On the other side of the portal Marco stood next to Dipper as it closed up, taking evidence of their presence at Hillhurst with it. They were in the back alley behind Zoom Comics, out of sight from the street and any possible witnesses. As soon as they were in the clear, Misao was the first to let out a long sigh of relief and she leaned against Mabel.

“That… that happened,” she said, at a loss for words to describe what had happened.

“Welcome to Tuesday,” Marco said.

Star was pretty sure she knew how Earth’s days went. “But it’s Saturday.”

Marco turned to her. “It’s a figure of speech.” He addressed Misao. “You’ll get used to it, this kind of stuff really happens all the time for me and Star.”

Dipper disagreed. “This isn’t something we can file under ‘happens all the time.’”

“If you file it under ‘fighting the forces of evil,’ then yeah, it does,” Star pointed out.

The group headed towards the street, Mabel pulling out her phone. “Well, if we’re fighting evil we need to stay in touch. I am taking all phone numbers, emails, instas, and snaps. We also need to decide where we’re going to meet up and when.”

“Until we find a better spot? We can rendezvous here and then head out to wherever we’re actually going,” Roland said, “We can keep the talk about Beetleborgs stuff to when we’re not around other people.”

Jo directed a critical look at Misao and Janna. “We can’t tell anyone who doesn’t need to know, this is our mess to clean up.”

Janna was offended by the very inference. “Hey, I’m not a narc.”

Misao agreed. “Neither am I!”

Jo nodded. “Good.”

“Then that’s decided! We begin our conspiracy to save the world!” Mabel declared.

Dipper grimaced a little. “I guess it is that, huh?”

Marco spoke. “I’ll talk to Sensei Brantley about letting you three join the dojo. He’s probably going to flip when he hears I’m ready to step up and teach.”

“Mabel and I will talk to our Grandpa about any other training,” Dipper said.

Roland nodded to him. “Thanks, man.”

“Yeah,” Drew added.

As they rounded the corner, they found Shermie’s SUV was gone. Nano’s motorcycle was still there, though. Heather was outside, texting on her phone, when she noticed the group and lit up in relief. “Hey, you guys, how’d everything go?”

For a brief instant, Drew hesitated, and glanced away from Heather towards the exterior posters on the comic shop. Once more, he saw the poster of the Beetleborgs, and a bitterly funny thought occurred to him.

It really is the least of my problems.

“Trip and Van tried to lock us up in Hillhurst and prank us,” he said before Dipper or Roland could say anything. He took the rewrapped comic from Dipper and held it up. “But Trip was nice enough to give me the comic.”

Heather’s eyes shot wide in her amazement. “What, really?!”

Taken off guard by her brother’s sudden confidence speaking to Heather, Jo quickly scrambled to keep up. “Yeah, they made Drew go into the house to get it on a bet, but he didn’t even blink.”

Heather’s mouth fell open. “You went inside Hillhurst?”

Roland jumped in on Drew’s wing. “Yeah, he was in and out in a second. Cuh didn’t even blink.”

Drew, realizing what Roland and Jo were doing, tried not to smile too much. “It’s just a creepy old house. There wasn’t anything inside but broken glass and garbage.”

“Those spoiled idiots were the ones who got scared,” Misao chimed in. “They went in after him and ran right back out.”

Janna, finished giving Mabel her number, brought up the video of the Vanderhoffs running out of the house in a crazed panic. “Check it out.”

Heather looked at the video, then took the phone from Janna to look closer. “Oh my gosh, this is amazing.”

Drew shrugged his shoulders. “I only wish I could’ve seen their faces, but oh well.”

He handed the comic to her.

Staring, hesitant to take it, she looked up at him. “Huh?”

“Want to read it?” He asked.

Heather looked between him and the comic, a flicker of apprehension flashing in her eyes. In reassurance, he gestured to it. “Everyone should check out comic book history, right?”

