Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Is it done yet?" 

"Nope. It needs a little more time to finish loading." 

"How... 'bout... now!" 

"Nope." 

"Now?" 

"Still loading." 

Sonic huffed, flopping back onto the couch. 

He was never that great at waiting. He was the action-guy! He did his best when he was moving around! 

But right now all he could so was sit here while Tails tested his latest scanner. 

Life had been a mess after the incident with the Eclipse Cannon. But things were finally calming down. Things were going back to normal... actually no, that was a lie. 

As much as Sonic tried to ignore it, he couldn't hide from the truth. 

Everything was different now. 

Literally. Any time he looked up at the sky, the moon made certain he remembered. The bottom half irreversibly, cleanly cut through. Permanent scars from the eclipse cannon. 

The cannon that would have completely destroyed all life on earth... 

If it hadn't been for Shadow... and Eggman too.  

Sonic wondered if things had been different, would Shadow still be here now? He only got to see a glimpse of who Shadow really was, when they got to talk on the moon, watching the sun slowly rise... 

He wanted to beleive that Shadow was still out there. That somehow he managed to survive after saving everyone else. He at least deserved that much. Right? 

Well, wherever Shadow was, Sonic hoped he was having a nice time. That at least made Sonic feel a little better with how things turned out. 

For now he and his family were left to pick up all the other broken peices. 

Like the Chaos Emeralds. After the Eclipse Cannon, they realized quickly that Sonic didn't have the emeralds. They had been left with Shadow, up in space. 

But Knuckles didn't beleive that they had been destroyed. He had a deep connection to the gems, and could still feel their energy on earth. It was weak, and fractured. But still there. 

Tails had then gone ahead and created some sort of device that should be capable of tracking the chaos-signal being directly emitted by the emeralds. If he was able to narrow down his readings, they could use the scanner to track them each down. And once they had all seven emeralds they could restore the Master Emerald. 

But none of that could happen until Tails was able to get his scanner up and running. All the Wachowski's were together in the living room. Milling about while waiting to see what the scanner would say. 

Even Knuckles was starting to get antsy, just watching the progress bar make a slow crawl across the computer screen. 

"How much longer, Fox?" 

"Come on you guys. I know I'm good, but it isn't that simple! My machine has to scan the entire planet. It's gonna take more than a couple minutes." Tails tried to argue. 

All before his scanner gave a tiny PING! 

"Oh wait, nevermind! I think we have our first reading!" 

Immedietly everyone ran closer to see what the results might be. Though Tom had to guard his still-injured arm before it got jostled in all the commotion. 

"What's it say, honey?" Maddie asked. Eyes quickly scanning over the chains of code flying across Tails's screen. 

"It should tell us... right... now!" 

Sure enough the code went away and a screen popped-up. It showed a cgi model of the earth, quickly rotating until it settled on a single point. Somewhere in Northwest America. 

"It looks like my scanner was able to track a significant amount of chaos energy to this exact point." Tails explained, reading over his results. "The energy appears to be emitting from a small town in Oregon. It has to be a chaos emerald!" 

Looking at the rest of his family, a smile came to Tom's face. One that quickly spread to Sonic too as he realized what this meant. 

"Sounds like we're going on a roadtrip!" 

While Sonic and Tails cheered, Knuckles just looked a little confused. 

"A trip on the road... is that not the purpose of all roads?" 

"Yeah, but roadtrips are extra fun!" Sonic went to explain, slinging an arm around his brother's shoulders. "Just you and your best-buds, out on the open road! Meeting new people! Seeing new things! It'll be great, you're gonna love it!" 

Maddie pulled out her phone to check the distance with gps, frowning. "You boys sure? It's going to be a long trip. 15 hours." 

"We can stop for the night once we get to Washington." Tom reasoned, "Come on, what's the worst that could happen?" 

"Well for starters you could reagrivate your arm. Then there's G.U.N., plus anyone else who might be after these stones." Maddie pointed out. 

"If they even know about them." Sonic said. "Tails here is the best of the best! I doubt anyone else even has scanner that could track these things!" 

"And if there are, we promise to be super careful." Tails said. 

"As warriors we made a solemn vow to protect the Master Emerald." Knuckles added. "And I shall see to it that any enemies we come across on this road-trip will be handled swiftly." 

Tom leaned, over too, trying his best to make puppy-eyes. "Please? The Cheif won't let me back until I'm more healed-up. I got nothing else going on." 

Maddie looked to all her boys before sighing, hands resting on her hips. 

"... You're lucky I saved-up all my vacation-days at the clinic." 

As all the boys went to cheer, Maddie put her hands up, making them pause. 

"But if anything doesn't feel right, or someone gets hurt, then we are going straight home. Agree?" 

A small round of "Agreed!" And "Yes, Ma'am!" 's went around the room. 

"...alright then. We'll head out tommorow." She pointed to Sonic and his brothers beforw turning to Tom. "You boys go get some bags packed. Tom and I have to make some phone calls, let everyone know we'll be out." 

While Maddie went outside, cellphone in hand, Tom followed, teasing. "You sure I need to call anyone? Wade won't even let me handle the phones..." 

Meanwhile Sonic, Knuckles and Tails all ran upstairs to pack their bags. 

Pulling out a backpack, Sonic went to grab several jackets, hats and scarfs. 

"Are you expecting a cold-front?" Tails asked. 

"No, but these make quick disguises." Sonic explained. "By now everyone knows what we look like. But we can bring these. You know, just in case we freak anyone out." 

Knuckles scoffed, crossing his arms. "If any humans find themselves disturbed by my physical appearance, that's their problem. Not mine." 

"Fair enough." Sonic decided, quickly jumping to a new subject. Zipping back and forth between the bookshelf and some boxes stacked in the corner, tossing in all sorts books, cd's and cards games into his bag. "Gonna bring these! And these! And definetly these! Can't have a proper roadtrip without some good mixtapes!" 

Knuckles watched him, raising an eyebrow. "Brother? I beleive you may be... overpacking. This journey is only going to take two days." 

"Trust me, when you drive through the mountains and the internet gets spotty, you're gonna want something to do!" Sonic replied. "Plus who knows what- uhhh, where are we going again?" 

"Gravity Falls?" Tails replied. 

"Heh, that's cute. But who knows what sort of reception they got in Gravity Falls! They might not even have electricity!" 

"Really?" Tails said, a little shocked. 

"You'd be suprised." Sonic said. "Good news is our Team always travels in style!" 

"I don't care how we travel." Knuckles countered, his own bag already packed and ready to-go. "All that matters is re-acquiring the emeralds." 

"Don't worry, we'll get them!" Sonic replied. 

"Are you sure?" Tails worried. "The entire planet saw what happened with the Eclipse Cannon. Who knows how many other people are looking for those emeralds now?" 

"Well good news is, we have the smartest little brother in the world!" Sonic said, going in to ruffle Tail's hair. "You'd have to be a super-genius to trace those chaos-signals!" 

That made Tails laugh, if only a little. "You really think that?" 

"Think it? I know it!" Sonic boasted, "We got this in the bag! How hard could it be?"

Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, out on the open sea, a pair of brothers were carefully watching a scanner of their own. 

"There it is again!" Dr. Stanford Pines gasped, pointing to the radar. "Right there!" 

His brother, Stanley, just rolled his eyes with a huff. "Yeah, yeah. It beeped when it should have booped. So what?" 

"This scanner is designed to polarize weirdness-emissions from across the globe." Ford explained. 

"Yeah, and Gravity Falls is the weirdest place on the planet? That's like saying water's wet." 

"And that's precisely why I calibrated this system to disregard the current-emissions emitting from that town." Ford argued. "The only reason it would be going up that dramatically is if... if something happened!" 

Finally, the weight of Ford's words sunk in for Stan. "Ok. How bad is it? Bad enough to cancel on the siren-convention?" 

The steely look Ford sent Stan's way said it all. 

Sighing, Stan went back towards the steering wheel. Slowly turning the ship completley around. 

"Sirens aren't even that neat. They're just bird-ladies who sing. And hey, look on the bright side! Now we get to see the kids a whole lot sooner!" 

Ford could admit that, even while his nerves were still on high-alert. "Yes. It will be nice to see Mabel and Dipper again. I wonder how they faired with their first year of high school." 

"Probably faired a whole lot better than us." Stan said with a chuckle. "Beats having to save the world all the time, right?" 

Ford frowned, eyes glance up toward the sky for a single moment. After the U.S. government blew a chunk of the Moon, he wasn't sure when the world might be in need of saving next. And who should be responsible. 

"Well, some people tend to do that better than others..." Ford muttered quietly. 

Still, despite it being a lot sooner than either of them expected, Ford found himself releived to be sailing back home. He looked forwards to seeing all his family and friends. 

And he looked forwards to tackling this latest mystery head-on. 

