!"
"YAY!" Everyone else cheered as the boat started up again and did a U-turn, heading back towards the shore.
However, unbeknownst to the four of them, a large, and strange object swam through the waters of the lake.
---
"Alright everyone, listen up!" Patrick exclaimed, making the twins and Soos line up, standing straight. "If we're serious about going after this thing, we need to do this the right way," he said, pacing in front of them. "So does anyone have any ideas on how we're going to catch a picture of this Gobblewonker?"
"I do," Dipper before walking next to him, in front of Mabel and Soos. "Okay. Think. What's the number one problem with most monster hunts?"
"You never know where it is until the last second," Patrick said.
"You're a side character, then you die within the first five minutes of the movie," said Soos, before starting to panic. "Dude, am I a side character?! Do ya ever think about stuff like that?"
"No, no, no. Camera trouble!" Dipper corrected them. "Say Bigfoot shows up. Soos, be Bigfoot?"
Soos turned around and then the ever so famous Bigfoot walking stance, with his head turned towards Dipper.
"There he is! Bigfoot," Dipper exclaimed in a mock acting voice. He then pats his life vest. "Uh-oh, no camera!" The male twin then pulled out a camera from his vest. "Oh, wait, here's one! Aw, no film!" He puts the camera back in his life vest, before talking in his normal voice. "You see? You see what I'm doing here?"
"You do gotta point there," said Patrick, pointing at him. "So how do we prevent this?"
"Simple." Dipper brought out a brown bag that looked to contain many ideas. "I've bought twenty-one disposable cameras!" He pulls back his sock. "Two on my ankle." Opened up his life vest. "Three in my jacket. Four for each of you." Patrick, Mabel, and Soos looked in their bags to see the cameras. "Three extras in this bag." He pointed at the bag he was carrying. "And one..." He lifted up his hat. "... under my hat! There's no way we're gonna miss this. Okay everybody, let's test our cameras out!"
For whatever reason Soos pointed a camera directly at his face and pushed the button, causing it to flash in his eyes. "Aw, dude!" He shouted, startled, and threw the camera overboard.
"Whoa, shit! Soos! What did you do?" exclaimed Patrick.
"It's okay! It's okay." Dipper reassured him. "You see? This is exactly why you need backup cameras. We still have twenty!"
Just then a seagull flew over Mabel's head, startling her. "Ah, bird!" She threw a camera at the seagull, but it fell into the water.
"Mabel, what the hell?!" Patrick exclaimed. "We've only got nineteen now! Don't lose any more cameras."
"Wait, lose the cameras," asked Soos.
"NO!"
"Dude, I just threw two away."
"Sixteen!" yelled Dipper, getting just as frustrated as Patrick. "All right! We still have sixteen cameras—" he slammed his fist on the ice chest, but ended up smashing another camera. "Fifteen. We have fifteen cameras."
"So what's the plan," Mabel asked, holding a camera and her bag over the water. "Throw more cameras overboard or what?"
"DON'T YOU DARE!" Patrick snapped at her. He then took in a calm breath. "Okay. You'll be lookout, Soos can work the steering wheel, Dipper's the first mate, and I'll be captain."
"What? Why do you get to be captain?" Mabel complained, gesturing to herself. "What about Mabel, huh?" She then started chanting while pointing to herself with her thumbs. "Ma-bel! Ma-bel! Ma-bel! Ma-bel!"
"Mabel, other than Soos, I'm the oldest among all of us onboard. Mom and dad put me in charge. Stan also put me in charge whenever he's not around. And I'm the more responsible one out of the four of us."
"Then what about co-first mate?"
"There's nothing as co-first mate," said Dipper.
"Aw, whoops." Mabel tossed a camera over her shoulder.
"Okay, fine!" Patrick quickly said. "You can be co-first mate."
"Can I be associate co-first mate," asked Soos.
"Captain?" Mabel looked up at Patrick, waiting for him to make a decision. And it seemed like she wanted him to agree.
"Sure, whatever," he said. "Now we all can assume the creature is large, right? So..." He went to a wooden barrel that had the label 'fish food' on it. "As captain, I say that the best way to lure it out is with bait."
"Permission to taste some," asked Soos, weirding-out Patrick.