With Drew not having another shoe to drop, Heather smiled again and took the comic. “You know I have to.”

“Just be careful with it, okay?” He asked as he opened the door for her.

“Like I’m going to ruin this,” Heather assured him while walking inside.

Drew followed her in, and Roland chuckled. “That’s my boy.”

“Where did that come from?” Jo asked.

Roland shrugged his shoulders. “Dunno, but it’d better be here to stay.”

Jo huffed and put on a smile. “Yeah.”

She went inside to make sure that this ship-launch didn’t turn into a train wreck, leaving Roland to turn to Dipper and Mabel. “So, while you’re waiting for your Pops, want to get that pull list going?”

When wasn’t Mabel on board for anything fun? “Sure!”

Star was intrigued. “A list of what?”

“Comics,” Marco explained, “It’s a list of books so readers can keep up on stories they like.”

Star looked from the comic book shop to Marco. “I like comics, let’s get one too!”

After this afternoon, sitting down and reading comic books for the rest of the day sounded great. “Sure, I’ve got some cash to burn.”

He walked in with Star excitedly nudging him along and Janna went in right behind them.

Roland, Dipper and Mabel were about to follow next, when Misao spoke. “Dipper, Mabel, if I may?”

The Twins stopped to face Misao, who was typing out a text message. Looking up from the phone, she smiled warmly to the two. “I wanted to say that, in spite of how scary everything was, I had a wonderful, exciting time today. So thank you for running off with me.”

Mabel returned the smile. “It was pretty exciting, yeah.”

“I’m just glad we’ve been able to keep you out of harm’s way…” Dipper grimaced, remembering Misao’s terrified screams. “… Mostly.”

“It’s fine!” Misao reassured him. “After everything that’s happened today I have been thinking. I am set to go to live with a rich, famous family, and spend my school year at a fancy school… but if I did that I wouldn’t be able to spend time with the first friends I’ve ever made in America, so I think I will be changing my school arrangements.”

Mabel gasped. “Aww! You want to go to Echo Creek Academy with us?”

Misao nodded. “It’s very last minute, I’ll have to change my living arrangements too. You don’t think it would be a burden on your Grandfather if he allowed me to stay the night while I made them, do you?”

“Not at all,” Dipper replied, “Grandpa Shermie’s a generous guy, and there should be plenty of room at his place. Besides, the longer we stay off Shego’s radar, the better, right?”

Roland did a double take. “What?!”

Mabel burst with joy at the prospect of a sleepover. “Yeah! Since it’s a Saturday, once we’re all unpacked we can stay up all night watching movies and playing games!”

Misao agreed. “Yes!”

Dipper let out a snort. “You’ll both be out by nine.”

“Nuh uh!” Both girls protested.

“Nah,” Roland interrupted, “What’s going on with Shego?”

Misao sent the message that she’d been typing. “Oh, she tried to kidnap me at the airport. Dipper and Mabel rescued me.”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Roland looked back and forth between the twins. “This shit’s has just been happening to you two all day?!”

“‘Welcome to Tuesday,’” Mabel said with a cheeky grin.

Dipper shrugged his shoulders. “You will get used to it, Roland, don’t worry.”

Roland sighed in resignation, then managed a smile. “It’s not like I have a choice, do I?”

“Yep! Denial will not make it go away,” Mabel said as she looped an arm around Misao’s and led her to the door. “Embrace the weird, become the silly, and we will save the world.”

Roland looked to Dipper. “You know what?”

“What?”

“Earlier today, I was worried about you two. I thought you were going to be all weird and stuff, like the last few times.”

Dipper grimaced. “Yeah, I’m sorry about that. I hope we’ve gotten better about it.”

“Nah, cuh, you’re still weird and stuff,” Roland corrected him. “But you two got grown, what the hell happened with you two?”

Dipper managed to smile again and decided that this was as good a time as any. Gesturing for Roland to walk with him, he began.