Stan stepped over to Ford, slugging an arm across his shoulder and giving him a quick hug. 

"Next stop, Gravity Falls!"

Chapter Text

Day One of the Wachowski's big family road trip was pretty uneventful. 

The Wachowski's got an early head-start on their trip at the crack of dawn. Right after they dropped Ozzie off with Wade, who had kindly offered to puppy-sit for them while they were gone. And after that it was just driving along the highway. Watching as the rolling hills turned to steep cliffs, and even deeper forests. Sonic was happy he remembered to bring pleanty of books and games for them, otherwise they'd be bored out of their minds. But somehow even with all their gear, his favorite thing to do was still watching the trees zip past and catching glimpses of random little towns. 

But doing anything for 7 hours straight could bore even the strongest of spirits, no matter how many catchy mix-tapes one made. Throughout the day they only took a few breaks, until they finally got to their first stop that night, a little motel by the side of the road. As they all got out Sonic swore he actually felt a tired. 

"Oh man, I am beat! How'bout you guys?" 

"It's perplexing." Knuckles grumbled, rubbing his face slowly with his hands. "I have done nothing today. I didn't even drive. And yet I feel so tired. Why am I so tired?" 

Tails was happy to explain. "Actually, when you travel by car, your muscles are constantly firing to help you keep in an upright position. The only time you can really rest on a road trip is if you fall asleep!" 

"Well, whatever the reason, we're all gonna get some rest now." Tom said, guiding everyone to their motel room. As he continued he teased, "Maybe tommorow, you kids can take turns behind the wheel. Give me and Maddie a break!" 

Maddie and Knuckles seemed against the idea right away, but Sonic thought it'd be fun. Tails had already driven a police cruiser, plus he could fly helicopters and planes too! A truck was nothing compared to that! And It'd hardly be the first time Sonic drove a car. Though last time he drove Tom's truck it had gotten like totally totaled. But it wasn't his fault! All Eggman's Eggbots had wrecked the car, not him! 

Those sorts of memories swirled through his head as they all got ready for bed. Tom and Maddie got the queen-size bed closest to the door while Knuckles, Sonic and Tails formed a pile on the other. 

Though, as they turned out all the lights, and all fell asleep, Sonic's memories went from silly-misadventures with his family fighting Robotnik, to Eggman's other plans with his Grandpa... 

And with Shadow... 

He was getting better about it, but sometimes those bad memories came back. It was funny, when it had happened, it was so fast, Sonic hardly had time to even think. And yet, now it was almost all he could think about. Taking apart each moment, peice by peice. Wondering if there was anything else he could have done differently. 

Tom and Maddie kept telling him there was nothing more he could have possibly done, that he and his brothers had done the best they could. And usually he beleived them. But on quiet nights like this, when he was the only one awake, those questions kept coming back. 

At least he had his brothers, and Tom and Maddie were ok now. It really was true what he said months before. He didn't know what he'd do without Tom and his family. They were his rock. They meant everything to him. 

And if it weren't for them, he'd be a totally different hedgehog. 

Snuggling closer to Tails and Knuckles, he managed to fall asleep eventually. 

Watching light filter through a crack in the motel curtains. Light he knew was reflected of a permanently-fractured moon...

When morning came, Sonic tried to bring his A-game. They still had another full-day of driving left till they made it to Gravity Falls, Oregon. And once they arrived the hunt to find their Chaos Emerald was on! 

Just like the day before, the car-ride felt like it was taking forever. Sonic just tried to focus on the adventure ahead. Trying to picture what a town called "Gravity Falls" could possibly be like. 

He'd seen videos and pictures of the Pacific Northwest before. He'd even snuck over to Portland and Seattle a few time when he was still trying to do his Blue Justice tm solo-hero schtick. But he tragically hadn't spent as much time in the woods surrounding those cities. And despite the nervousness he got whenever he thought about the chaos emeralds, he couldn't hide the fact that he was still excited to see these world-renown forests! 

Then again, Sonic had always been a big nature-guy. Whenever he had to choose between being cooped-up all day or being outside with the sun and the wind on his face, he'd choose the great outdoors every time. 

Much to his delight, Gravity Falls seemed like the perfect place to spend the summer outside! With beautiful cliffsides and waterfalls just north of the town. 

"How much you wanna bet the emerald is hiding behind that big waterfall over there?" Sonic asked, marveling as their car wound around the cliffs surrounding the town. 

"I don't think the world works like that." Tom said shaking his head. "Life isn't a video game." 

"Maybe not for you..." Sonic teased. 

"If the chaos emeralds really fell from orbit, they probably left a sizable crater from the impact." Tails thought. "We'll have to see if anyone in town's seen a meteor strike nearby... if there's an emerald here at all." 

"Fret not, Fox, your sensors were not wrong. There's an emerald here." Knuckles said. "I know it." 

"Really?" Tails asked. "How?" 

Knuckles closed his eyes, tilting his head back and forth. Squeezing his hands into fists and flexing his toes. "I know it's here... I sense it in my feet." 

"What?!" Sonic had to stop from laughing at all. "What do you mean you can sense it with your feet???" 

"The Great Emerald's power allows me to feel." Knuckles replied. 

"Can you feel where it is exactly?" Tails asked. 

But Knuckles shook his head. 

"Well wherever it is, it's got to be around here somewhere." Maddie said, glancing back at her boys in the reveiw mirror. "When we get to town do you want to grab dinner first, or head straight to the vacation rental?" 

"Dinner!" 

"Dinner, sounds great!" 

"Getting sustenance first would be preferable." Knuckles was the last to say. 

"Alright," Maddie nodded, checking something on her phone. "Looks like there's a diner open late. Their online reveiws look half-decent. Plus they serve breakfast all-day!" 

"Ooh! Pancakes sound amazing right now!" Tom gushed, already won-over. "I'm gonna get a big stack. With extra maple syrup!" 

"Me too!" Tails agreed. 

They found the diner easily enough. It looked like a massive redwood tree trunk that had been knocked down and hallowed-out. And right above it was a giant wooden sign that said "Greasy's Diner". 

Tom went ahead, using one hand to get the main doors, holding them open for his whole family. 

"Evening folks! Pick any booth ya like, and I'll be right over!" A sweet older voice called out from behind the counter. 

It looked like they had their pick of the entire diner, the only other customer being a few townsfolk sitting at the countertop. Tom chose one of the booths closest to the door and they all took a seat. Tails, Tom and Sonic on one side, Knuckles and Maddie on the other. 

"Are you sure we don't need any disguises?" Tails asked, glancing around the diner nervously. 

"It will be fine." Knuckles tried to say. "We're heroes, that means people should respect us!" 

Unfortunately at that exact moment, the sweet old lady from before came over with a broom, whacking Sonic right on top of the head. 

"Bad! Bad animals! Stop bothering these nice people and get back outside!" 

Immediately Tom and Maddie jumped to action, trying to guard their kids from the broom. Tom winced when the broom smacked his bad arm. 

"Ah, whoa lady! Those are our kids!" Tom snapped. 

The lady's broom stilled, and she looked at Sonic and the others carefully. With one eye, they realized. 

"Oh, Whoopsie-Daisy! I'm so sorry! Thought you kids were those raccoons from out back. Guess I better take care of those cataracts sooner than I thought." The lady said with a laugh. As she tossed the broom aside, she pulled out a notepad from her apron. "Any-who, welcome to Greasy's, my name is Susan! What can we get for you lovely folks?" 

Weirdness aside, the Wachowski's were still starving. And after a quick glance at the menu, they each placed their orders. 

Eggs and bacon, with a big stack of pancakes for Tom. And he let Susan know that everyone would be drinking plain water. 

A cob salad for Maddie. 

Another order of bacon and pancakes for Tails, sans the eggs. 

A sandwich for Knuckles, plus a big bowl of fruit on the side, with "extra grapes, please". 

And then came Sonic's turn. 

"Do you guys have chili dogs?" 

"Oh no, honey. I'm sorry but we don't." Susan said, shaking her head. 

"Aw," Sonic was disappointed. But then he looked at the menu a little more carefully and realized something. "Wait, you guys have plain hot dogs?" 

"Sure do!" 

"And... the soup of the day is chili?" 

"That's right!" Susan said with a blank smile. 

"... then can I get a hot dog and some chili?" Sonic tried. "You could even put the chili right on top." 

Susan just stared at Sonic down for a moment. All before blinking again and happily jotting the order down. "I don't see why not! I'll let the cook know and we'll have that food ready before you know it!" 

As Susan walked away, the Wachowski's relaxed a little more. 

"Always gotta get your chili dogs." Tom teased shaking his head. 

"Well it was either that or the liver and onions. And I'm not a big liver-guy." Sonic said with a grimace. Glancing back down at the menus. "The real question is do you guys think a chicken fries all their steak?" 