"Um... Granted?"
"Yes." He pumped his fist. Soos then grabbed one of the baits and licked it. He then started to gag and cough, trying to wipe his tongue from the disgusting taste. The twins and Patrick were laughing at him. "Dude, I don't know what I expected that to taste like!"
"Ha ha. Okay," said Patrick, wiping a tear from his eye. "Let's get going. Mabel, Soos, you two know your jobs. Dipper, you're on bait duty." Mabel and Soos snickered, prompting him to sigh. He should have said it differently. "You're throwing the bait. I'll assist in looking out for the monster and directing us." He walked over to the stern of the boat. "Remember, you're looking for a dark shadow in the water, so if you see one and it moves, alert us."
"Got it!" the others said. Soos went over to the controls and started the boat, making it head towards Scuttlebutt Island.
All was going fine for the crew of the S.S. Cool Dude, but as they got closer to the haunted-looking island, their surroundings drastically changed. Soon there was fog everywhere. Thick enough to almost block out the sun's light. There were broken trees around them too, with rock and the remains of small boats.
Patrick didn't like the look of things. His instincts definitely told him to be on alert. He looked back at his cousin and co-worker. Dipper was throwing out bait with a shovel and Soos was driving the boat. He then turned his head back to look down at the water, shining a flashlight on the surface.
"Hey! How's it going," he heard Mabel ask, prompting him to look at her. He was almost surprised when he saw the cheerful girl standing next to a pelican, grabbing the bottom beak with her hand. "It's going awesome!" She made a strange voice while moving the bird's mouth, playing ventriloquist with it. "Bow bow, buh bow bow!"
"Mabel, leave that thing alone," he told her. "I highly doubt it likes you doing that to it."
"Aw, I don't mind none!" She made the pelican say. Mabel then picked up a glass of water and said in her normal voice, "Hey, look, I'm drinking water!" She then tried to make it seem like the pelican was talking, while she was drinking down the water. "Twinkle, twinkle little..." She stopped when she choked on the water, forcing her to start coughing as the pelican flew away.
Dipper then asked from where he was, "Aren't you supposed to be doing lookout?"
"Look out," she exclaimed, and threw a volleyball at him, hitting him on the arm. Dipper held his arm and shivered.
"Mabel, no bullying your brother." Patrick scolded her.
"Heh, heh. But seriously, I'm on it," she said, before the boat suddenly jolted as it came to a stop. Startling everyone.
Patrick dropped the flashlight and grabbed a hold of the guardrail when it happened, but luckily it wasn't that bad of a collision. "What was that?"
"See? We're here!" exclaimed Mabel, prompting Patrick and the other males onboard to look. They realized that the boat had indeed crashed onto the shores of Scuttlebutt Island. "I'm a lookout genius!" Mabel then walked off of the boat. "Hamster ball, here we come!"
Patrick, Dipper, and Soos soon disembarked from the boat as well. Patrick shined the flashlight, while Dipper brought out a lantern. The teen walked in front of everyone and led the group into the foggy woods.
It was dark and cold even, with little to no sunlight. Some of the trees couldn't be fully seen, only their silhouettes. Animals on the island were starting to become active after the presence of the four were. They soon came up to a large sign nailed into a tree that said 'Scuttlebutt Island'. Patrick and Dipper walked past it, but Soos and Mabel stopped at it.
"Dude, check it out," said the big man before covering up the Scuttle part of the sign, leaving only the words Butt Island visible. "Butt Island."
"Soos, you rapscallion," exclaimed Mabel.
Patrick didn't look that impressed, as he and Dipper stopped to see what was holding them up. "Oh yes, Soos. You're a comedy god," he said sarcastically.
"Hey!" Mabel went over to them. "Why aren't you laughing? Are you scared?"
"Pssh! Yeah, right!" Dipper said in denial, turning his head away. "I'm not—" He didn't get to finish saying what he was going to say when Mabel poked him on the nose and blew a raspberry.
"Yeah, you are!" The female sister started to continually poke him and blow raspberries, causing Dipper to drop the lantern and try to get her to stop.