“Well, it all started when our parents decided we could use some fresh air. They sent us up to Gravity Falls, Oregon to live with our Great Uncle Stan at his Museum of Mystery…”

@@@@@

The sun was going down by the time Shermie pulled up to Zoom Comics. Dipper, Mabel and Misao were waiting out in front of the store with Drew, Jo, Roland, and Heather. After a few hours of hanging out and hearing Dipper and Mabel’s story, Star, Marco, and Janna had gone their separate ways. Even as Shermie reached the curb, there were still plenty of questions for Dipper and Mabel.

“So Bill died and that was it?” Roland asked.

Mabel confirmed it. “That was it.”

“And everything went back to normal?” Drew added.

Dipper nodded. “Everything.”

“Even the people who died?” Jo asked.

“Nobody died… I think? But everything went back to normal like it never happened. Everyone remembered though–that is why there’s a law against talking about it.”

Heather shuddered. “I’d never want to talk about it either.”

Drew was bothered by something. “Wait, what happened to the journals, did they go back to normal too after Bill burned them?”

“Yeah, but we threw them down a bottomless pit,” Mabel said.

“Doesn’t stuff that goes down the pit eventually come out?” Roland asked.

“Grunkle Ford did some calculations and threw them down into it at a point where it’d take at least 10,000 years for them to come out again. Then he had the town cover the hole with a concrete slab. We’ll never see them again.”

Or, at least, Dipper hoped.

“So,” Jo asked, “What was it like to kill something with your bare hands?”

Drew, Roland, and Heather all gave Jo a strange look.

Dipper scowled. “Immensely satisfying.”

To this day, Dipper had no regrets about what he did to Dippy Fresh, and he never will.

Oh yes, he’s the one. Jo thought appreciatively, while ignoring the strange looks given to her.

Shermie stepped out of the SUV and walked around it. “Dipper, Mabel, your stuff is at the house and it’s ready to unpack.”

Mabel brightened. “Oh Sherpa! Did Waddles make it okay?”

Shermie frowned. “You mean the pet pig you didn’t tell me you were bringing with you?”

He opened the back seat, and there sitting by the driver’s side window with a seatbelt and everything was a small pink but shockingly adorable pig, who let out an oink in greeting.

“He’s some pig,” Shermie said good-naturedly, “Never thought I’d ever meet one with good personal hygiene habits and half a mind for safety.”

Seeing the pig, Misao was overcome by the pig’s adorableness and gasped. “He’s even cuter in person!”

Heather joined her side, to get a look at Waddles, and fell under the same spell of cuteness. “Aw! He’s even buckled in!”

Mabel thrust her chest out with pride as the two girls cooed and giggled over Waddles. “I told you, Waddles is the cutest pig in the entire universe.”

Jo, not easily taken in by cute pigs, shook her head at the sugary display of girliness. “Ugh.”

Dipper fist-bumped Roland, Drew, and Jo in succession. “Well, we’re out of here. If we don’t see you tomorrow, we’ll see you at school.”

“Later, cuh,” Roland said.

“Yeah, see ya,” Drew said.

Jo winked at Dipper. “I hope we have the same classes.”

Dipper managed a weak, awkward smile. The schadenfreudian chuckling in the back of his mind was louder as he got into the passenger seat.

Misao climbed into the SUV and cuddled Waddles, while Mabel slid onto the backseat next to her. Shermie climbed into the driver’s seat, and started the engine as everyone buckled in. On the radio the beginning of a live performance of an old classic, “Hotel California” by the Eagles, began to play.

Mabel turned to Drew, Jo, Roland, and Heather. “See you, guys~!”

The SUV pulled off as Mabel waved out to them, and the kids left behind watched it go down the street until it made a corner.

Roland looked back at the shop. “It’s almost closing time. You guys want to help get this place buttoned up?”

Jo looked over at him. “Sure.”