While the others laughed, Knuckles hardly seemed amused. "I have a more pressing question actually." 

"Yeah?" Sonic asked. "What?" 

"Why is that man staring at us?" 

Sonic and Tom turned around to see, and sure enough there was a man looking their way. An old man who was sitting at the countertop. 

He had on a striped red shirt a knit cap on his head. And he was staring right at Sonic. And when the man realized the Wachowski's were all staring right back at him he didn't look away. 

In fact, he got up. 

"Oh great, that creepy old man's coming this way." Sonic said dryly. 

When the man got close enough he leaned onto the back of their booth and pointed right at Sonic. 

"How much for the blue rat?" 

Tom and Maddie could hardly process what they were hearing. 

"... What?" 

"How about 40?" 

"What? Why would we-" 

"50." 

"No!" 

"60? Wait no. 40's actually highest I'm willing go." The man shrugged. "Take it or leave it." 

"Leave it. We're going to leave it." Maddie finally said. 

"Yeah, and you can leave us alone too while you're at it!" Sonic scoffed. "And for your information, I worth way more than 40 bucks!" 

The man for his part, threw Sonic's sass right back at him. "Sure you are, you and the rest of your little robo-friends. I'm just trying to make a fair trade here. It's a good deal." 

"There is no deal to be made!" Maddie snapped. "Who even are you?!" 

"Right, my bad. The name's Stan Pines." Stan said. "And you folks are..." 

"Tom and Maddie." Tom replied. 

"And Sonic, Knuckles and Tails." Sonic added on. 

"Great! Now we're on a name-to-name basis!" Stan replied, "So, Tim and Mary, how'bout you sell me one of your colorful animatronic doo-dads?" 

Before Tom or Maddie could argue any further, a new voice shouted out from across the diner. 

"Stan! Get away from those creatures!" 

When they all looked back again they saw... a man that looked exactly like Stan? 

As he hurried over, Sonic noticed a few tiny differences between the men. Like their clothes and hair, and little differences in their chins and noses. Or even the way they each seemed to hold themselves. But there was no doubt the two were brothers. Maybe even clones, Sonic thought. 

When he got close enough, Stan's brother yanked him away from the Wachowski's. 

"Leave them alone Stan, you don't know where they've been!" 

Stan hardly seemed worried. "Oh come on Ford, they're just some weird little robo-critters. I thought I'd get one for Soos and the Shack!" 

"Accept those aren't animatronics." Ford said in a warning tone. "Those are Mobians!"

Chapter Text

"What the heck's a Mobian?" Stan asked, shoving his brother away. "One of those pocket monster doo-dad's Soos collects on his phone?" 

Ford scoffed, standing between Stan and the Wachowski's. As if trying to protect him. "This isn't a game, Stanley! I came across Mobians several times in my travels. They're undauntingly dangerous creatures. Prone to explosive bouts of violence and aggression!" 

"I don't like your tone, buddy." Tom glowered at the two older men. 

"Yes! How dare you try to discolor our character with such blasphemy!" Knuckles shouted. 

Unfortunately as he did, he slammed his fist down on table. Hard. Flipping the whole thing and sending cups of water flying everywhere. 

Moving fast, Ford and Stan managed to doged the table as it toppled onto the ground. Glaring at Knuckles. 

Knuckles for his part looked sheepish as he glanced at the now empty space where their table use to be and back at his fist. 

"Uhhhhh... I may have overreacted." 

"Oh don't worry Sweet-Pea, happens all the time!" Their waitress, Susan, said, coming over with a mop and some rags. 

"Are you sure?" Maddie tried to say. "Because we can pay for the damages-" 

"If you think that's bad, you should see this place after the Corduroy-boys order breakfast! Honestly, one little flipped table is nothing!" Susan replied. "Why don't you folks find a spot at the counter? Your grub should be ready any minute now!" 

Seeing that they weren't going to be kicked-out, the Wachowski's did just that. Though Tom and Knuckles made sure to help Susan fix the table first before joining the others. 

Ford kept a constant gaze on them as they did so. 

As Tails jumped up onto his new seat, he noticed something odd about the other human. "Your hand! It has six fingers! That's facinating!" 

"So is having two tails." Was Ford's reply, eyeing the fox with some caution. Like he expected him suddenly jump and attack as well. 

"It may look strange but it comes in handy!" Tails said. "It actually allows me to fly! Watch!" 

Taking a moment, he got his tails to whirl around. Lifting up out of his chair for a moment before coming back down. 

"Can your extra fingers do anything cool like that?" Sonic taunted. 

"No..." Ford said, before getting an idea. Pulling one of his trusty dice from his coat pocket. "However, it is fully functional. And it does enhance my ability to do this." 

Showing off, Ford let the dice roll effortlessly through his fingers, circling around each digit before coming to rest back in his palm. 

"Whoa!" Sonic and Tails watched in amazement. 

Seeing that the kids were actually impressed by that, Stanford got a slight smile on face. And with that came some guilt at judging them so harshly. 

"I apologize, we didn't begin on the best-foot. My name is Dr. Stanford Pines. And this here is my brother Stanley." 

"We met your brother already. He tried to buy Sonic." Maddie frowned. "And what is your doctorate in, exactly?" 

"Which one? I have 12." Ford replied. "Though I prefer to identify myself as an Unusualogist, first and formost." 

"12 PHD's?!" Tails gasped. "How on earth were you able to do that?" 

"It took some time. And more dissertations than you could believe." Ford answered. 

"And how do you know about mobians?" Sonic said. 

"In my travels across the multi-verse, I came across many creatures. I had the misfortune of running afowl with mobians on more than one occasion." 

"Why do you keep talking about them like it's a bad thing?" Tom frowned. 

"Well, if the Mobians you met were anything like the people from my village, than I could see why." Tails admitted a little meekly. 

Knuckles nodded, glancing down at his hands, clenching them into fists for a moment. "Or my old acquaintances. They could be very... unpleasant." 

"Well, if the mobians I met were more like you boys, I imagine we would have gotten along much better." Ford finally admitted. "I apologize for my brother and I. In fact, we'll cover your dinner, for all the trouble." 

Stan did not seem on-board for that. "Now hold on! I never agreed to buy everyone-" 

But Ford was quick to remind him of another fact, "You did just attempt to buy a child." 

"... good point. But I ain't paying for any dessert! If you people wanna get pie, that's on your own dime!" 

As they all sat down and settled in, Susan brought over everyone's meals, including the Pines Brothers. 

When Sonic finally got all the ingredients for his chili dog he nearly cried. Carefully, he poured the cup of chili over his hot dog. He sprinkled on some extra cheese and onions, and held it up high. Shedding a few dramatic tears. 

"At last! My precious, precious chili dog. Look at her! She's beautiful!" 

The others watched in slight amusement. 

"Ok, weirdo. Quit playing with your food. Stan here payed good money for that." Tom shook his head. Though even he made a slightly melodramatic show when he finally got his pancakes, claiming he hadn't had classic-diner, wagon-wheel pancakes in ages. 

And while they all ate, Stan kept asking more questions. 

"So you kids aren't robots?" 

"Nope! 100% organic!" Tails replied. 

"Right. And you're related to Todd and Martha over-there how exactly?" 

"Tom and Maddie." Maddie corrected. "And if you must know, we're their parents." 

"Adopted, right?" 

The entire Wachowski family and Ford gave him a look when he asked that. 

"Hey, just covering my bases!" Stan huffed. "This town is a freaky-place. Anything goes around here! I met a guy who married a woodpecker for crying out loud" 

"Adopted." Maddie answered. "We adopted our boys." 

"And how exactly does one do that?" Stan kept pressing. "Cause Poindexter over here made it seem like their species was like rabid honey badgers or something." 

"When you save the world, sometimes the government will give you a free-pass." Sonic shrugged. "Either that or a giftcard to Olive Garden." 

"You saved the world?" Ford frowned. "You?" 

"Three times actually! But it really was a team effort," Sonic replied, nudging both his brothers. "And we always get the job done. More or less." 

"With only slight irreparable damage." Knuckles added. 

Ford and Stan had the feeling there was more to that story. A lot more. But for now, they left it at that. And instead Stan changed subjects to what he was really curious about. 

"So, what I wanna know is why a bunch of space-alien animal-tweens and their human parents are out here in the middle-of-nowhere, Oregon?" 

That was tricky. On one hand, Sonic wanted to tell Ford and Stan everything. There was a good chance these Twins might be able to help them. But it was also equally-likely that if they learned about the Chaos Emerald that they'd want it for themselves. Especially since Stan seemed to see everything in dollar-signs, and Ford would probably want to keep the emerald for research-purposes. He seemed nice now, but what if he ended up being just like another Eggman? 

