"Hey, Mabel!" Mabel looked up to see Wendy walk through the door. "Did Soos put you at the cash register?"

"No," The girl held up a couple green notes. "I needed some of these people's faces to cut out and put on this new attractions I'm making. Which one should I use, Benjamin Franklin or Harriet Tubman?"

"Whoa, let's not cut up dollar bills. I have some magazines you can borrow, those are way better." Wendy looked around. "Where's Dipper?"

Mabel put back the bills and walked out from behind the cash register. "Down in Grunkle Ford's lab, with Grunkle Ford."

"Oh, cool!"

"Yeah." The girl crossed her arms. "Last night, too. And yesterday. And the day before."

Wendy looked down at Mabel, frowning concernedly. "Hey, man, are you alright?"

Mabel looked up. "Me? Pshhh, I'm fine. I'm sure sooner or later me and Dipper will go on some crazy adventure in the woods, Mystery Twins style!"

"Haha, that's the Mabel I know!" Wendy walked behind the register. "But you know, me and my friends were thinking about cutting work and hanging out tomorrow; you and Dipper should totally come!"

"Really?" Mabel's eyes brightened. "That would be so cool!"

"Hey, we'd love to have you and Dipper come! Oh, and here's something for you to cut up." She threw Mabel one of her magazines. Then she looked over to the back of the room, frowning. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"There, coming from the vending machine." Before either of them could say anything the vending machine swung open, revealing Dipper.

"Mabel?"

"Dipper!" Mabel dropped the magazines and tackled her brother with a hug. "I feel like I haven't seen you in forever!"

"Haha, it's great to see you too, Mabel!" Dipper patted his sister's back. "Hey, I wanted to show you something."

"Down in the lab?"

Dipper nodded. "You know those three things you wanted me to always show you if we ever started studying one of them?"

Mabel's eyes went wide. "Oh my gosh, Dipper! You mean stickers, vampires and glitter?"

"Yep!" The boy crossed his arms, grinning from ear to ear in excitement. "You know which one it is."

"That's so amazing! Eeeee!" Mabel jumped up and down. "I can't believe you guys are finally studying stickers!"

"Yeah- wait, what? No, I didn't mean stickers."

"Glitter?"

"No, Mabel, vampires!"

"Ohhhhhh." Mabel blinked, then resumed her excited attitude. "Vampires! That's so cool, Dipper!"

"Hey," Wendy called from the counter. "Have fun, you two!"

"Wendy! I'm so sorry, I didn't notice you!" Dipper slapped his head. "Oh, if I knew you were here we would have brought a spare gas mask-"

Mabel raised an eyebrow. "Gas mask?"

"Nah, it's all cool. Three's a crowd." Wendy winked at Mabel. "Show me later, okay?"

"Oh, okay, Wendy!" Dipper backed up towards the lab. "Sorry again!"

Mabel laughed as her brother opened the secret vending machine door and tugged her along. "Alright! I can't wait to see some vampires!"

"It's gonna be great, Mabel!" Dipper then stopped in front of the elevator and turned to face her head on. "Just before we go down, you've got to promise you won't, you know, break anything, okay?"

"Me? Break something? Please," Mabel waved her hand, which struck a lightbulb and smashed it. "That proves nothing."

Dipper sighed. "Okay, well… as long as you don't have your grappling hook?"

"I'm not gonna shoot a vampire with it! Vampires are cool!" She blinked. "Unless they attack you. Wait, if it attacks me won't I need my grappling hook?"

"Please, Mabel, just give me the grappling hook." The boy held out a hand. "You'll understand when we get there."

With a sigh she took out her hook and handed it to Dipper, who put it in his vest. "Fine. Why all this safety stuff anyway, bro bro?"

He tapped a code into the elevator, a big grin on his face. "You'll see."

"Aww, come on!" Mabel stepped into the elevator. "You're seriously not gonna tell me anything?"

"It's a surprise!"

"Not even what he looks like?" She poked her brother. "Tell me."

"You'll see in five seconds, I promise!"

"Tell me!" Poke. "Tell me!" Poke. "Tell me!"

"Mabel, it's right through here!" The elevators stopped at floor 2, and Mabel stepped out into what could best be described as some sort of hospital area. Most of the room was cut off behind a bright white sheet, leaving them standing in a short stub next to some cages.

"Ooh." Mabel looked over to the cages, tall and dark. "So which one of these has the vampire in it."

"Mabel, that's not-"

"Is it in this cage?" Mabel stuck her head through one of them. "Hello, Mr Vampire! Huh, I guess not… oh, and I'm stuck."

"No, you're not." Dipper crossed his arms. "Just turn your head back the way it was when you went in."

"I didn't turn my head. Did you guys invent shrinking bars?"

"Yes, you did."

"You did invent shrinking bars?"

"No, I said you definitely turned your head."

"Oh, whatever, I'll just try moving back." She took a step back, and the cage started to tilt. "No, no no! Bad idea! Bad idea!" The cage fell on her with a crash.

"Mabel!"

"I'm okay! Just, really stuck." She giggled. "Well, there's definitely no vampires in here!"

Ford looked down at Dipper, his voice low. "Are you sure this is a good idea? It's a very delicate experiment."