"Mabel!" Patrick got her to stop. "I told you not to make fun of your brother." He was then startled when a growling noise was heard in the distance. This also caused the twins to get closer to their cousin, with Mabel hiding behind his leg, as they looked around at their surroundings in fright.
Soos joined up with them. "Dude, did you guys hear that?"
"Yeah." Patrick placed a hand on Mabel's head. "Please tell me that was your stomach."
"Nah, my stomach normally sounds like whale noises," said Soos.
Mabel went to him and placed her ear to his stomach. Sure enough, she heard the sounds of whales. "Wow. So majestic," she whispered. Patrick stared at them. Unsure on what to think.
"Oh no!" Dipper exclaimed when possum came out of nowhere and grabbed the lantern and ran away. "Our lantern." After the light of the lantern was far enough away, the boy was forced to squint his eyes to try and see. "Aww! I can't see anything!"
"That's it. We're done here," Patrick said sternly. "There's no way that this thing isn't worth it."
"Not worth it," asked Dipper. "Guys, imagine what would happen if we got that picture!"
"Let me guess." Patrick stared down at him with a deadpan expression. "You'd be famous. You'd dress up like Indiana Jones. You'd get on a talk show with a guy named Charlie. He'd give you a metal, before Mabel chases the party."
Dipper and Mabel looked upwards with a smile, almost in a dreaming state.
"You were just thinking that, weren't you?"
They nodded.
Patrick then thought about what he could do with that money. He could save it for another time. Like an emergency. "Okay, I'm in."
"YES!" The twins yelled, before running off."
"Hey!" Patrick and Soos ran after them.
After the twins started walking at a slower pace again, the four continued their search for the Gobblewonker. A minute later, Soos started to beatbox while Mabel rapped.
"My name is Mabel!"
"It rhymes with table!"
"It also rhymes with... glabel!"
"It also rhymes with... shmabel!"
"Dude, we should be writing this down," said Soos.
"No you shouldn't," Patrick said to them. "That was terrible."
"Guys, guys, guys!" Dipper stopped them, while holding up a camera. "You hear something?" They started to listen closely. The growling noise was heard again, this time louder than before. Birds started to fly away from the sound, catching their attention. "This is it! This is it!" Dipper said with excitement.
He and Mabel went on ahead, punching each other excitedly. But Patrick and Soos were anything but thrilled. Why did I have to leave the crowbar at home, the teen asked to himself. He then spotted a stick that had a sharp end. Patrick picked it up and adjusted his boonie hat, before he and Soos went with them into the fog.
Walking through the fog, they saw nothing at first. But then, Soos stopped the group with his arms when he spotted something. Pointing towards whatever it was, the others were surprised to see the silhouette of a large creature swimming above the surface. To them it looked like a plesiosaur, a type of prehistoric marine reptile. This assumption was made by the creature's large body, long neck, and a small head.
The group quickly ducked behind a log. They then looked over it to look at the Gobblewonker.
"Everyone: Get your cameras ready!" Dipper whispered, his instructions to them. Soos brought out a camera and nodded at the boy. Patrick held a camera in one hand and the stick in the other. Mabel turned hers on with an excited expression.
"Ready? GO!"
Soos yelled like a mad man as he jumped over the log, held his camera in front of him, and ran towards the silhouette, snapping photos at random. Patrick and the twins follow him. The big man continued his hysterical action, but as they got closer and the fog cleared up, the group discovered that the silhouette was nothing more than the remains of a wrecked boat. After seeing this, a bunch of beavers popped out of the wreck.
"I love cavorting!" one beaver said to the other, with only them being able to understand.
"That deserves a hug!" The other beaver hugged the first one, while a third beaver thumped his tail on the boat and walked sideways off of the boat.
The Pines just stood on an edge and stared in confusion, while Soos happily took pictures of them. "Dude," Patrick said, "what the hell?"
"But... but what was that noise, then," asked Dipper, not believing what he was seeing was real. "I heard a monster noise!"
The 'monster noise' was heard again, causing them to look in its direction. They saw a beaver chewing on a rusty old chainsaw, before it activated, causing the same growling noise that they've been hearing.