Luckily Tom answered for them, "Oh, just thought we'd take a little trip out west. Get some fresh air. See the sights." 

"Oh yeah!" Susan chimed-in, clearly eavesdropping. "There's always a bunch of sights to see around these parts! Fresh air too!" 

But Stan and Ford didn't seem nearly as convinced. 

"I see... and when did you arrive?" 

"Just got here, actually." Tom answered again. 

"And what are you two doing here?" Tails was the one to ask. 

"We live here, kid." Stan replied. "Or at least we do some of the time, we got ourselves a nice boathouse, we can sail anywhere we want on the Seven Seas." 

"Searching for irregularities and the abnormal." Ford added. 

"That sounds exciting!" Tails said. "Sailing around the world!" 

"I'd like it more if there was less water." Sonic said with a cringe. He hated even having to deal with just the lake. The thought of being surrounded by water on all sides, no solid-ground for mikes around, trapped in a cramped little boat, that's what really freaked him out. 

"Well, since you folks are visiting, I might as well point you towards the best place in town." Stan continued, pulling out a buisness card and handing it to Tom. "The Mystery Shack! Voted the 8th best tourist-trap on west coast! I use to run it, till I passed on the reigns to my guy, Soos. If you tell him I sent you, I'm sure he'll give you a 3% discount." 

"Soos?" Maddie fave Stan an incredulous look. "You mean the man you planned on giving my son to?" 

"Hey, hey, that's when I thought he was an animatronic gizmo. Honest! I don't make it a habit to buy and sell living things... unless we're talking pugs." Stan was quick to say. "And besides, Soos is a great guy, you're gonna love what he's done with the place!" 

"What exactly does one do at a Mysterious Shack?" Knuckles pondered. 

"Well, you'll just have to stop by tommorow and see for yourself!" Stan said with a smirk, and verbally saying, "Wink!" 

Eventually Susan came by and handed Stan a check for everyone, topping off their coffee and the Wachowski's waters as she did so. Tom and his family planned on staying a little longer, but the Pines brothers were preparing to head-out. Though before he left, Stanford handed them a card of his own. 

"If you folks come across anything strange or unusual while you're here, please do let me know." He urged. "Our whole family will be sure to help if you need it. Have a pleasant night." 

And with that, they left the diner. The bells on the front entrance ringing with a light chime as the door swung open and shut. 

"Well... that certainly happened." Sonic said. 

"Do you think Dr. Pines was telling the truth?" Tails asked. "About traveling across the multiverse and meeting mobians?" 

"I dunno, those old-guys both seemed pretty out-there." Tom shrugged. 

But Knuckles replied as well. "That is true. However The doctor showed keen caution around us, something most non-mobians seldom do. Only those who have experienced a mobian's wrath understand that." 

"Wait you actually agree with that old guy?" Sonic asked. 

"But of course." Knuckles said. "While based in prejudice, there was some truth to his apprehension. There's a reason why mobians such as ourselves are coveted across the galaxy for our strength and ability." 

"I didn't realize you guys were so well-known." Tom said with a frown. 

"That can be a good and bad thing." Knuckles said. "At least here on Earth we can maintain a low profile. Only a few insane humans seem interested in us." 

"Yeah, and hopefully those creepy old men don't join that list..." Maddie sighed. "But anyways, you boys ready to turn-in?" 

After collecting their take-out boxes and heading back to the truck. Tom drove the rest of the way to their little vacation rental. 

It was a cabin over-looking the lake north of the town. It was a small place with only two bedrooms, two baths and a kitchen-family space in the middle. Tom and Maddie took the primary bedroom while Sonic and the other's got the "kid room". Though much to their delight, when they entered their room, they found out the beds were- 

"Oh my gosh, a bunk bed?! I call top-bunk!" Sonic immedietly zoomed over to the top bunk, flopping down onto it and making the old mattress-springs squeak. 

On the opposite side of the room, rather than another bunk bed, it was simply a platform bed with a desk-space underneath. 

"You may take the other raised bed, Fox." Knuckles offered. "And I shall take the lower cot." 

"Perfect!" Tails said, flying over with his things. "And I can use the desk for all my equipment!" 

As they all began to unpack, truly making the room their own, Sonic couldn't help but feel like their adventure was really real now. Here they were, in Gravity Falls. 

"I hope you both are ready for whatever tommorow will bring." He heard Knuckles say from the bottom bunk below. 

"Definetly!" Tails cheered. 

"I'm so ready, like you wouldn't beleive!" Sonic added. He could already feel himself brimming with excitement. 

All in all, their first night in Gravity Falls wasn't half bad. Sure they already ran into some crazy old men, one of which was a certifiable genius with a shakey-history with mobians. But hey, that could turn out to be a good thing, right? Sonic at least hoped so. 

And once the morning arrived, Tails would be able to reset his scanner and their search for the first chaos emerald would truly begin! The town was so small, they could probably search the entire place in one day tops. And Sonic was confident they could handle the surroudning woods as well. Maybe they could even swing by that weird man's Mystery Shack if they had some time to spare. 

This was all going to be so much fun! 

After Knuckles turned out the lights. Sonic curled up in his bed, and he couldn't resist quietly saying. "Ready or not, Gravity Falls! Cause here we come!"

Chapter Text

Early the next morning, Grunkle Stan, Grunkle Ford and Soos found themselves waiting at the town's bus stop. 

Dipper and Mabel had booked the earliest bus ride from Piedmont they could get. That way they could "Spend every second of summer with them!", as Mabel had put it. 

It was a foggy morning, fresh dew made the grass wet while their waited. 

But soon enough they spotted two headlights shining through the fog. And a greyhound bus slowed to a stop at the bus station. 

Mabel was the first to get off, leaping past the main doors as soon as they slid open, tackling her Grunkles and Soos in a massive huge. 

All three men were prepared though. Now that Mabel was 15 she had grown quite a bit, but some things never changed. 

"Grunkle Stan! Grunkle Ford! Soos!" Mabel cheered, nearly jumping up and down. "We're back! We're so back, baby!" 

"Yeah, it's nice to be back for the summer." Her twin brother, Dipper replied as he stepped off the bus, dragging both of their suitcases behind him. "I didn't think you two would be here. Didn't you have that Siren convention?" 

As Mabel let everyone go, Ford stepped over to give Dipper a quick side-hug. "Ah yes, it's a long story." 

"We'll tell you kids on the way to the shack!" Stan added, smacking Dipper's hat off and ruffling his hair. 

Sure enough, after everyone piled into Stan's old beat-down sedan, they told the kids everything. 

Which included some of their fun misadventures from the starting days of their voyage, like the flock of albatross that flew right above Stan's head, or when they witnessed time travelers abduct some humpback whales. How they had been prepared to embark for the sirens only to find strange readings emittinating from Gravity Falls. And how after that, they had immediately turned around to return home and find the source of this "enhanced weirdness". 

"Wow." Dipper said, "We haven't even been here 5 minutes and we already have our first mystery of the summer!" 

"And you guys are positive this isn't just some false reading? Or like a unicorn farted or something like that?" Mabel asked. 

"No. To change the town's reading this much it would have to be something significant." Ford explained. "Either by something already within the town's limits. Or something new... either way, this could become a problem if we cannot located the source of this weirdness." 

"Or someone else gets to it before us, and tries to make a profit." Stan added. 

"Well, luckily you got the Mystery Twins on the case! Times two!" Mabel said gesturing to them all. 

"And Soos!" Soos said. 

"And Soos!" Mabel pointed to him, before continuing. "Between the five of us, I'm sure we can find this big weirdo-thing!" 

"Yeah." Dipper agreed. "So, anything else new?" 

"Oh, apperently Mobians have made first contact with humans." 

"The who made first what-now?" Mabel asked. 

But Ford continued. "I came across their kind in my travels. I never thought I'd see them again, but Stan and I ran into a few juvenile mobians yesterday." 

"That doesn't really explain who they are. Or what they are, Grunkle Ford." Dipper tried to gently say. 

"Right, right let's see. How to describe mobians." Ford thought out-loud before finding the right words. "Well, ordinarily they're a highly agressive species, with significantly ehnaced strength and durability. Their species also has high-potential for absorbing additional power, integrating it into their limbic and sympathetic response system. Not to mention-" 

"They look like a bunch of adorable, pop-colored, animal-people." Stan finally answered. 

Dipper seemed even more confused but Mabel's eyes went wide. "Like the Kindness Kritters plushies?" 

"Yeah. I didn't even think they were real when I first saw them." Stan continued. "Thought they were animatronic gizmos. I almost bought one for Soos and the Shack until I found out they were real." 

"But you cannot let their highly-marketable appearances fool you, these creatures can be dangerous." Ford warned. "Though I'll admit, the juveniles we ran into seemed rather well-mannered and sociable. In fact, I beleive they might be around your age." 

