When You're a Mystery Kid

Town of Tinkerers

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters featured here.

Weirdmageddon was, well, weird.

That sounded stupid, but it really was. Coraline thought she had seen everything after spending an entire summer in Gravity Falls, but the few days she spent in that nightmare proved to her how wrong she was. It was like her first day in Gravity Falls all over again, only a bazillion times worse. The weirdness of Weirdmageddon wasn't even the good kind of weird. It was the awful, multiverse-destroying, kill-everything-and-everyone-in-existence kind of weird, which Coraline would put as the worst kind of weird. No small amount of effort and sacrifices were made to put a stop to it. Coraline, and she's pretty sure literally everyone else, was more than ready put that chapter of her life behind her the second the rift was closed and everything went back to the regular kind of weird.

However, after some recent news had come to light, Coraline began to wonder if life really does hate her.

Apparently, Weirdmageddon haven't stopped trying to kill everyone, if Dipper's theory was to be believed. According to it, while the barrier around Gravity Falls managed to contain the brunt of Bill's influence, it wasn't able to contain all of it. Some of it leaked out as unfocused chaotic energy that had an unpredictable chance to manifest in a variety of different ways. Most of them destructive, because this still came from Bill. The biggest example of this chaotic energy manifesting, as it turned out, was the creation of the actual, goddamn, motherfucking Disasteroid.

Weirdmageddon's leftovers nearly destroyed the entire planet.

That revelation made Coraline feel a lot of things, but for now she chose to focus on anger. She's nowhere near ready to admit how scared and helpless that made her feel.

So, after the Mystery Kids received reports of an entire town suddenly appearing out of nowhere in the middle of the biggest lake in Ireland, Dipper, still riding the high of perfecting his theory, quickly guessed that this might be another case of chaotic energy manifestation.

Coraline gave him a questioning glance. "You really think this is another case of... Weirdmageddon leftovers?"

"It created the Disasteroid, it gave Freakshow his staff back," Dipper replied with a shrug, "I don't see why it can't conjure an entire town out of thin air."

Coraline turned her attention back to the town across the water, peering at it with a pair of binoculars. A low-hanging fog covered most of the town and some parts of the lake, but she still managed to make out some details. It seemed to be built on a hill or something, giving the town a tiered look, with the highest point being a very large and luxurious-looking manor, placed so high up it was actually the most visible part of the town through the fog. Down near the base, she spotted what looked like an industrial area, as well as a bridge coming out of the city that seemed to lead to nowhere.

Coraline lowered her binoculars. "So, we're dealing with, what, an evil town?"

"Well-" Dipper opened a blank page on his new journal-"I guess we'll see, won't we?"

"I guess." Coraline placed her binoculars back in her satchel. She turned on her heels, calling out, "Alright, Mystery Kids, gather up!"

The team quickly gathered together near where they parked their jet. Dipper was the last to arrive, slowly limping his way over from where he stood at the edge of the lake, stubbornly refusing help from Mabel when she offered it. The shame of his own spell backfiring must have really gotten to him. Coraline took note of that, before addressing the team.

"Raz, what's the news from your end?" she asked.

"Still pretty much the same as before, cap," Raz answered. "Sudden surge of unknown energy, and then suddenly, boom." He pointed at the town with a thumb. "Loch Neck suddenly has a brand new island in the middle of it."