"Sweet! Beaver with a chainsaw," said Soos, before trying to take a picture. The camera wouldn't work, so he looked at it and saw that it was out of film. He then turned to Patrick. "Do you mind if I use a..." Patrick just handed him his bag of cameras without saying a word. His expression carried a look of annoyance.
"I can't believe this," he said. "We came all the way out here for a bunch of beavers?"
Dipper sighed in defeat. "Maybe that old guy was crazy after all," he said.
"He did use the word 'scrapdoodle,'" Mabel said.
Patrick said to them with sympathy, "I'm sorry you guys." He looked towards Soos, but saw that he wasn't there. "Where'd Soos go?"
"Ooh, yeah!" They heard the older friend, and they turned their heads to see him taking pictures of a beaver posing—not really—on a stump. "Work it! Work it! Nice! Nice! Gimme another one of those! Yeah, I like that one."
Dipper sighed again and hopped onto a boulder sticking out of the water. "What're we gonna say to Grunkle Stan? We ditched him over nothing," he said before throwing a stone into the lake. He sighed again, but then the water started to ripple. He was then startled when the boulder started to shake. "Hey... guys, do you feel that?"
Suddenly the boulder sinks immediately into the water, and Dipper falls into it.
"Dipper!" Patrick quickly went over to the edge and helped his cousin get back on the island. They were then startled when the silhouette of a tail came out of the water, before a large object swam away from the shore. That object was a part of a larger, shadowy object that was under the surface.
"This is it!" Dipper quickly held a camera up and shot a picture of its side, as the Gobblewonker turned to the right. "Come on!" he exclaimed to the other, right before the object went under the water. Heading right towards them "This is our chance!"
"Dipper..." Patrick said worriedly as he, Soos, and Mabel backed away. "I think you should back away."
"What's wrong with you guys," he asked. After getting close enough behind him, Gobblewonker raised its head out of the water, revealing its growling yellow eyes, an overlapping lower jaw with two tusks and sharp teeth, and a long mane that ran all the way down its back.
Patrick dropped the stick, looking up at it in shock and fear. "Dipper, it's right behind you!"
"It's not that hard, all right?" Dipper said, still not realizing that the Gobblewonker was behind him. "All you gotta do is point, and shoot. Like this!" He turned around and aimed the camera. But soon he was aiming it upwards until he came to the creature's face.
The Gobblewonker roared at them, causing Soos and Mabel to run for their lives and Patrick to grab Dipper's arm. "We're leaving, NOW!" He yelled before pulling Dipper with him, causing him to drop the camera.
The four of them started running for their lives, as the Gobblewonker got onto the island. Pushing over a tree that fell towards Patrick, Mabel, and Dipper. Patrick saw the tree coming down on them, and quickly lunged at the twin, causing them to roll out of the way, and continue running. They continue to dodge more falling trees before eventually catching up to Soos. "Where's the boat?!"
"It's just down this path! HURRY!" exclaimed Soos, before Mabel screamed when the Gobblewonker's head came at her. It tried to snap at her, before she hopped onto Soos' back.
Dipper turned his upper body to the creature and aimed another camera at it, taking a picture. However, his foot was caught by a vein and he dropped it. "The picture!" He stopped and was about to go after it when Patrick picked him up and placed him on his shoulder.
"Dipper, now's not the best time!" Patrick yelled.
"Dude, if it makes you feel any better," Soos exclaimed, "I got tons of pictures of those beavers, dude!"
"WHY WOULD THAT MAKE ME FEEL BETTER?!" Dipper yelled.
The group was able to reach the boat. Patrick put his male cousin on it, while Soos helped Mabel get on, before they both climbed onboard themselves. Moving to the back, their combined weight helped get the boat back down into the water, as Soos went to the controls.
"Let's get outta here, dudes!" he exclaimed. Putting the boat in reverse, Soos drove the boat away from the island, just as the monster broke out of the forest.
"We're gonna need a bigger boat," Patrick said.
"Alright! This is it!" Dipper said. This could be his best chance to get a picture. He pulled out a camera and aimed it at the Gobblewonker. To his shock, it had a cracked lens. "Cracked lens?! Soos! Get a photo!"
Soos, however, was throwing cameras at the monster.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
"Oh! I still got two left!" Soos showed him the two cameras that he didn't throw. "Don't worry, dude!" He threw one of them at Dipper, but it missed and hit the wall, causing it to break.