Mabel pratically bounced in her seat. "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! We HAVE to see these guys!" 

"You'll probably get the chance in a little bit." Stan said, grinning to himself. "I talked up a big game with their parents. I bet they'll be at the shack any minute now!" 

"If we can see them through all this fog." Dipper grumbled. "It looks like those creepy, Quiet Woods games out here." 

"There was an exceptionly high dew point this morning. I'm sure it will burn-off once the sun rises." Ford replied. 

Squinting, Stan did his best to try and see through the fog. But soon enough they spotted the hazy outline of the Mystery Shack. 

Soos's wife, Melody, waved to them from the front porch of the shack. Already dressed in her "Madame Mystery" outfit. She and Soos often took turns on who ran the mystery shack tours and who took care of their young daughter, Stella Lee Ramirez. 

"Hey kids!" Melody got up from her seat with Stella resting on her hip. The little tyke was dressed in a green jumper, decorated with question marks. 

"Hi Mel!" Mabel shouted in a sing-voice, skipping up Stella and making her giggle. "And hello to the most precious, perf-tacular little princess!" 

"Hiiyeee!" Stella waved. 

"So, you here to see the real-life Kindess Kritters too?" Mabel asked. 

"Stan told you about those?" Melody laughed. "I haven't seen them yet, but they sound pretty neat... and adorable!" 

"I'd avoid demeaning them in person, once they arrive." Stanford warned. "Polite or not, I don't think anyone would appreciate being compared to stuffed animals... or contantly told how cute they are." 

"Stell-Bell and I are always told how cute we are, " Mabel said, putting her face right next to Stella's. "and look at us!" 

"I'm actually with Sixer on this one." Stan said, nudging his brother's arm. "Let's just act like totally normal people when they get here." 

"That'd be a first." Dipper muttered under his breath. 

With a foggy-start to the day, there wasn't much else for the Pines and Ramirez family to do except get the Mystery Shack set-up and ready for the day. Melody would give the morning tours while Soos and Stan were with Little Stella, and later in the afternoon they'd switch. 

Meanwhile, Dipper and Grunkle Ford would be down in the basement, looking over the scanners. Trying to pinpoint the location of this latest abnormality. 

And Mabel offered to run the gift shop. Though that was mostly so she could keep an eye out for these adorable, so-called "Mobians". If and when they ever did show up,  which Mabel really hoped was soon. She couldn't wait!

To start their grand Gravity Falls adventure, the Wachowski family decided to all head to the Mystery Shack together. 

"Don't you guys have to like, grocery shop or file taxes or something?" Sonic asked. Honestly he thought he and his brothers would be able to do some exploring on their own. 

But Tom and Maddie had other plans. 

"Look, I know those guys appologized and all, but I think it'd be better to have some adults nearby. Just in case anyone tried to buy you kids again." Tom pointed out, on one of the flyers he snagged from town. "Especially people who run a tourist trap that claims to showcase the strange and unusual. Kinda creepy." 

"This whole place gives me the creeps." Maddie frowned. 

"Oh yeah, I totally agree. And this fog definitely does not help. Almost makes me feel like we walked into a horror movie." 

"As long as it's scary movie with serial killers, and not with ghosts than we will be fine." Knuckles said. 

"You want there to be slashers?" Sonic asked. 

"I can protect from any physical foe." Knuckles replied. "But ghosts?" 

"How'bout we stop talking about ghosts and serial killers, huh boys?" Maddie quickly tried to change the subject. 

"Yeah! We're about to go to a shack in the middle of the woods! And we were invited by some weird old men!" Tails tried to pipe-in. "Nothing to nervous about, right?" 

No one had the heart to correct him. So they all continued forwards. Trying to stay on the main road, following signs leading to the Mystery Shack. 

Soon enough, they spotted a structure among the towering trees. And as they got closer a form began to really take shape. It looked like it had once been an ordinary house but over the years more and more of the structure had been redone to fit the theme of the Mystery Shack, complete with corny-posters, faded adds and painted question marks everywhere. 

"I think we're finally here..." Tom said, looking the building up and down. Years of training kicked in as he quickly assessed any and all exits on their first floor, the second too if they needed to jump down. 

All in all though, creepy fog aside, at actually looked kinda nice. In a quaint, campy sort of way. 

"See guys?" Tails smiled. "There's absolutely nothing here to be afraid of-" 

"HI THERE!" 

In an instant, there was a teenage girl right next to Tails. They didn't hear her approach, it was almost like she teleported there. 

And though they would be embarrassed later, Sonic, Knuckles and Tails couldn't help but scream. 

The girl thankfully took a few steps back, arms raised until they all calmed down. 

"Yeah, that wasn't my best idea. My bad people, my bad! Sorry about that!" 

"Who are you?" Knuckles frowned, fist raised. "You're not a ghost, are you?" 

"Heck no, bro! The name's Mabel, Mabel Pines!" 

"Ohhh, you're related to the crazy old men, right?" Sonic asked. 

"I figured." Tom said quietly to Maddie. 

"Totally!" Mabel grinned. "And you must be the kindness- wait no! I mean uhhhhh, the mo-people!" 

"Mole people?" Sonic asked. 

"I think she's referring to Mobians." Tails whispered. 

"Oh yeah, that's us." Sonic said. 

The girl made a squee-ing noise, hands going to her cheeks as she gazed at the three. 

Knuckles nodded, clearly sympathetic. "I know, my brothers are hideous. But please, don't let their repulsivness discolor your view of them." 

"Are you kidding?! You guys are so cool!" Mabel cheered. "So tell me, what sort of magical place are you guys all from?" 

Tails looked at her in confusion. "... Montana?" 

"You can tell me all about it inside!" Mabel said, gesturing back towards the Shack. "Melody's first tour won't be for another half hour. But we can hang-out in the gift shop until then!" 

"I do love a good gift shop..." Sonic said. "Alright, sounds good! Oh I'm Sonic by the way, that's Tails." 

"I'm Knuckles." 

"And that's Tom and Maddie." Sonic continued. "They're kinda like our parents." 

"Kinda, huh?" Tom smirked. 

"Awww you guys are so sweet!" Mabel smiled, leading them in. "Fair warning when you meet my twin bro-bro, Dipper? He's gonna have like a million questions for you guys!" 

"Wait you're a twin!?" Sonic gasped. "In that case, I'm probably gonna have a million questions for you guys! That's crazy! I always wished I was a twin. Or a triplet-" 

"We can hardly handle one of you." Knuckels teased, in his own monotone way. "Three would be impossible." 

Following Mabel, the Wachowski's all went into the Mystery Shack's gift shop. The room defiently lived up to it's name. The whole room was filled with shelves and barrels of touristy knick-knacks. Plus things designed especially for the Mystery Shack, custom-print shirts and hats, bobbleheads of monsters, even little snowglobes with mini Mystery Shacks inside them. 

"Whoa! This place is wild!" Sonic said, gazing around the room with a smile. 

"Just wait till you see the full-tour!" Mabel said. "Soos and Mel do a great job, you're gonna love it!" 

"What exactly happens on the tour?" Maddie asked, still looking around the room warily. 

She couldn't help but notice all the posters that said things like, "You won't BELEIVE the things you'll SEE!" or "You're destination for MONSTERS, MARVELS and MYSTERY!" 

"Oh, don't worry! Nothing's real." Mabel was quick to say. "Just a bunch of crazy-taxidermy stuff my Grunkle Stan sewed together in the 80's. But they're pretty funny, especially if you've seen the real-deal-" 

"Real-deal?" Tails asked. "As in real monsters?" 

Mabel turned to the little fox. "Well... uh... I thought you guys already knew about that stuff. You know, being aliens or whatever-" 

"What stuff?" Tom asked, pressing the question a little more. If his family was in any potential danger, he wanted to know. 

Mabel for her part actually looked apologetic. "Yeah sorry, that's on me for making assumptions. The Shack's a total hoax. But out there? Well, let's just say Gravity Falls has a reputation for being a weird place, and it's not just cause of the people..."

Chapter Text

The Wachowski's looked at Mabel is confusion. 

"How weird are we talking here?" Sonic ended up asking. "Werewolves? Aliens? Giant radioactive lizards???" 

"Uhhh, all the above?" Mabel said with a nervous laugh. "Except that last one. I haven't seen that yet, but that sounds pretty cool." 

Before Sonic or his brothers could ask anything else, that's when Melody Ramirez came bursting into the room with a big, bright smile. 

"Welcome vistors! Ready to embark on the journey of a life time?" 

"Through your renovated living room?" Tom said quietly so only Maddie could here. 

But the boys chimed in with, a couple "Yeah!" 

"You folks are in for a treat! Here at the Mystery Shack we've carefully curated around 30 years of mysterious treasures, not only from the Great Northwest, but from around the world!" 

