Mabel squealed as soon as her eyes had adjusted to the rows of virgin pines blurring past the window. Dipper stretched out his arms against her as he settled out of his seat on the bus.

"We're almost there!"

"No need to yell in my ear, Mabel."

The highway stretched on for several more miles with little to no traffic coming the other way. Mabel pointed to a sedan that had whizzed past on the other lane. "That's number...fifty-two!"

Dipper sighed. "We lost count after thirty, remember? Besides, the rules were teamsters only."

A van whistled by. "Fifty-three."

The younger of the two settled back into his seat with a little smile cracking through his docile facade. He wasn't going to play this game again. But, with Mabel, he couldn't just call it quits. "Fine. Fifty-four."

"Where's the car?"

Dipper pointed to the idle police cruiser parked on the side of the road as the bus began to slow to a stop. It had the decorated shield of the Gravity Falls police force stenciled over the door frame. Oddly enough, it was vacant.

"Where's Sheriff Blubs?"

The twins pressed their faces against the plexiglass until a deer leaped out from median and into the woodlands. The uniformed officer that followed it wasn't as chubby or as lean as either of the two cops they knew. Rather, he was well-built and stood with unusual confidence for a lackadaisical enforcer. The face they saw when he turned towards the bus was completely new.

"Road's clear," he hollered to the driver.

The bus shook once, pressure from the pistons hissing free, then began to plod forward, passing the cruiser as the officer was joined by two more who looked less relaxed.

Dipper and Mabel followed their gaze until all three pairs of eyes met with theirs. By then, they disappeared when their shuttle rounded the bend, shrouding them behind scores of trees.

"Who're they?" Dipper asked.

"New friends?" Mabel said with a questioning grin.

Her brother shrugged. Leave it to his sister to consider every stranger a potential playmate. "Never mind."

"Looks like the Gravity Falls police is hiring."

"Mabel, I don't think they actively go recruiting. It's a volunteer force, right? I mean, isn't that the reason why Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland are the only cops we ever see when we're here?"

Mabel pressed her finger to her lips. "Well, there was the dispatcher at the station and the guard who likes to play with crossword puzzles."

"Let's not visit the county jail again this time, okay?" Dipper groaned. "You know what? How about we keep things a bit more in check, this summer. We're old enough for that."

A mock salute was his quick reply. "Yessir, Corporal Dippingsauce!"

"Soos! Wendy!"

The porch bore the weight of several hugs, ruffles, and nudges as the Pines twins met with the Mystery Shack's manager Soos and the only other employee on staff Wendy.

"Hey, dude! Glad to see you again," the redhead greeted, her eyes now level with his.

Dipper chuckled. Being fifteen, he was now as tall as Wendy. "I could say the same for you. What'd we miss?"

"Not much, really," Wendy replied evenly. "Dad's got this sweet new deal for this piece of territory that nobody's logged before. He was really excited about it—first time I've seen him that giddy for a plot of land since I was ten."

"That's great."

"Yeah, I know." The redhead glanced briefly at the floorboards before perking up a smile and shouldering Dipper inside. "Come on in, dude. Business is so-and-so but Soos has been keeping it afloat without the town having to point the tourists to us."

"Cool." Dipper sauntered to the living room and stifled a grin at his great uncle Stan's favorite yellow couch. He could guess that Soos had Abuelita stitch up some of the errant rips in the leather. "Anyone still sitting on that?"

"Who doesn't? Go ahead."

Dipper barely set foot onto the carpet of the familiar room when heavy footfalls reverberated from the staircase. Mabel's voice, teeming with excitement, came screeching over the bannister. "Dipper! We have a new roommate!"

"Wait, what?"

The Pines twins rushed upstairs, barely noticing Wendy's nervous chuckling. Soos joined her at the base of the steps, his hands on his hips.

"I think they'll like having you around," he buoyed.

The redhead breathed deep. Eighteen and she had finally moved out of the Corduroy family lodge...for reasons other than being eighteen. "Only one way to find out."

"There goes your meditation window," Mabel chimed.

Dipper felt his hands ruffle through his hair as he took in the folded blanket, pillow, and other articles of clothing that hung off the walls. The cushioned sofa that rested by his favorite reading spot had since been converted into someone's sleeping quarters. Interestingly, most of these personal effects were somehow familiar. The tartan shirt, the muddy fur boots, the tight denim pair resting against the planed oak...

"Oh, God..."

"Surprise," came the rocky answer from the doorway.

"Wendy! I didn't know you'd be lodging in with us," Mabel nearly screamed while she bolted from her bed and wrapped her arms around their new bedfellow.

Dipper turned to the redhead. His cheeks, he felt, were redder than her locks. "Wendy? Wh-why here?"

"Long story, dude."

"Alright, boys," the sergeant says. "These nut jobs have some real firepower."

Hector Vanchetti taps his vest. "We're ready for 'em, sarge."

Horace Benning nods over his shoulder. "Ready."

The sergeant nods back and signals for the initial breach. An operative swings the hammerhead against the varnished sequoia, smashing the doors open and sending splinters flying back.

"Hands up in the air!"

"Show me your hands!"

"Get down! Now!"

A series of explosions rock the walled complex.

ORIGINALLY DRAFTED: February 19, 2017

LAST EDITED: February 20, 2017

UPLOADED: February 20, 2017