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The summer break before Team Phantom’s sophomore year – okay, not Jazz’- was a dozy. Danny and his sister were send to spend their summer with a relative in Oregon… which means Danny had to leave Amity to Sam, Tucker and Valerie. Albeit Dani came to Amity and stayed there until the siblings returned. All in all, the summer didn’t go as planned.
But things started to get weird when they returned. First of all, Danny and Jazz didn’t talk much about their stay in Gravity Falls. Either they ignored their questions or switched to a different topic. As Jazz kept silent as well, they stopped asking rather quickly. Now Danny’s powers were a different matter.
First of all, Danny mastered the cloning ability. Which on it’s own wasn’t that weird. Some place in the middle in nowhere must be boring, maybe Danny was training his powers to pass the time. Or – from the bits they did talk about their time in Gravity Falls – maybe Danny used the cloning to get away from doing tasks for their grand uncle.
Now, the new powers don’t have such an explanation. Or why the ghosts are suddenly way more respectful to Danny, some even afraid. The Box Ghost won’t even come close to Danny anymore!
All ghosts acted weird and Danny wasn’t an exception. He suddenly put more effort into his school work! A pleasing surprise for Lancer, an enigma for Sam and Tucker.
“Seriously, you complain about his work morale?” said Valerie surprised. “Great friends you are. Maybe Jazz just had a deep discussion with him while in Oregon.”
As time passed, they got used to those oddities. By the time it was April, those were nearly forgotten. The team got into a new rhythm, now that the ghost attacks got less. Lancer was announcing a school trip. Across the country.
“Class! As you all know, Amity Park considered to be the most haunted and supernatural city in the world. We will visit a different haunted town. Gravity Falls, Oregon. We believe we can handle our ghosts better if we learn about different haunted places.” he told the class.
Valerie whispered to Danny, “Wasn’t that the town you vacated in? Is it really haunted?”
“Yes and not really. There is supernaturality… but it is weak and irrelevant.” replied Danny. “Why are we going there?” He then added, “Mm, you know, I am kinda excited about this. I miss Gravity Falls.”
That surprised Valerie, wasn’t the town super boring according to Jazz?
It was a week before they flew to Oregon. Danny was in the Ghost Zone – Clockwork knows why – so only Sam, Tucker and Valerie sat on a booth in the Nasty Burger.
“Girls, see it that way. When we’re in Gravity Falls, we may discover what Danny is hiding from us.” pointed Tucker out.
“If he hides something.” added Valerie. “I still think you’re overthinking it.”
“Val, he had new powers and the ghosts were afraid of him.” reminded her Sam. “Not just boxy but the likes of Technus and Nocturne! Nocturne! Even the Observants were weirdly respectful to Danny.”
“Okay, I admit that is odd…”
The first part of their trip was a drive to Chicago. From there they boarded a plane to Salem, the capital of Oregon. The flight took over six hours. When they arrived in Salem, they boarded a bus to Gravity Falls. That drive was somehow longer than the travel from Amity Park to Chicago!
“God! How long until we reach that town!” complained Kwan.
Danny told him. “Half an hour at most, Kwan.”
“How do you know that, Fenton?” asked Kwan.
“I was in Gravity Falls last summer, visiting family.” he admitted, “I recognize the area.”
“Really?” Kwan was surprised by that. “Did you tell them we’re coming?”
“I actually wanted to surprise them, but apparently Mr. Lancer booked a trip to my great uncle’s business. So… yeah, they know.” admitted Danny.
“So you’re aware of the program I planned.” pointed their teacher out.
“Partly.” clarified Daniel. “Then again, Gravity Falls doesn’t have many options, so I have a guess about the rest.”
Like Danny predicted, not even thirty minutes later, they arrived at the bus stop and finally arrived in Gravity Falls. There they noted two adult men, twins. One wore a black suit that barely fit and a fez hat while the other one wore a coat with some sort of vertical belt over it. He struggled to work a phone. This struggle gave the class the chance to see that he has six fingers.
“Paradise lost! Don’t stare, children!” scolded them Mr. Lancer as they felt the bus. Kwan and Dash were relegated to help Star and Paulina with their luggage. “No staring!”
The six fingered man gave up with his phone and approached Lancer. “You must be Mr. Lancer, Daniel’s homeroom teacher?” he asked.