"For real?" Sonic couldn't help but ask. "Like real-real?" 

"As real as the magic in your heart!" Melody said, one hand dramatically going to her own heart. 

"Mel tends to get pretty dramatic when it's her turn to give tours." Mabel whispered quietly to Sonic and his brothers. "She can't help it though, she's a total theater nerd." 

"As soon as you all have your trusty tickets, we can begin the tour." Melody grinned. "And since you were all invited by the original Mr. Mystery, Stan Pines himself, I decided to knock a solid 12% off of your tour today!" 

"How generous." Tom deadpanned. 

"Sorry," Melody said, breaking character for a moment. "If Stan hears we have any discount over 15%, he tries to get involved. He's still a partial owner of the company and he takes it kinda seriously." 

"Fair enough." Maddie shrugged. Following Mabel over to the counter, she and Tom went ahead a paid for their tickets. 

And once they were all settled, Melody pulled back a velevet curtain and their tour began. 

The first room consisted of a hallway, filled with framed pictures of poorly photoshopped "monsters caught in the wild". 

"Hey Knuckles, I didn't know they got a photo of you!" Sonic snickered, pointing to a picture of a so-called Bigfoot slam dunking a basketball out in the woods. 

"I was about to say the same for you." Knuckle smirked, gesturing over to Chupacabra chasing a man in a hotdog suit. 

Once they reached the end of the hall however, thats when the "real attractions" began. 

All around them were larger-than-life skeletons and taxidermied models of monsters. Some more realistic than others. 

"I can't tell if this is impressive or creepy." Tom said, looking at what was allegedly a "sphynx skeleton". It looked like a mix of vulture and bobcat bones, mix-matched together, with a human skull that thankfully was made of plastic. Real bone would have been more yellow and wouldn't have a fill-line from being poured into a mold. 

"Well they're defiently not anatomically correct." Maddie pointed at a wolf-man skull on display in another case. "If that were real the ears wouldn't be there. That's all cartilage." 

Sonic's favorite thing in the room however was the- 

"The sass-crotch?!" He couldn't help but repeat after Melody announced the creature, what appeared to be a gorilla in a pair of white underwear. 

As soon as Sonic saw the model he doubled down laughing. 

As did Tails. 

And even Knuckles gave a little chuckle. 

"Yeah, the boys definitely get their sense of humor from me." Tom said, shaking his head. "Guilty as charged!" 

Room by room, Melody guided the Wachowski's through the entire Mystery Shack, telling them all sorts of tall-tales as they went. 

Eventually they ended the tour outside, and after checking out the "Bottomless Pit" and admiring a collection of gourds who resemble the presidents, their tour came to a close. 

Melody brought them back towards the giftshop where their tour began. 

"Thank you guys so much!" She beamed, "I hope you had a fun time!" 

"Oh don't worry, we did!" Sonic smirked. Mabel had been right, everything here was fake. But it had still been fun seeing everything, poking a little fun at it all. 

"And now that we saw these fake-things, we can go out and see the real things for ourselves!" Tails said confidently. 

"See what?" Melody asked, over hearing them. 

Sonic rushed to cover Tail's mouth, panicking. "Seeing things? Oh no, we uh, we don't see things. Nothing fake. Not that your tour wasn't very real, totally the real-deal. We, uhhhhh-" 

Thankfully Tails pushed Sonic's hands away, quick to recover. "We were just talking about your Mount Squash-more, we're gonna visit the real monument next on our trip." 

Melody's eyes glimmered at that. "You guys are just the sweetest, you know that?" 

Knuckles nodded. "So we've been told." 

Sonic watched Tails, impressed as Melody went off, going to talk with her own husband, daughter and Mr. Pines as they entered the giftshop too. 

"That was pretty slick, dude!" Sonic said, "How'd you come up with that so fast?" 

"It comes with experience." Tails simply said. "They say honesty is the best policy, but there's nothing wrong with a little fib. Now let's go find our Emerald! Tom and Maddie are distracting those other humans." 

Sure enough, Tom and Maddie had joined the other grown-up's all gushing about how cute Stella Ramirez was, swapping stories about their own children, and neices and nephews. 

Not thinking twice, the Wachowski boys all hurried outside. 

Once Tails had his scanner out and rebooted, his eyes lit up at what he saw on the screen. "It looks like our Emerald is nearby! If we hurry, we can go grab it before anyone notices we're gone!" 

"Are you certain? That seems a little to easy." Knuckles warned. "And my feet do not feel the emerald's vibrations here." 

But Sonic hardly looked worried. "Let's go check it out anyways, we're superpowered aliens, what's the worst that could happen?" 

And with that, the three ran off into the woods. Following the signal whenever it lead them. 

"Do you think anyone will notice we're gone?" Tails tried to ask. 

"Doubt it!"

Meanwhile inside, in the middle of all the commotion, Tom and Maddie caught sight of their boys running into the woods. Alone. 

"Are we going to ground them once they get back?" Tom asked, even though he already knew the answer. 

"Oh definetly." Maddie replied. "The question is how long? And should it start now or when we get home?" 

Before Tom could answer that, he heard a strange noise coming from the other room. A pressurized hiss. Definetly not one that could come from these warped woods doors. 

Curiosity got the better of him and he poked his head around the corner. Only to see Dr. Stanford Pines and another kid now entering the room. But none of the doors to the gift shop had been opened, and they definently hadn't been here earlier. 

So how did they get in? 

Tom had suspected there was more to this "Mystery Shack" than meets the eye, but now he pratically knew for sure. 

And Maddie knew her husband better than anyone, she could tell he was thinking hard about something. "Sher-locking in" as Sonic sometimes put it. 

"What is it?" She tried to asked. 

Tom just smirked. "I think the boys are gonna regret sneaking out. Cause I'm pretty sure we have the fun mystery right here!"

Dipper couldn't shake the feeling that he and Ford were being watched as they joined everyone back on the ground floor. 

It appeared Melody's first tour of the day had been a sucess. She was in the gift shop with all the other adults. Including two people Dipper hadn't seen before. He could only assume though were the couple that adopted the mobians, the ones Grunkle Stan and Ford had told him about. 

But he didn't see the mobians anywhere. 

Currently though it seemed like every adult was being distracted by Stella. Though to be fair, most people were easily distracted by Stella. Soos and Melody didn't call her "the universe's most adorable baby" 3 years straight, for no reason. 

But Dipper couldn't let himself get distracted. He and Grunkle Ford had been hard at work remodifying their weirdness algorithm. To help narrow down exactly where this new weirdness was emanating from. They had found a few quadrants in their scans that had higher abnormality-rates compared to the rest of the woods. It wasn't much but it could be a good starting point. 

Dipper found his sister in the middle of the group, making silly-faces at Stella to get her to make and adorable, high-pitched, little giggle. 

"Mabel, can we talk?" 

Mabel barely paid attention, still making funny faces for Stella. "Bleh! Mmmm-Bleh! Come on Dipper, can't it wait?" 

"Not really." He said through clenched teeth. He didn't know how much their current guests knew about the paranormal. They were raising some kid-aliens but honestly who didn't want to raise kid-aliens? And even if they did, what if they were here to interfere with whatever was causing a spike in weirdness? "It's uhhh, about the mystery. You know, the new mystery?" 

That thankfully got Mabel's attention. Blowing one more raspberry-kiss on Stella's cheek, Mabel hurried off with her brother and Grunkle Ford. 

However just as they were heading to the kitchen, the man visiting turned to ask. 

"A new mystery?" 

"Oh you know, Mr. Wachowski, we sure love all our mysteries." Mabel said nervously. "Here. At the mystery shack. Oh, and if you wanna buy anything, just holler!" 

With that, Dipper pulled his sister into the kitchen, away from anyone who might be listening. 

"So I managed to isolate a few potential sites for our new weirdness." Ford said, pulling out his digital map of the forest. Frowing as he did so. "It's strange. Anytime I think I've finally isolated our coordinates, it bounces off some other region. If we can at least narrow down these regions, that should help us located the source of this new anomaly. Before any more anomalies arrive and skew our data." 

"Are you talking about Sonic?" Mabel asked. 

"Precisely." Ford nodded. "I'm sure he and his brothers mean well but I don't want them creating unnecessary distraction from our case." 

Being reminded of her newest friends, Mabel turned to Dipper. "Oh my gosh! You're gonna love these guys, Dipper! They're super cute, but also like super cool! There's Sonic, he's the blue one. Oh, and Knuckles and Tails-" 

"I do think you'll enjoy their company. Once you get to meet them." 

"Where are they?" Dipper ended up asking. 

Mabel frowned. "They were with us, upstairs in the gift shop. Melody gave them a tour and everything." 

"Really? Cause I didn't see them there." Dipper thought. 

"That might be due to this." Ford said suddenly. 