"Mabel's fine." He started lifting the cage. "Besides, she'd kill me if we had vampire stuff down here and I didn't show her, right?"

"Darn right!" Mabel put her hands on the bars. "Now how's about you let me out of here?"

"Don't worry, I got you." Dipper took his sister's hand. "Just turn your head this time!"

"Ahem," Ford cleared his throat. "With that done, I do have one thing I need to give you two in the event of an accident."

Mabel gasped. "Garlic?"

"No, gas masks." Ford handed out two masks. "They're tested, so as long as you don't mess with the filter it should protect you against the biohazard."

"Biohazard?" Mabel held out the gas mask as Dipper and Ford ran over to the white sheet. "Wait a minute, weird hospital room? Gas mask? There's no vampire here!"

The two pulled down the sheet, to reveal what appeared to be a small glass bottle containing… nothing. "Behold," Ford spread his arms. "The first ever captured sample of Sanguinare Vampiris!"

"Isn't it cool, Mabel?"

"It's… a bottle." Mabel took a few steps closer to her brother, unable to stop the disappointment from leaking into her tone. "Wow."

Ford grinned, circling around the sample. "It might not seem like much, but that's because the spores are invisible to the naked eye. Also completely odorless and tasteless." His smile stretched. "You don't want to know how long I've been trying to get my hands on a sample. But wow, was it worth it! I've already performed preliminary tests on the spores – absolutely fascinating! They appear to feed off the blood cells until-"

"So vampires are actually, like, a disease?" Mabel thought about all the vampire romance novels she'd read and made a face.

"The correct term is vampirism, Mabel." Ford wagged a finger. "Anyway, the spores are fascinating, but what I'm hoping is that they lead me to an even bigger prize: the capture of a live vampire!"

Mable fiddled with a mesh part on the front of her gas mask. "Couldn't you just infect somebody with it?"

"What? No!" Stanford's eyes widened, and he picked up the sample. "Vampirism is a serious, incurable condition! If this was ever inhaled, it would mean a death sentence! After that the victims quickly deteriorate into singleminded killers with an unquenchable thirst for human blood."

"So… like zombies?"

"Similar, but much more dangerous. Much more... clever." Ford replaced it."It was a small miracle one of them almost got caught in a trap to give us this sample. It must have been getting desperate for blood."

This was really ruining all her hot vampire romance novels.

"That's why we have it here." Dipper patted the table, which wobbled. "On this small, shaky table. In a glass jar." He laughed nervously. "Hahaha… why did we do that again?"

Ford shrugged. "You said you wanted it to be dramatic; I trusted your judgment."

"Yeah, well…" Dipper rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry this was a bust for you, Mabel. You can go upstairs; I'll tell you if we ever catch a real vampire."

"No! No, it's okay," Mabel skipped over to the table. "I don't have to go yet, bro bro. I could… help you find something more sturdy!"

Dipper's eyes widened as she picked up the table, with the sample on top of it. "No, no, wait, Mabel, no!"

"Oh." Mabel put a hand on the glass jar. "Whoops, silly me! I got it."

"Mabel, don't touch that!" Ford stepped forwards. "We can handle this, just go upstairs!"

"But-"

"Mabel, put it down!" Her brother ordered, and she quickly dropped the table. The sample bounced off and smashed on the floor.

Mabel backed away. "Oh my god, sorry, sorry, sorry!" She then felt her brother run up to her and shove her out of the way.

"Mabel, put on the mask! Get to the elevator!"

Mabel diligently put on the gas mask, shivering as what felt like a cold wind brushed past her. Ford rushed up to the two of them and shoved them in the elevator, quickly closing it behind them.

Mabel moved to take off her mask, but she was quickly stopped by Ford. He pressed a button and all of the air was sucked out of the space, then quickly replaced.

Then he took off his mask. Dipper and Mabel followed suit.

"Well, haha," Mabel looked at the two, but they had crossed their arms and turned away from her. "Thanks, um, for the save! What an adventure, right, guys?"

"What an adventure!" Ford growled as the doors opened. "That sample took years of dangerous investigation to find, and you come in and knock it over!" He snatched the mask out of Mabel's hands. "Come, Dipper. If we're quick, we may still be able to recover some of the spores."

"I'm really sorry!" Mabel turned and looked at her brother. Dipper gave a sort of half-glare before looking away. "When can I see you again? Tonight?"

The doors started to close. "Tomorrow morning? I forgot to tell you, there's a thing going on and-"

With a hiss of air, the elevator closed. Mabel sighed and touched the metal. "Great job, Mabel Pines. You really blew it this time." She trudged back up the stairs. "Now Dipper's mad at me, and there's no chance he's gonna… gonna-"

Mabel suddenly descended into a brief coughing fit, before quickly recovering. "Hehe, my throat tickles!" She then straightened up. "You know what, I don't need to be a negative Nancy about this! Dipper loves me, he just needs to cool off. I'll just wait until Dipper comes up for food, and then I'll give him a huge apology! Ooh, with a card!" She skipped up the stairs. "I'm gonna work on that right now, and put on all the glitter!"

Edited 6/8/17