Lancer was surprised by that. “Oh, yes. How do you know about my student?” asked Lancer.
“He is our grand nephew.” said the other man. “Didn’t he mention us?”
“I forgot, Stan.” chimed Danny in. “I didn’t think you would meet us here?”
“And wasting time in which we could embarrass you? Never!” said Stan. “Would would we be for relatives if we don’t?”
“How did you figure me out?” asked Lancer.
“Your way of cussing.” answered Stan. “Danny mentioned it when we discussed stupid ways to curse.”
“Stan!” complained Danny.
“Anyway, our nephew told us about your trip. We decided to show you the town.” explained Stan’s brother. “Oh, and Stanford owns the Mystery Shack, which is part of your schedule, right?”
“Right.” Lancer rolled his eyes. His student mentioned him only about his cussing? “Well, where is the…”
The two Pines led them to their hotel. The walk was already boring enough for the students and Stan when Ford and Lancer got talking about literature. Ford explained to the teacher, “I mainly read about folklore and legends as most of my twelve degrees related to the supernatural.”
“The Great Gatsby, twelve!” he exclaimed. This is a feat he could only dream to archive.
“Oh, are you the reason why the Fenton's are such ghost nuts?” asked Dash the scientist.
“No, I hadn’t much contact with Jack. His career choice was a mere coincidence.” answered Ford, letting the insult to his relatives slide.
A part of Lancer wanted to ask why they they weren’t in contact, but he didn’t. He figured it wasn't his business. They continued their walk, many of the class complaining that they still need to carry their luggage. Many complained having packed so much, like Paulina and Star.
As they walked though the town, they realized something. Danny knows the townies well and the people of Gravity Falls know Danny. That, and he is well liked. That realization hit when they walked into the mayor of Gravity Falls.
This frustrated Dash. For him, Fenton is the no body only known because of his sister and nutty parents. But here he is well known, well liked – simply popular – and it doesn’t seem to be because of relatives.
Sam on the other hand was simply confused. She knows Danny as someone who intentionally blends into the background and is just unassuming. And rather lonely as a side effect. Which doesn’t match his reputation he has here. She supposed not needing to worry bout ghosts just did the trick to get Danny to socialize properly.
“Mr. Lancer, I know this is a school trip, but could Danny stay with us? We see him so rarely.” requested Ford.
“Amity Park isn’t exactly around the corner.” added Stan, to punctuate his brother’s request.
“Hm… why not. The hotel will be quite crowded, anyway.” agreed Lancer.
With that, Danny split off the class as they reached the hotel.
Next day, the next morning, they were in the rather tiny lobby of their hotel. They were waiting for Daniel before they started their day and first real activity. While waiting Lancer chatted with the receptionist. She was a short chubby lady. Clearly of Mexican descent. She asked, “May I ask what you’ve planned for your class? There isn’t exactly much going on here.”
“Yes, but you see, Amity Park is considered the most haunted city, Gravity Falls seems to have a similar reputation.”
She just rolled her eyes. “If it is about the lake monster, it had been proven to be a robot. We aren’t haunted.”
“Well, we planned to visit the museum, the Mystery Shack, enjoy the lake and camp for a few days. And a bit of hiking though the forest.” he elaborated on the plans. “This is actually the first time I’ve heard about a lake monster.”
“Eh, it was fake, anyway. Well, do you have to go deep into the woods? It isn’t exactly known to be save.” she said uncomfortably. “Well, I suppose as long as you don’t walk into the restricted areas… and the Fenton boy is with you, right?”
“As if Fentonina could do anything!” said Dash offended, his frustration bubbling up.
She frowned and muttered something in Spanish – Paulina looked shocked at her – signaling the class that these weren’t nice words. “Chico! Fenton fixed that issue with the haunted convenience store and a few other supernatural issues. I’ll trust him more than some brash jock who never had done m-oh, forget it…” She stopped talking and continued to mutter in Spanish, probably aimed at Dash.
“Looks like Danny hadn’t that much of a relaxing vacation here.” whispered Tucker to Sam and Valerie. “I wonder what the other ‘supernatural issues’ were. She made it sound like only the store thing was caused by spooks.”
After Daniel arrived just mere minutes later, they started with a more thorough tour of the town. Their guide kinda pushed parts of her job onto Danny.