Three new object had appeared on Ford's digital map. Three blips all moving together. 

"Is that the mobians?" Dipper asked. 

"I believe it is." Ford pondered. "Remarkable. It appears they each are emitting their own levels of weirdness-energy." 

Dipper was much more worried. They were heading right for one of the weirdness quadrants Dipper and Ford had mapped out. It was one that boarded on a fissure that lead directly to the Dino-Caves below the town. If they didn't know where they were going they might fall right in. 

"Those kids got a head-start but I think we can catch up to them." Ford said. "They might be quicker but we have better expertise on this terrain." 

"Yeah, this is our turf!" Mabel cheered. 

"But we better hurry." Dipper urged. 

And then, much like the Wachowski brother before, the Pines twins and their Grunkle Ford went running into the woods. 

As they ran, Grunkle Stan and Soos spotted them through the window. Watching them dissapear into the trees. 

"Uh, should we be worried?" Soos asked. 

But Stan hardly seemed worried. "Eh. If it's serious, they know how to use a phone." 

Soos hoped they were right. He didn't know a ton about the science behind Gravity Falls's "weirdness", and he knew next to nothing about these mobians Dr. Pines, Mabel and even his own wife had become fascinated by. 

They all would just have to wait and find out what misadventures the Wachowski's and Pine's kids went through later today. 

In the meantime though, Soos, his dad and his wife all had a tourist trap to run!

Chapter Text

Sonic felt a little guilty as he and his brothers ran into the woods. This was supposed to be a family-adventure but right now they were actively leaving Tom and Maddie behind as they chased down their lead. 

But Sonic kept telling himself they were so close to the chaos emerald, they had to just go for it! Any second now they'd finally have it and when they returned to town, Tom and Maddie would totally understand... right? And then they could just spend the rest of their little trip exploring this strange little town. No pressure. 

They just wanted to be more efficient... it totally wasn't because the last-time Tom and Maddie had been with them on a mission, Tom had almost been killed... No way. 

Though that thought still made Sonic's heart race just a bit faster as they ran deeper in the woods. 

It was easier if they just went ahead. This would be faster... safer. 

"How close are we now?" Sonic called out. He wasn't running as fast as he normally did, letting Tails lead since he had the scanner and was the only one who really knew where they were going. 

"Almost there..." Tails said, frowning at his scanner. "Wait... we should be right on top of it!" 

"Really?" Knuckles questioned. "I still do not sense the emerald's power here." 

"Well my scanners say it's here!" Tails countered. 

Sonic looked around as they ran. He didn't see the emerald anywhere. And there weren't any craters in the earth either. Not even a depression. 

Tails was starting to get frustrated too. Tapping at the side of his scanner in annoyance. "Come on! What's wrong with this thing!? I recalibrated it eight times this morning! Something must be interfering with the signal, or-" 

Sonic spotted something then. A huge crack in the earth. It looked big. Big enough for an emerald to fall into? 

The crack was a little over-grown. Tall grass and ivy tangled around the edges. But it was still possible... 

"Guys! Check this out!" Sonic yelled as he made a quick turn and sped off to the right, coming to a screeching halt just before he tumbled into the crack. He excitedly pushed back some of the vines so they could get a better look. 

"Huh," Tails said, not to far behind, looking back and forth between his scanner and the ground. "My scanners are still acting up. But this might be the right spot!" 

Knuckles joined them next. Though he still wasn't fully convinced. "I feel a thrum. Just in my big toe. But it's light. The emerald would have to be very deep in the earth to be here. If it's here at all." 

"But how can we know for sure?" Tails asked. 

"Well boys... I guess there's only one way to find out!" Sonic said boldly. 

He pretended to step forwards over the crack, and immedietly both his brothers went to grab him. 

"Wait!" 

"Brother, don't you dare!" 

"Oh come on!" Sonic laughed. "Do you guys really think i'd be dumb enough to just jump into a random hole I've never- OH CHILI DOGS!" 

In that exact moment, the earth and the edge of the crack gave away, right out from under Sonic's foot. Sending him and his brother plummeting into the crack below. 

"I BLAME YOU FOR THIS! HEDGEHOG!" Knucked shouted. 

All while he and his brothers screamed. 

Falling down, down, down...

When Sonic and the boys still hadn't come back to the Shack, Tom and Maddie started to worry. 

And now that Dr. Pines and his niblings had suddenly left too, running off in the same exact direction, that worry only grew. 

They knew no matter what the heck was going on, they'd need to go and get their kids. 

But Stan Pines wasn't making it easy. The man had suddenly made it his goal to keep him and Maddie in the gift shop as long as humanly possibly. Tom would have assumed Mr. Pines was desperate to get a sale out of them, if not for the fact that he kept glancing out the window, as if looking for his own family. It was a small movement, barely an eye-twitch, but Tom managed to notice it. 

And all at once, Tom had enough of all these secrets; these people's and their own. 

"Ok. Are we seriously just going to stand around and pretend that half our families didn't just bolt into the woods!?" Tom finally snapped. 

But it seemed like Stan was. In fact, he seemed to double-down. Or at least he tried to. 

"Whose family? I don't uhhh,... It's actually a funny story actually- Or, you know my Ma always said-" 

Stan began to falter, under Tom and Maddie's steely gaze. 

And he could just tell, there was no tricking these two. 

"Yeesh! Alright you got me! Whattya you two, cops or something?" Stan finally relented. "I got no clue why your kids ran off, but I know why Sixer did. He's been looking for this Super-Weirdness, or whatever he calls it." 

"Super weirdness?" Maddie frowned. "If you're referring to my sons, I'll have you know-" 

"No, no, I ain't talking about them! We already ruled them out." Stan huffed. "We're looking for something else... but something tells me you're looking for it to. Something with a ton of weirdo-energy." 

"It's chaos-energy, actually." Tom corrected. 

"Weirdness. Chaos. What's the difference?" Stan shrugged. "The real question is when we find it, who gets to take it? I'm thinkin' finders keepers?" 

"Yeah, no. That's now how this is going to work." Maddie said plainly. "That Chaos-energy belongs to my boys." 

"Well then they should'a taken better care of it." Stan argued. "Cause now you've got my brother and the kids all running after it. Like some crazy treasure-hunt." 

"Wait! So they know where it is?" Tom asked. 

"They got an idea. They used all their fancy-sensors to get an idea... I could show you if you like." 

Tom and Maddie agreed, following Stan out of the giftshop. 

Ordinarily, Tom would never agree to go to a secondary-location with a half-stranger he barely trusted. Especially unarmed and with his wife. But he also liked to think he was pretty good at reading people. And for once Stan seemed more sincere. 

Also... he couldn't help but grin when he realized Stan was heading over to the vending machine and revealing a secret door! 

"I knew it!" He excitedly whispered to Maddie. 

Maddie smiled right back. "Looks like this Shack has some more mysteries. How jealous do you think our boys are going to be when they hear they missed this?" 

"Very." Tom replied. 

As they stepped through the threshold, Stan went to grab the door, calling over his shoulder. "Man the shop, Soos! We're going underground!" 

And then the door whoosed shut with a mechanical click.

For a few, horrifying moments, Sonic, Kuckles and Tails free-fell in total darkness. 

No way of knowing down from up, where they were, or where they were going. Just pitch black and the wind rushing past their faces. 

But then, the crack they'd tumbled into grew into a chasm, and then it opened completely into a massive, amber cavern. 

Moving fast, Knuckles grabbed Sonic by the waist and Tails by the feet. And the little fox worked double time, twirling his tails to try and slowdown their descent. 

It took a moment, but their tumble, head-spinning fall soon turned into a glide. Tail wasn't strong enough to carry them both back up and out, but at least now when they landed it wouldn't be with a splat. 

As they fell now, it gave all three boys the perfect view to take in their new surroundings. 

They were definetly underground. Somewhere deep in some sort of cavern or mine. But it wasn't in total darkness. In fact, there were several large cracks in the earth above, letting beams of sunlight shine down. And when those beams hit the large, amber deposits on the edge of the cavern, it illuminated everything. Giving the whole place a hazy, orange glow. 

It was definetly big. Like an entire forest underground. 

But that was hardly the strangest part, there was also a jungle. A literal jungle. 

"I may not be a botanist. But I've seen the discovery channel." Sonic frowned, taking in the strange looking trees. "These don't look anything like the woods up top. This is way more tropical... how the heck did all of this get down here?!" 

Knuckles scanned over the woods with a worried frown. "I'll admit, when the girl told us this place was strange, I didn't expect it to be this strange." 

"And it's about to get even stranger!" Tails shouted. "Look up there! On the cliffside!" 

Sure enough, when they followed their brother's gaze. They spotted something. Several somethings actually. 

Tiny little gnomes. Red caps and bushy beards and all. If they were closer they would have hardly come up to the boys' knees. 