Heather took off her apron. “I already closed up the café, so I’m going to get home too. I’ve got a ton of homework to do, and I haven’t eaten anything all day.”

Drew nodded. “Okay, later Heather.”

Heather flashed him a smile, and nodded. “See you, Drew.”

As Heather began to walk away, Jo elbowed Drew.

Getting the hint, he called after her. “Hey, before you go?”

He went to catch up, and Jo turned to follow Roland inside, smiling.

Heather stopped and faced him. “What’s up?”

There’s nothing to lose, nothing’s as difficult compared to what’s coming, so just go for it.

With that in mind, he spoke. “I know after everything, this is probably the last thing you want to hear, but…”

He paused and took a deep breath. “… Do you want to go to the Spirit Dance with me? Not like a date, but… as friends?”

Heather didn’t flinch or cringe. She smiled, albeit with a bit of sadness. “I’d love to.”

Drew’s heart nearly stopped in his chest. “R-Really?”

“But…”

It did stop.

“I wasn’t going to begin with,” Heather explained gently, “I have plans with my family that whole weekend, I’m not even going to be in town.”

Drew’s heart restarted, and despite the pain of rejection, he was buoyed. “I see… oh well, then. It’s nothing bad, is it?”

“No, just a big family barbecue on Lake Tahoe before the snow falls.”

Drew smiled. “Well, have fun when you go.”

“I’ll try, but family get-togethers are the worst.” Heather draped the back of her hand across her forehead, before she let it drop to her side with a laugh and leaned closer to him. “Still, if you just want to hang out any other time? I’d like that.”

“Isn’t that what we already do?”

Heather nodded and rested a hand on his shoulder. “Yeah, but I like it so much, I think we should do it more than just here when I’m at work.”

Now Drew didn’t know what was happening anymore. He stared at Heather like she had just professed her love for him on the spot. “H… hokay?”

Heather was radiant with his answer and pulled her hand back. “Then I’ll see you later, dude.”

With a wave, Heather slung her apron over her shoulder and walked away, leaving Drew standing there in front of Zoom Comics, numb to everything but the sight of her walking away. After a few moments, he finally moved, jumping and thrusting his fists into the air.

“YES!”

Around the corner and down the road, traffic was slowed to a crawl. As Shermie grumbled in annoyance at the delay, and Dipper and Mabel both tried to see what was going on, Misao was on her phone, making a call.

Sam answered it, sounding both relieved and worried at the same time. “Hey, babygirl, you good? We just heard that the driver we sent your way got jacked.”

“Sorry,” Misao said, “I know, I almost got kidnapped, but I’m safe.”

There was a sigh of full relief from the other end of the line. “On God, everybody was losing they shit. Ace was about to come out lookin’ for you.”

“It’s fine, don’t worry. Just know that I’m safe with people I can trust, but…” Misao wasn’t sure how to break it to him.

Sam already knew. “You ain’t staying with us, huh?”

“I’m afraid not. The people who tried to kidnap me are still on the loose, and I’m certain they're looking for me. I’m going to lay low here in LA, and go to a different school.”

“When the heat blows over, will you swing around?” He asked.

“The situation is complicated,” Misao admitted. “It could be very serious, and I don’t want to be a liability to your family or anyone else.”

That word, liability, hung in the air for what felt like a minute. “… Damn, ain’t no way Pops gonna deal with that bullshit again, either. Aight, but when shit cools off, you still doing the Christmas Special with us, right?”

Misao brightened. “Of course! It should be resolved by then, don’t worry.”

“Cool… well, keep in touch, lil’ shorty. And if you need anything, anything at all. You call the young rich nigga Sam Haley, and I’ll be on it, aight?”

“Of course I will; have a good night, Sam.”

“Ay, you too. And be safe out there; you have no idea what kind of monsters be out there on those LA streets, y’hear?”

Misao giggled. “I can only imagine. Goodbye.”