“Seriously, Wendy?” he asked. “Then again, you pushed a lot of your jobs onto me last summer.”
“Exactly!” agreed the red head, around Jasmine’s age. “You should be used by this, Danny.”
“Oh, you know each other?” asked Valerie. A peng of jealousy, a left over from their short lived and failed relationship.
Danny answered, “Yeah, she worked for Gruncle Stan as a cashier last summer… not that she actually did her work.”
“You aren’t much better, you spend all your time in Ford’s lab.” countered Wendy. “Not to mention… anyway, we should wrap this up. Your class wanted to go to the museum, right?”
“Right.”
As they walked though the town, Lancer fully took in how new some of the buildings were. Not new architecture styles, but it was as if old buildings had been rebuild. Now clean and a bit out of place right besides houses in the same style that are way dirtier and ruffed up. Lancer had an odd hunch that they were hiding something. It felt weird and spooky,but not the ‘ghosts exist’ type of spooky he is used to.
The museum was also odd. There were empty spots, spots that look like something used to be there, but now it is gone. A few rooms were restricted. This was more shady than the – colloquially called – Guys in White. Being more shady than them is a difficult feat.
Despite everyone they met telling them to forget the forest, a few days later they did end up hiking there. After what Dash estimated to be a mile, maybe a tad bit more, they were at fork of their path. The left path was restricted, with red bands and signs. Like all teenagers, they were curious about this forbidden area.
“Hey Fenton! Why is this area restricted?” asked Star. “Isn’t this forest public?”
“Not anymore. Since last year, this isn’t the case anymore.” answered Danny. “And no, I can not tell you why.”
“So, you know what had happened?” asked Kwan.
“Like I said, I can’t tell you. Can a person tell you something they don’t know about?” countered Danny.
“Well, Tiffany held a book report on a book she clearly did not read.” said Daniel, earning him a punch from the girl in question.
“Anyway, this way.” demanded Danny as he guided them onto the right path. The class followed Fenton.
Kwan felt Dash grabbing him on his backpack, they slowed down until they were behind their class. Then they turned around and walked to the restricted area, without their class noticing, distracted by Tiffany chewing out Dale. “As if you ever touched a book willingly!”
The class then arrived at their destination, a pristine lake. It was smaller than the town lake, but cleaner, tucked into the forest, away from most. “This lake is one of Gravity Falls’ kept secrets.” explained Daniel. “Unlike the town lake, this one isn’t crowded when it is hot. Or like the public pool.”
“This really is a wonderful spot, Daniel. How did you find it?” asked Lancer.
“I helped Uncle Ford with some of his research. Part of which consisted of exploring the forest.” explained Danny.
“So you know about the restricted path.” stated Valerie.
“Maybe…” he answered. “Hey, were are Dash and Kwan?”
Lancer then noted, too, the absence of two of his students. The class also looked around, these two hunks of stupid can’t be missed, they’re too tall for that. Then the sky changed colors as an X ripped open in the sky.
“Shit! I think I know where they are! The restricted area!” yelled Daniel. “Everyone! Go to the Shack! Now!”
With that, Danny ran off, the class following suit. The sky just ripped, Fenton appeared to have an idea what is going on, so they listen. Until they passed the fork again. Instead of running to the Shack, they followed Daniel into the restricted area.
That path lead to a clearing, Dash and Kwan standing in the middle and staring into the air.
Prior…
Dash and Kwan didn’t understand why this clearing was restricted. It was just a grassy field surrounded by the pines of the forest. Then they spotted a statue. A triangle wearing a top hat, extending a hand.
“Is this supposed to be weird art?” wondered Kwan. “Looks like something my cousin studies.”
“This is probably restricted to be a tourist attraction.” guessed Dash. “Fenturd’s uncle runs that tourist trap, right? He must be in on this.”
“Then must be the whole town be on this.” pointed Kwan out. “Literally everyone said to keep away from the restricted areas, the whole forest as a whole, even!”
Dash said, “Okay, that is odd.” He then talked more about the stature. “It looks like it wants to shake hands.” Dash then just did that. As he touched the stone hand, the stone vanishes and a yellow triangle appeared.
“I am free!” it yelled. Similar to ghosts, it had a weird effect over its voice, but it was still different. It sounded worse. “Ah, weren’t you told to keep away from this part of the woods?”