But that wasn't all, they all appeared to have red and black war-stripes painted across their faces. And they each were carrying a tiny little spears. 

They watched the boys for a moment. But when they realized they had been spotted they all hurried off. Scurrying into a little hole in their cliff and vanishing from sight. 

Even when the boys finally touched-down. Their minds were still reeling. 

"Ok, I don't know about you guys, but I'm calling it now! That's probably the strangest thing I've seen all day! Everyday! Ever!" Sonic declared. "Gnomes?! I mean seriously!" 

Tails agreed. "Out of everything Mabel chose to mention, she could have mentioned the gnomes." 

"Yes," Knuckles nodded. "Or that Spinosaurus." 

Sonic began to laugh nervously. "What Spinosaursus?" 

"The one over there." Knuckles said plainly before he continued. "The girl said there were lizards, but I beleive you said most dinosaurs are actually more-closely related to modern birds, right Sonic?" 

"I did." Sonic said. "But Knuckles, what Spino-" 

The earth-trembling screech and cluck gave Sonic his answer then. Along with the hurried sound of booming thumps heading right their way. 

"Ohhh... that Spinosaurus. Great." 

Grabbing both of his brothers, Sonic got ready to go fast. He loved dinosaurs as much as the next kid, but he'd also seen Jurrassic Park enough times to know what they'd see next. Probably wasn't a great idea to stick around, and end up something's lunch. 

Just as the Spinosaursus broke through the trees, Sonic and his brothers ran off. Speeding away along the edge of the cavern. 

The Spinosaursus just blinked at first. Seeminly confused that her latest prey vanished. But then her eyes spotted Sonic's beam of blue light and chased after it. 

"Oh no! Not good! Not good!" Sonic stammered. They's be able to out-pace the big monster. But as long as they were three brightly-colored animals-people who glowed when they used their powers, it'd be hard to hide down here. 

"We need to find a way out of here!" Knuckles growled. "And fast, before that thing corners us!" 

"I know!" Tails worried, looking up at the cliffs. "Maybe if we could just get up there! But it's too high up! I'd have to make trips, but that would mean leaving someone behind down here without back-up." 

"It is a good idea, unfortunately flying up would also leave you greatly exposed to the beast." Knuckles pointed out. "And there's no guarantee we'd be able to fit through those tiny Gnome-holes... what says you, Hedgehog?" 

Sonic wanted to say something. Anything. But his mind was racing, faster than even he could keep up with. 

Everything about this mission had gone so wrong. And now they were trapped at the bottom of this cavern, trying not to become dino-chow. 

And the worst part? ... 

Sonic had the sinking feeling that Knuckles had been right. 

That the emerald wasn't even here. 

Or anywhere else nearby. 

Now all they could do was try to stay ahead of this giant, hungry spinosaurus, try to find a way out of here, and to get back to the Mystery Shack before they were grounded for life! 

"Come on, Sonic! Think!" He urged, falling back into old-habits and talking to himself. "If we can distract that Spino-dino long enough, that would give us more time and really get out of her eye-sight." 

"That's true. Then we could catch our breath and actually come up with an escape plan." Tails chimed in. 

"But how does one distract a Spinosaurus?" Knuckles asked outloud. 

"Like this, GLITTER BOMB! BLAM, BLAM BLAM!" 

Right then, there was a silver and pink explosion of bright lights glitter raining down. 

Terrified, the Spinosaurus finally gave up the chase and ran off. 

And right above Sonic and his brothers, three figures came sailing down. On  parachutes. 

Dr. Pines, Mabel, who proudly held what looked like a glitter-cannon, and a boy who looked identical to her and must have been her brother, Dipper. 

"Doctor Pines! Mabel!" Tails called out in releif. "Are we glad to see you!" 

"Yeah!" Sonic said at first, "If you guys hadn't gotten here so fast, I don't know what we'd... wait... how did you guys find us so quickly?" 

Dr. Pines didn't have a good answer for that. Neither did either of his niblings. "Well..." 

"You were following us, weren't you." Knuckles stated simply. 

"What?" Mabel fake-gasped. "That'd be rude, and creepy! And we're friends, so we'd never-" 

"Yes. We were following you." Dipper cut in, stepping forwards. "But we already planned to come here. How did you know to?" 

Sonic looked at the humans sheepishly. "Uh... would you beleive it was for the love and joy of exploration?" 

It didn't look like they would. 

"Ok fine, if you must know we're looking for something. Something that's really important and belongs to us." 

"What exactly?" Dipper asked. "Something powerful?" 

"Yes!" Sonic exclaimed. "Which is why we need to find it!" 

"But it's not here." Knuckles continued, arms folded across his chest. "We've run across the entire outskirts of this cavern. And in that time the emerald's presence never changed. It's somewhere else." 

"That's a shame." Stanford sighed. "I guess we can take these carvens off my list of potential locations of our anomaly. An emerald, you said?" 

Knuckles eyebrows rose, realizing he'd said too much. Tails and and Sonic gave him a slightly-judgmental look while he looked to his feet. "... I probably shouldn't have said that." 

"Well now that it's out in the open, yes. We're looking for an emerald." Sonic finally admitted "A chaos emerald." 

"Oooh!" Mabel gushed. "That sounds pretty!" 

"It also sounds dangerous." Stanford added. 

"It can be, if it falls into the wrong hands!" Tails said. 

"My brothers and I made a vow to protect the emerald. And to only use its energy if absolutely necessary." Knuckles continued. 

As Knuckles spoke, Sonic couldn't help but shrink in on himself. It was his choice to go against his brothers and use the Master Emerald. And now it was missing. He couldn't help but be reminded then that this was all his fault... 

"And that is also why it's my brothers and my own responsibility to find the emerald and place it back in safe-keeping." Knuckles finally finished. "I appologize for my family's dishonesty before, but I hope you may understand. As protectors yourselves." 

"I... I do." Stanford admitted. "Still, I don't appreciate having the truth withheld from us. But now that we're all on the same page, we'll do everything we can to help." 

That caught Sonic by suprise, his head shot up, turning to look at the doctor. 

"Wait. Really? You guys would do that?" 

"Of course we would!" Mabel declared, hands going to her hips as she stood proudly. "We're the Pines family! Heroes of Gravity Falls!" 

"Yeah, plus this is probably the most interesting thing to happen here in a while." Dipper added, smiling at the mobians. 

In the distance, they heard another roar, and Dipper's smile fell. 

"We better get going though. This summer's heat wave released 3 more dinosaurs from the sap, the longer we're down here the more likely we are to be spotted." 

"Very true." Stanford agreed. "And you boys are certain your Emerald isn't here?" 

Knuckles nodded. "My brother's scanners made it seem so, but I could not sense the emerald's chaos energy here." 

Stanford noticed the glum, meek look appearing on the fox's face. So kneeling down, he brought a hand to the boy's shoulder. "Don't feel bad. My scanners were telling me the same thing." 

"But if the Emerald's not here, then where is it?" Mabel asked, stepping closer to Knuckles. 

"Who knows? There's so many secret tunnels and mines in this town, the whole place might as well be made of swiss cheese." Dipper grumbled, stepping towards Sonic. 

After each of them took the hand of a Mobian, the Pines all fired grappling hooks, and soon they were all speeding up the cliffside, back the the surface. 

As they zipped past the gnome's tiny-tunnels, Sonic thought back on what Dipper had said. About the town being filled with tunnels. 

The Emerald wasn't underground here... but maybe it was underground somewhere else? 

Maybe they were closer to the emerald than they thought. 

But for now, all they could do was climb but to the surface and begin the long trek back through the woods, back to the Mystery Shack. 

When they finally arrived, they spotted Mr. Pines standing on the back porch. Along with Tom and Maddie. 

"We just saw the most amazing thing!" Tails said, hovering over to them. Unaware at first of the deep trouble they were in. "Dinosaurs! This town has living, breathing dinosaurs! And gnomes! We- we thought we found the location of the emerald, but... but we... it wasn't there." 

As Tails took in Tom and Maddie's disapointed looks, he began to slow down. His twin-tails stopped spinning and he landed on the ground with a soft thud. 

"And we're totally grounded. Aren't we?" Sonic asked, finishing the thought. 

"A'yep." Was Tom's only reply. Giving a long look to each of his boys. 

"You all know better than to run off like that. Especially somewhere we've never been before." Maddie said. "So until further notice, you're all grounded." 

"Congrats. You kids managed to be both on vacation and grounded. At the same time." Tom said, his tone both dry and sarcastic. "And Stan here was just telling us how they could use some extra help at the Shack." 

Sonic decided to be hopeful. For just a second. "So like, giving tours?" 

Stan laughed, tossing some mops and an old bucket to the young mobians. 

"Ha! More like, mopping floors!"