"Give me that!" Patrick snatched the last camera out of Soos'. "Just drive the boat!"
The Gobblewonker roared and dived into the lake. It then raised its head above the lake and towered over them. Soos got to the control and accelerated the boat's speed, before it divided its head into the water and caused waves that the boat bounced on. Soos turned the boat around and had it facing the right way.
"Go, go, go, go, go!" Dipper pointed frantically. Soos had the boat go at maximum speed. The Gobblewonker gave chase.
The chase led them to pass Stan's boat and soak him. The oldest Pines member threw his hat down in frustration, then sat down and sighed.
Patrick, who was looking back at the Gobblewonker as they went back to Scuttlebutt Island, turned his attention to ahead of the boat and his eyes widened in panic. "BEAVERS!" He yelled, pointing to the same boat wreck that had the beavers.
"We're still beavers!"
Soos turned the boat to the side, hoping that he wouldn't run into the wreck, but it failed. The S.S. Cool Dude slammed into the wreckage, sending the beavers flying everywhere. Some ended up landing on the group's boat, where they started to bite it and the crew.
Two Beavers were biting down on Dipper's hat. Mabel was trying to shake a beaver off her arm. Patrick was sitting on the deck and trying to pull one off his right leg.
Suddenly a beaver jumped and latched onto Soos' face, causing him to stubble away from the wheel. Patrick decided to just deal with the beaver on his leg and quickly went to take control of the wheel, steering it away from the Gobblewonker. Dipper went over to help by trying to dislodge the beaver on his cousin's leg, while Soos ran in circles, crying in pain from the beaver still on his face. Dipper got Patrick's beaver off, and threw it at the Gobblewonker.
The creature dived and continued its pursuit of the boat from under the water. Patrick's eyes widened again when he saw a bunch of boats ahead of him. With nowhere else to turn, he maneuvered through them, but the boats were eventually overturned and flew into the air by the Gobblewonker.
Ahead of them, Manly Dan had a fish in a headlock. "Headlock!"
"Dad! Dad! Dad!" chanted his son, right before it was turned over by the Gobblewonker. After coming to the surface, the family was soon met with fish raining down on them.
"The fishes! They seek revenge!" Manly Dan exclaimed, before he and his sons swam away. "Swim, boys! Swim!"
Back with the S.S. Cool Dude, the Gobblewonker used its head to hit the side of the boat. It then swiped at the vehicle and managed to knock off the control cabin.
The Pines and Soos got back up after having to duck their heads from the swipe. Soos was still having trouble getting the beaver off his face. "Aah! Look out!" Mabel yelled, pointing at something ahead of them.
When Patrick looked, all he said was; "Are you kidding me!"
"Easy..." said a man, as he and another man were transporting a glass sheet over the water. Each man standing on a single boat. "Easy..."
The S.S. Cool Dude drove right through it and broke the glass sheet.
Patrick saw that they had now entered a narrow valley, with rock walls on both sides. However, he started to panic when he saw that they were heading straight for a waterfall. "IF ANYONE HAS ANY IDEAS ON WHERE TO GO, NOW IS THE TIME TO SHARE!"
Dipper quickly pulled out the Journal and flipped through the pages, before stopping at one of them. "GO INTO THE FALLS!" He exclaimed and pointed. "I think there might be a cave behind there!"
"MIGHT BE?!" Mabel exclaimed.
"YOU THINK?!" Patrick exclaimed.
With no other options, the teen kept the boat straight. Directing it to the waterfall. They all screamed and closed their eyes, not wanting to see what could be the last thing they'll ever see. However, the boat goes right through the waterfall and into the cave behind it. Their boat crashed into a sandy shore, sending them flying off the boat and into the dirt. They all stood up and dusted themselves off. They then turned around to see the Gobblewonker swim in after them, making them all scream. Patrick grabbed the twins and hugged them close for any protection he could give them, with Soos hugging all three of them.
However, when nothing happened, they opened their eyes and looked at the monster, and saw it got stuck in the cave's entrance. Struggling to escape.
"It's stuck!" Mabel exclaimed with a smile.