“Oh, this is why!” realized Dash.
The triangle flew into the air, shouting, “I am back! So is Weirdamagedon, Gravity Falls! Time for round two!”
“You fucking idiot!” yelled Daniel as he ran into the clearing. “Fucking great job, Dash! You doomed us all! Summoning a demon, only you could pull that off!”
Dash and Kwan had never seen Fenton this furious. Or heard him cursing like that. They saw their class appearing behind Fenton, Lancer said to Fenton, “Fenton! Calm down! We need to keep a calm mind in this!”
“What do you know, Lancer!” yelled Fenton, shocking the class again. While Fenton isn’t a star student, he never acted like that. “But you’re right. Everyone, to the Shack, now! I-I explain there…”
“Explain what?” asked Lancer, having moved on from his students outburst.
Danny just gestured to the sky. “This.” he said. “And this, I suppose.” Then white rings appeared around him, turning him into Phantom. Sam and Tucker now were out of the loop, he just revealed his secret. “Sam, Tuck, Val. This is serious, so I won’t bother with my secret identity.”
He then cloned himself, most clones flying into different areas. One clone carried Dash and Kwan, though. “You two did enough damage already.” the clone said. He flew off, holding them at their shirts. The rest of the class was following the real Phantom to the Mystery Shack.
As the building came into view, the clone dropped Dash and Kwan and fused with the main Phantom, before he returned into his human form. They got into the building, where they found some of the townspeople, as well as a bear with multiple heads, a Unicorn, living garden gnomes and other creatures. Then Daniel turned back into Phantom, the people in the shack did not care.
Stanford Pines came and demanded, “What is going on, Danny?”
“This fucking idiot,” - gesturing to Dash - “, freed Bill Cipher.” he explains. Danny then asked, “Celestabellebethabelle, would you give me some of your hair? The shield felt weak, we need to repair it.”
“Of course, Liminal!” agreed one of the unicorns. The class was surprised by the nickname. Ford then cut off some of her hair.
“Good thinking, Danny.” he commented. “Come, we need to strengthen the shield.”
“Shield? What shield?” asked Valerie.
“Remember my parents ghost shields? The one around the Shack is similar. But it is based in magic – hence Unicorn hair – works on demons and works most of the time.” explained Danny as he followed Ford outside. “Stay in here.” He and Ford glued the hair around the shack, repairing the old strip and thickening it with the hair.
As most of them watched the two work outside, Sam stood with Tucker. They saw the shield getting visible, cutting the spot Danny transformed human a few minutes prior. “He said the shield works on demons. Yet he transformed as he was passing it.” she stated.
“Eh, maybe it works on ghosts, too.” guessed Tucker. “But the demons are only relevant.”
“You know.” chimed Valerie in. “We should be shocked about all this, about demons, Unicorns and what not being real, but after living with ghosts… this… is not surprising.”
As Ford and Danny returned, the gnomes made noise. “We demand to know who started all of this! The catalyst from last time isn’t here!”
“It was this guy, Jeff!” answered Danny, gesturing to Dash, who was frozen stiff in fear.
“Everyone! No fighting! We need a plan how to handle Bill this time around!” said Ford loudly, “Like Jeff pointed out, Jazz isn’t here, so we can’t do the circle.”
“Then again, that one failed last time, too.” chimed a young boy in a blue suit in.
“We could rebuild the Shack-A-Tron!”
“Good idea, Fiddleford!” agreed Ford. “In fact, I prepared the Shack for such.”
“Oh, so you were paranoid.” muttered Stan.
As this was said, the Gravity Fallers started to turn the shack into a robot. Paulina muttered, “They’re definitively related to the Fenton’s. Crazy inventors.” Star agreed with a light nod.
Lancer then realized something, “Brave New World! Again? You already lived though this?!”
“Yes!” confirmed Danny. “Why do you think are so many buildings new here in Gravity? We already lived though a near end of the world, caused by Bill Cipher.”
When the Shack-A-Tron was done, Ford said, “Everyone, we need a more offensive approach than last time. Any ideas?”
“I go for a direct attack on Bill, you the while attack Bill’s Henchmaniacs.” proposed Danny. He then took out a blue amulet and threw it to the kid. “Gideon, you still know some spells?”