Mabel was curious. “Sam? Is he a boy?”

“Ja, my original host in fact,” the smaller girl replied.

“Oooh… tell me more.”

Misao giggled. “I think if you watch enough TV, you have seen him.”

As the two giggled amongst themselves, Shermie reached the flashing lights of police cars parked at the start of the bridge crossing the town’s eponymous waterway. Police were cordoning off the bridge’s sidewalks but allowing cars to pass.

The Pines patriarch snorted. “LA’s finest at work.”

Mabel looked out the window. “What happened?”

“Probably bothering Brigid, the shtunks,” Shermie muttered.

Mabel brightened. “Miss Brigid’s still around?! I wanna go see her! She’s gonna love Waddles!”

Dipper shuddered. “Can we not?”

“I’ll introduce you to her tomorrow,” Mabel said to Misao, “She’s really nice and takes care of stray animals.”

“She also steals hair, so wear a hat,” Dipper warned.

Misao gasped and her hands shot to her long locks.

Mabel reached up and flicked Dipper’s ear. “She doesn’t steal hair from people–only from hair salons and pet stylists that dump it out.”

“Why?” Misao asked.

“Weaving material,” Mabel replied like that wasn’t strange at all.

“It’s so creepy,” Dipper insisted.

The SUV passed the police cars and their flashing lights. Dipper looked out the window and could see there were more emergency vehicles down in the river. A screen was set up along the banks on both sides, preventing people on the bridge from being able to look down into the water itself.

“Huh…”

Shermie noticed it too with a brief scowl. “Misao.”

“Ah, yes?”

“You said you were going to make new living arrangements so you could go to Echo Creek Academy with my grandkids, right?”

“That’s my intention.”

“Well, I have no problem opening my home to you. You’re welcome to stay as long as you like, so long as your parents are okay with it.”

Mabel gasped. “Sherpa, you’re the best!”

Misao was struck by his generosity even as she expected it. “You’re too kind!”

“Do you think your parents will let you?” Mabel asked.

“Of course my mother will, I think I could do much better living with people who fought an all-powerful, all-seeing demon and won.”

“It’d be cheaper too,” Dipper joked.

“That too.” Misao looked over to Shermie. “But money’s no object, Mr. Pines. If you need me to pay rent or cover any bills my being around will cause? Just name your price, Hyuuga Heavy Industries can cover it.”

Shermie hummed. “Hyuuga Heavy Industries, hm? What a small world.”

Passing the police cordon, Shermie kept driving and left the strange scene behind, entering the quiet residential area of the suburban town.

Dipper was surprised. “Your mother works for Hyuuga Heavy Industries?”

“My mother runs Hyuuga Heavy Industries,” Misao corrected.

Dipper was struck. “The leading producer of high technology in the west. No wonder Shego was after you.”

Misao grimaced. “Ja, without a doubt.”

“Well, let her try to find you. She won’t,” Mabel said with a thumb’s up and a cheesy smile.

“And if she does? She’ll regret turning over this particular rock. I’ll personally show her and whatever punks she brings around how we do it in Jersey!” Shermie promised.

Misao giggled and continued to hug Waddles. Her last year of high school was going to be more exciting than she had even imagined. Who needed a big Hollywood family and a fancy school, when she had monster hunters, magical princesses, haunted houses, and maybe the end of the world to keep her occupied?

On that note, she realized that when she called her Mom about her new school and living arrangements, she would have to make a few other arrangements.

Like Drew said, they were going to need all the help they could get.

Back under the bridge, as the Pines and their guest continued on into the night, police and first responders at and under the bridge looked on down at the river as workers from the Coroner’s office waited on the concrete banks.

At the edge of the river itself, lit by the powerful headlights of a fire engine and several police cruisers, EMTs and Firefighters swept the shallow waters with large pool skimmers.

One such EMT caught something in the net and hoisted it out of the water and into the intense light.