"Ha ha! Yeah!" Dipper laughed before coming to a realization. "Wait...It's stuck?"
They quickly ran over to a ledge that was high above the Gobblewonker. This was the perfect spot to take a picture. Dipper reached into his life vest to grab a camera, but felt nothing. Panicking, he patted all over his body to find one, but felt nothing. He couldn't have lost all of the cameras. He couldn't have!
"Boop," said Mabel, taking off his hat to show him the one camera he had under it. Dipper laughed happily as he grabbed it and took as many pictures as he could with it. Gobblewonker tried to snap at him, but was unable to reach them.
"Didja get a good one," asked Patrick.
"THEY'RE ALL GOOD ONES!" Dipper exclaimed, throwing his hands up with glee.
"WOO!" Mabel shouted as she, her twin, and Patrick all hugged. "HAMSTER BALL!"
The Gobblewonker continued to roar as it tried to break free, until it was hit in the head by a falling rock. Strangely the rock caused a loud ding sound, like a bell. Its head fell down with an electric noise.
"What the...?" Dipper said, not sure what just happened.
"Stay here," Patrick told them as he walked down to the Gobblewonker and hopped onto it. He placed a hand onto it, only to flinch when he felt how cold it was.
"What's wrong?" Mabel called to him.
Remembering that one tree that he and Dipper found in the woods, Patrick knocked on the creature. Sure enough, it made a hollow metallic with each knock. Curious, he started climbing up the Gobblewonker.
"Careful, dude!" Soos called to him.
"I've got this! Hold on!" He told them before climbing over the Gobblewonker. The twins and Soos started to get worried. Patrick then popped up from the other side. "Hey, guys! Check this out!"
After reaching him, the gang discovered a wheel handle. After sharing a glance with each twin, Patrick grabbed the handle and turned it, causing steam to escape. He then grabbed the trapdoor and opened it, but this caused more steam to come out, making them turn away to cough.
Once the steam cleared up, the Pines were shocked beyond words to find the crazy old man from the docks sitting down in there, working frantically on a set of controls. "Work the bellows and the..." He looked over his shoulder and up at the four that were looking down at him. "Eh? Aww, banjo polish!"
"Wha- Yo- You?!" Dipper exclaimed. "You built this thing?"
Patrick reached in and grabbed the old man's bread and pulled him up, making him yelp in pain as he glared at him. "You better have a good reason for attacking us, before I start knocking out every last one of your teeth!"
"Well, I...I, uh..." The old man looked at them nervously and scared, before finally saying shamefully, "I just wanted attention."
"I still don't understand," said Dipper.
"Well, first I just hootenannied up a biomechanical brainwave generator," he said happily, before freeing his bread from Patrick's grip and wrapping the end of it on a stick-shift, "and then I learned to operate a stick-shift with ma beard!"
"Okay, yeah. But why did you do it," asked Mabel.
"Well, when you get to be an old fella like me, nobody pays any attention to you anymore," the old man said sadly. "My own son hasn't visited me in months! So I figured maybe I'd catch his fancy with a fifteen-ton aquatic robut!" He laughed like a maniac, but then sighed. "In retrospect, it seems a bit contrived. You just don't know the length us old-timers go through for a little quality time with our family."
When he finished, the Pines twins and teen pulled out their fishing hats and vest that Stan made for them, looking at them sadly. "We messed up, didn't we," asked Patrick.
"Yeah, dude," said Soos. "I guess the real lake monster is you three." Patrick glared at him "Heh, heh! Sorry, that just like-boom-just popped into my head there."
"So, did you ever talk to your son about how you felt," Patrick asked the old man.
"No, sir, I got to work straight on the robut!" He activated a projector that showed the blueprints for the Gobblewonker on the trapdoor. "I made lots of robuts in my day!" The old man pushed a button and the projector showed a newspaper with a robot pterodactyl breathing fire on a town, with the title 'CHAOS!' "Like when my wife left me and I created a homicidal pterodactyl-tron." The next projector showed a picture of a man. "Or when my pal Ernie didn't come to my retirement party—" he pushed the button again and showed another newspaper with a large robot terrorizing a town, with the title 'DISASTER'—"and I constructed an eighty-ton SHAME BOT THAT EXPLODED THE ENTIRE DOWNTOWN AREA!" He again laughed like a maniac, while the Pines and Soos stared at him with wide eyes. "Well, time to get back to work on my death ray!" the old man ducked back into the Gobblewonker and construction noises can be heard from inside. He then raised a hand in a grabbing motion. "Any of you kids got a screwdriver?"