“Yes!” he answered, the amulet glowing. “Where did you find this?”
“Ghost Zone, actually.” he answered.
“You say there as if there is a different option than the Ghost Zone.” said Tucker.
“Well, demons exist.” replied Danny, “They also have their own realms, multiple actually.”
“Remember, aim for the eyes.” said Ford strictly. “It is the demon’s weak spot after all.”
“And the Observants.” said Danny. “Man, they must have a panic attack, now that Weirdamagedon 2.0 is on.”
“Who are the Observants? Demons?” asked Star.
“Eh, Danny?” said Wendy, pulling his attending to a chalkboard.
It read, ‘They’re ghosts who watch the time stream. They have a full blown panic attack as we speak.
~ Clockwork’
“I don’t get it, why should Daniel attack?” inquired Lancer.
“Because he is Phantom.” said a blonde girl – Pacifica Northwest – “Apropos ghosts, will they help this time, too?”
“Nope. Last time they only fought because they were trapped here.” answered Danny. “No sane ghost – hell, even the insane ones – would fight against a demon who could end them with one shot.”
That surprised Team Phantom, they were not aware demons were outmatching ghosts like this.
Lancer said, rather shocked, “But that means you’re weak against them! You can’t face this Bill Cipher.”
But Danny just answered, “Follow me, I show you why.” He left the shack and the class followed him up to the shield. In front of it Daniel turned human and walked though.
On the other side new rings appeared, but these weren’t white, or blue, or black, but yellow. He turned into a form even Team Phantom wasn’t aware of. His hair remained black, albeit white stripes appeared. His skin became paler, bordering on being white. His clothes changed to a suit with a vest coat. As he turned around, they saw the most inhuman change.
His eyes. Not only were they yellow, they were slit eyes with a black sclera. In addition to that, his ears became pointy, he got fangs and they noted wings. Like an angel, but they weren’t a color. They were a galaxy, giving strong Nocturne vibes.
Daniel then explained, “I am a demon myself, partly at least. At most, I would loose my identity of being Phantom… but I won’t stop existing.” He then turned back and returned into the shield.
Sam then grabbed his arms and said in her most demanding tone, “Since when are you a demon and why didn’t you tell us?!”
“Like you should have figured out by now, last summer Bill once tried to take over our dimension. Well, demons like Bill are interested in everything weird, like half ghosts. Being half dead isn’t exactly normal. He tried to recruit me, but also to turn me into a demon, only partly, to counter my weak ghost half. His words, not mine. Turns out, just associating with Cipher makes me enemies of other demons. I pretended to agree to his deal to gain the powers, to get a shot at Bill. When I was a third demon, the Stan's ended him via our Plan B.”
“I doubt he would fall for Plan B again.” said Ford as he joined them. “Get back in, everyone.”
Valerie then approached Ford. “Mr. Pines. I-I have a suit you could mod, to work against Bill? It was made for ghosts, but…”
“Sure thing, Red Huntress.” he agreed.
Kwan muttered, “Not surprising that Valerie is the Red Huntress.”
After modding her suit with the help of Daniel – “I never thought I would fiddle on that Fruitloop’s inventions.” - Ford rebuild the memory gun. Even if Plan B couldn't not work, it won’t hurt to have one on hand.
As Valerie followed into the basement – the Shack-A-Tron still in ‘house mode’ for now – Dash followed her down there. They arrived in a lab, were Ford and Danny were working on the suit. “Ah, Valerie, good timing! Let me show you what I added.” said Ford.
“Dash, what are you doing here?” asked Danny, wondering why this years catalyst is there.
“I wanted to ask if I could help in a way.” answered Dash. “After all, I caused all of this.”
“Exactly! You caused this! It would be better if you just let us do our thing.” countered Danny. “Now go back up stairs.”
Dash was about to do that, but he stopped at the elevator. He won’t take a no! Dash was turning around when Valerie came his way with her suit. He then heard the two talk.
“What about the Equation? Do you think Bill would still want it?” asked Fenton – Phantom – Danny his great uncle.
Ford just answered, “Assuming his goal is still the same, to break the barrier around the town, I would say yes. Especially since I managed to change it.”
“You changed the barrier that keeps the weirdness in Gravity Falls?” asked Danny very surprised. “How?”
“You may be an astral demon, but I spend decades traveling though dimensions, not just the Ghost Zone.” he answered.
