Chapter Two
"The Lost Bunker"
"So we need somethin' to figure out if people are tellin' the truth, huh? I think I got just the thing! Hold on." Stan would enter into the Mystery Shack rummage through it for a few minutes before finally stepping out with a weird scepter in hand.
"Found it! With this thing we'll solve this mystery in a jiffy! It's a friendship scepter! With this thing out you'll know instantly if someone's lyin'. Or that's how they're supposed to work in theory."
Stan would walk over to
Aran and hover the scepter around him.
"How was this hunk of junk supposed to work?" Frustrated, he'd accidentally swing the scepter right on Aran's head. As he did so it would shine a bright blue color before dimming once again.
"Blue's good right? I think blue was good. Guess that means you're not a traitor! Too bad this baby needs to recharge so it will probably be conveniently done by the time we need it again."
Lalonde sighed and crossed her arms, evidently not surprised by the outcome of the vote.
"That would not have been my personal choice," she muttered. She took a moment to adjust her scarf, pulling it up over her mouth once again.
"Well, if our only means of assuring someone's innocence is that scepter, we will have to wait for it to recharge. Let us hope it recovers its energy before another murder occurs, dear."
"That's all well and good," said Ford, stepping in.
"But we still must concentrate our efforts on finding out who has hired these killers! It would be foolish to not assume they are also the force behind your missing powers and the malfunctioning portal!"
"But that hardly seems an easy task," said Lalonde.
"For one, how do we investigate such a vague threat? Any work we do on the portal could be compromised."
"Hmm, those are very astute observations, Miss Lalonde! How about we--"
"Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!"
A tiny scream interrupted Ford, the source coming from above the group. Looking up, they would find a bird flying away, and a tiny boy about the size of Dipper falling down tot he ground. Mabel gasped at the sight and ran to catch the boy, holding out her hands and grabbing him from the air. When she opened her hand, the boy turned out to be...
"Dipper?!"
"Uhh, hey there. Nice to drop in, huh? You know--"
The little Dipper taking refuge in Mabel's sweater popped his head up and grimaced. The two Dippers stared at each other, realizing everyone would know the truth now. The one in Mabel's hand noticed the other's missing hat, so he pulled it from his pocket and tossed it up to his clone.
"It smells like bird, sorry."
As the clone went to put on the hat, he slipped from Mabel's sweater and fell down into her hand, his clone catching him in his arms.
Now side-by-side, it was easy to see the two Dippers had the numbers three and four on their hats.
Mabel was rather unsure what to make of this.
"What... is happening here? Do I have a long lost twin I didn't know about?!"
The two clone shared a glance, and Four quickly dropped Three.
"No, no, Mabel," began Three, shaking his hands.
"We're clones. It's... probably best you don't call us Dipper. Just call us by the numbers on our hats. It's like... a really long story and we don't really have time to go into it and we're really sorry about whatever mess you're all in and whatever happened to Dipper prime, but we really want to go back to being regular size."
Mabel squinted, looking deep in thought for moment. After a moment, she shrugged and smiled.
"Okay! Grunkle Ford, stop whatever gobbledygook thing you were going to suggest! Instead, we need to help out my new twin brothers!"
"Mabel, we're not--"
"WE'RE QUADRUPLETS NOW!"
Mabel seemed overjoyed at this development, the grim reality of the situation forgotten by her for the moment.
"I, uh..." Ford cleared his throat.
"All right then, Mabel! You take the group and investigate those crystals. If fortune smiles on us, this all may be related and you may find an important clue!"
"Yes!" Mabel stuffed the clones into the neck of her sweater and began to make a run for it, but she froze when she remembered the storybook.
"Oh, right! Grunkle Ford!" The girl turned around and picked the book off the ground, quickly handing it to her great uncle.
"Dipper's still missing then, but I think he's in this book! It's probably a weirdo strange Gravity Falls... thing! Think you can take a look at it?"
Ford opened up the book and flipped through the pages. He looked intrigued at what he saw.
"You just may be right, Mabel. I'll do everything I can to unlock the mysteries of this book! Lalonde, will you be joining me?" The female scientist nodded in acceptance and Mabel clapped her hands in excitement.
"Let's go!"
***
Mabel led the group back through the forest, tracing their path back to the ruined church. There, she gestured to the rope leading into a hole in the floor, telling the group that she had been inside before.
Below was an abandoned mine shaft where some strange fauna resided.
"It's so much bigger at this size," said Three in awe.
"So... by the way..." Mabel laughed nervously.
"There may be dinosaurs down here. Just so you guys know. But don't worry about that... look! A mine cart!" Without waiting for anyone, Mabel ran to a lone mine cart and hopped inside, causing it to start moving along its track. The two clones screamed at the sudden rush.
The group could either
follow Mabel down the mine shaft, head into
the large archway, or take
the small cave off to the side.
---
Tag @Hospes for the mine cart, @Jeremi for the archway, and @Atomyk for the cave.