Dipper sighed and took out the camera. "Well, so much for the photo contest," he said, depressed.
"Yeah," Patrick said, pulling out the one camera he saved, "but I still got one good one that hasn't been used."
"Whaddya wanna do with it," Mabel asked.
- - -
Back at the lake, Stan was going back to the shore, looking depressed. They may have not believed him, but he genuinely wanted to send the day fishing with them. He rarely ever sees the twins, and this summer marked the first time he's actually got to see Patrick, especially because the boy's mom, his own niece, forbade him from ever coming to their home.
But he couldn't blame her for having a grudge against him.
Stan sighed. Maybe they didn't like him as much as he thought.
"Hey! Over here!" Stan's head peeped up when he heard Patrick's voice. He turned his head to see the torn-up S.S. Cool Dude pulled up to him. Both boats, before the teen took a picture of his grunkle. "What the—Kids," Stan asked. "I thought you two were off playing 'Spin the Bottle' with Soos!"
"Well, we spent all day trying to find a 'legendary' dinosaur," Dipper admitted, scratching his arm.
"But we realized, the only dinosaur we wanna hang out with is right here," Mabel said, gesturing to Stan.
But Stan wasn't convinced. "Save your sympathy! I've been having a great time without cha'! Makin' friends, talking' to my reflection—I had a run-in with the lake police!" He left up a leg to show a device around his ankle. "Guess I gotta wear this ankle bracelet now, so that'll be fun."
"So... I guess there isn't room in that boat for four more," asked Patrick.
Stan glared at them. The twins put on their hats and Patrick slipped on his vest. His expression softened. "You knuckleheads ever seen me thread a hook with my eyes closed," he asked.
"Five bucks says you can't do it!" Dipper challenged him.
"You're on!" Stan exclaimed, before the male twin jumped into the boat.
"Five more bucks says you can't do it with your eyes closed, plus me singing at the top of my lungs!" Mabel then challenged, as Patrick climbed into the boat.
"I like those odds," Stan said, as Mabel climbed into the Stanowar. Soos was the last to get onboard, but Stan noticed that he was shirtless. "Whoa! What happened to your shirt?"
"Long story, dude," he said.
"All right, everybody get together," Patrick told them, holding the camera. "Say fishing!"
"Fishing!" Mabel, Dipper, and Stan said together. Soos stepped into the picture, but only his large stomach showed.
"Dude, am I in the frame," he asked.
Patrick took the picture. And after that, many more came. One was of Mabel covering Stan's eyes while he peeks and tried to thread a hook; Stan reading jokes while Mabel and Soos laughed, while Dipper didn't look all too amused; Dipper holding up his first fish; Stan posing with his hand in his vest, but cut off his face; Stan and Mabel stealing a fish from a little girl and her grandfather by cutting the net; Dipper, Mabel, and Stan driving away from the lake police.
After all of that, they were back on the docks. "Okay, let's head home," Stan told them, before everyone walked away towards the shore, except Patrick, who was standing next to the barrel of bait, the thing that survived the S.S. Cool Dude.
"I'm going to dump this stuff out," he told them before turning the barrel over on its side and rolling it over to the end of the dock. Stopping at the edge, Patrick wiped his forehead of sweat before bending down to turn the opening to the lake and open it to release the bait.
However, he never got the chance to do it.
All of a sudden, something big blasted out of the water. Looking up, Patrick was shocked to see it was the Gobblewonker. But this one looked different.
This one looked real!
The green plesiosaur reached down with its head and grabbed the barrel, and then dived back into the water.
Patrick stood there with wide eyes, shocked by what had just happened.
He looked back at the other. They didn't even see or notice the Gobblewonker.
Patrick looked back out to the lake again. He then wiped his hands on each other, then walked away with his hands up, not wanting to deal with this.