Dash left, having figured that this equation may be classified information.
Dash found the class and a few townies listening to Stan telling a tale, about that Plan B he heard about. “Well, as the wheel didn’t work due to our arguing, caused by me, Danny and Jazz got chased by Bill. While they distracted him, we switched places. Bill won’t go into my mind and Ford has a metal plate in his head. Well, when we tricked Bill to go into my head, Ford shot me with the memory gun. Bill’s a mind demon, dream demon. The point is his powers are based in the mind and is affected by memories.”
Paulina asked, “There are multiple types? What is Danny?”
“Something with stars.”
“He is an Astral Demon, old man.” corrected him Gideon.
Ford was sure he put the memory gun onto his desk. Yet he can’t find it.
“Aim for the eye!” yelled Ford as Danny dashed in Phantom form to the Fearamid, officially starting their attack on Bill. The class was shocked to see what exactly the ‘Shack-A-Tron’ was.
Bill was not pleased with this and teleported out of the Fearamid, his form literally red. Then he turned yellow again and said, “Astra, my offer still stands.”
“My answer is still no!” he yelled as he turned demon, blasting Bill’s eye.
Bill grabbed his eye. “And I thought you respect a demon’s eye by now!”
Dash watched the ordeal, standing on the roof of the Mystery Shack. He yelled, “Hey! Eye Dorito! I know then Equation Ford is keeping from you!”
“What the hell are you doing?” yelled Danny, as Bill floated to Dash.
“Oh, you know it? Let me see it!” he demanded, flaring red.
“You mean accessing my mind?” asked Dash.
“I can work with that!” answered Bill, offering him a hand engulfed in his blue fire, Bill himself being yellow again. Demon mood swings, ya’ll.
“Uh, sure.” agreed Dash, shaking his hand. The fire wandered up to his head and Bill vanished, reappearing into Dash’s mind. Dash in the real world the while takes out the memory gun and throws it to Danny. “Use it! On me!”
Danny didn’t loose a minute and shot it at Dash. Bill instantly knew he was tricked. “Of all people, by a jock!”
The marks of Weirdamagedon vanished and the town breathed again. Danny instantly approached Dash, instantly knowing his classmate lost his memories. Stan did, so it was safe to assume Dash did, too, being shot with the same weapon that is made to delete ones memory. Dash just stared at his hand.
He had no idea who he was and where he was, but he saw that something was written on his right hand. ‘Left pant pocket.’ There he found a letter. He gave it to the black and white haired teen in front of him, who called him by a name.
“Dash?” asked Danny, already knowing Dash’s head is empty. Then he was given a letter.
Danny read it out loud.
Fenton and everyone else,
You probably thought I lost my marbles, making a deal with this demon. I had a reason, I had to fix this. I snatched this memory gun and… if you read this, I probably have lost my memory, so I suppose it worked.
I heard Mr. Pines talk about how he and his brother tricked Bill last time with the gun. I copied that. I also overheard Fenton talk with his other uncle about some Equation. I do not really know it, I just lied.
I am sorry for causing the apocalypse.
“Oh, Dash…”
“Is that my name?”
“It is a nickname. Your full name is Dashiel Baxter.” answered Danny. “Thank you for your sacrifice.” Danny didn’t want to criticize him, that he should have included them in his plan. But it worked out in the end.
Their trip was cut short, they returned to Amity Park earlier than expected. (Apparently Danny called their Mayor Masters and asked him to pay for a private flight back to Amity. He complied when Daniel said the word, ‘Weirdamagedon’. Apparently Masters was in on it.)
On their way back, the class told Dash about his past, trying to help him to remember. It worked with Stan, so why shouldn’t it with Dash? With the difference it didn’t as fast as it did with Stan.
When they returned and it became known that a student has Amnesia, Casper High got backlash. Masters protected them, and Fenton – the youngest – faulted the supernatural – not ghosts directly, but everyone assumed ghosts – but it was still a backlash.
Danny was throwing away another article criticizing Casper High again into a black hole when he said to his friends, “I am sorry I didn’t tell you. I wanted to, but I had to keep it a secret. Seriously, the government is in the know, I had to keep silent.”
Turns out the agents who tried to arrest Stan were stuck in Gravity Falls when Weirdamagedon originally started.