All I can say is that I'm sorry this took so long to write. Here's to hopefully writing faster in the future and having less dumb things get in the way.

The Paradox Canon

Book 1: On Gilded Wings

Act 1: Eccentricities

Chapter 5: Sinking Pride

Part 1: Sandstorm

- - - Dipper Pines - - -

The wind howled deafeningly, signaling bad weather to come. I was the first one off of the airplane, so I was the first to survey the landscape. The airfield was on a large plateau about 3 miles to the south of Sante Fe, overlooking the city and the surrounding mountains. It was a breathtaking view, and I couldn't bring myself to look away.

Pacifica came up behind me, and rested an arm on my shoulder. Strange, considering I was about an inch taller than her, meaning it couldn't have been comfortable. "Sure is an awesome view, huh?" she asked.

"Yeah, kinda cold up here, too. You'd think New Mexico would've been hotter than this," I said, wishing I'd packed more than short-sleeve shirts.

She shrugged. "Sante Fe is up in the mountains, Dipper. It's a lot colder here than people realize, even in the summer. Granted, it is pretty late in the summer right now."

"Yeah, I guess so..." I trailed off. "You know, you're acting like you come here often."

Not even taking her eyes off of the city, she sighed. "Dipper, my family and I fly down here pretty regularly to go skiing. You've just only been in Gravity Falls during the summer, so you didn't know about it."

"Oh," I sheepishly forced out. She was constantly reaffirming that there was more to her than meets the eye. I was glad that we'd become friends, and I was beginning to like her more and more every day now.

Soon, the rest of the group got off of the plane, and we all made our way to the main building. There, 319 rented a car using a credit card Mr. Northwest had given Pacifica. From there he began driving us into the city.

Settled in for the ride, I dug out my Journals and began cracking the next piece's code.

About 10 minutes after we left the airfield, we arrived at the hotel we planned on staying at. "Come on, Dipper! Let's get out and explore!" Mabel invited as she grabbed her suitcase from the trunk of the small sedan. I still hadn't left my seat. She frowned. "Come on, you already missed all of the sights on the way over here. Have you even found anything yet?" she asked.

"Yes, actually. I came up with an Affine sequence:

Kyzj jvtfeu gzvtv zj cftrkvu ze kyv Jre Grscf Iruzf Flkgfjk.

Svnriv, jzetv kyv rsreufedvek fw kyv wrtzczkp, kyviv yrmv svve eldviflj ivgfikj
fw jvzjdzt rtkzmzkp ze kyv rivr.

Which roughly translates to,

This second piece is located in the San Pablo Radio Outpost.

Beware, since the abandonment of the facility, there have been numerous reports

of seismic activity in the area."

"That doesn't sound fun," Pacifica said, sliding back into the seat next to me. She handed me a room key, saying, "319's finishing up the check-in process, but we got the keys. Let's go stash our stuff up in the room and see the sights for a bit!"

I shot her a sarcastic look. "I'd rather get the hard part over with quickly. You've been here a million times before, anyway. Haven't you seen everything?"

She lightly swatted at my shoulder before daintily getting back out of the car. "Pshh, as if, Dipper. Sante Fe is huge! We just got out of a dark, scary place, anyway! Let's take a break for a day or two! Dipper, I know that as soon as we get back here with the piece, you're going to be aching to set off again. Can't fool me, weirdo."

I tried to brush off her comeback, but she was right. The less time we spent away from Gravity Falls, the better, in my opinion.

Pacifica shifted towards the door, and held out a hand. "Hey, come on, it'll be fun. Do it for me?" she asked, flashing a warm smile.

Now, call me insane, but something about that just made something click. I figured we could hang out for a while before carrying on. Not too long, though… "Alright, let's do it," I said, taking her hand.

She laughed with excitement, and leaped out of the car, me in tow. We grabbed out stuff, and a luggage cart, then dashed for the elevators. Soos and Mabel were already there, waiting on us before pushing the button.

I was in a good mood, but I couldn't tell you why. It seemed everyone was the same way, which made it even better. We were telling jokes, laughing, and even launching a sarcastic remark now and again. Things were going great.

But, I noticed something. We had been waiting a good while, and the elevator showed no signs of coming our way. I put my ear to the wall, and heard no pulleys turning; no mechanical whirrs. Something was off, and not just in the electrical sense.

Right away, I figured that we were being watched. Possibly by something supernatural. There was the fact of our inexplicable good moods, the seemingly easy trip over, and even my willingness to let loose for a while. Someone, or something, was affecting the way we thought.

I quickly scanned the elevator landing and the lobby for any signs of surveillance. For a fleeting moment, I saw a girl with familiarly red hair leaning up against the wall in the lobby. She was looking right at us, her face adorned with a smirk I was sure I'd seen before.

I jerked my gaze away from her, worried she had noticed me, but I was left more curious than anything. I tried ignoring the nagging feeling in my gut, knowing my curiosity was going to get me killed someday, but I couldn't get her out of my mind. This was the second time I'd seen here, which only made things worse. She was the girl from the mall back in Gravity Falls, I was sure of it.

I looked between her and the others, trying to figure out what the best course of action would be. A whirring sound began emanation from the elevator shaft – it was on its way.

Making a split second decision, I turned to the group. "Guys, I'll be right back. I, uh...need to use the restroom. Go ahead up to the room, I'll meet you there," I said, already sprinting back into the lobby.

"Dipper, wait!" Pacifica called, but I ignored her.

It was only after I'd reached the center of the lobby, a giant marble likeness of a compass embossed into the floor, that I realized that the girl had left her post against the wall. I did a once-over of the room, and saw her dodging into a stairwell. I ran after her, and flung open the heavy steel door that separated the lobby and the escalier.

The stair weren't very steep, so it was a relatively easy climb, and I was pushed harder by the sound of both of our footfalls echoing though the room. Then, as I reached the 6th floor, the second set of footsteps halted. Confused, I slowed down, checking each landing for any sign that she'd left the stairwell.

I soon reached the 8th floor, however, and saw that the door was being propped open with a cassette tape. I picked it up, and dusted it off. It was marked only with a single number: "1".

Confused, I stashed the tape in my vest pocket, with Journal 2. I began looking for a way to play the tape, and soon found a hotel directory. On it I found the location of the hotel's resident library: on the 8th floor, conveniently enough. Figuring that the library was the best place to look for a media player, I set off.

The library was located on the opposite end of the hall, so I passed by lots of rooms on my way there. One, however, caught my eye.

8125.

On its doorknob rested a 'do not disturb' sign, with a little insignia scratched into it that I didn't recognize: a bird of some sort, clutching a necklace in its talons. I wondered at its significance for a moment, knowing somewhere deep down that I knew that symbol from somewhere. I shook my head, nothing was coming to me.

The entrance to the library was just down the hall, guarded by a room-key lock. I waved my keycard in front of the sensor, and it clunked open, making a pleasant electronic 'ding'.

I stepped inside, and found a secluded corner near the back of the area with all kinds of media players. After a bit of digging, I managed to pull a cassette tape player out of a bin marked 'Audio'. Then, I opened it up, stuck the tape in, and pushed play.

The player sputtered to life, and I heard a man begin to speak. "Hello, hello? Hello, hello? Testing, 1, 2, 3. Testing, 1, 2, 3."

The man cleared his throat before speaking again. "I am Dr. Johannes Aideweiller. I have been a top researcher for, and close friend of Mason Austillor for many years. We've endured many a hardship and experienced many an adventure together.

"He's been acting strangely recently, though, and I'm fearing for what the future may hold, so I'm making this tape as a record of things, just in case something should happen to me or anyone else on this new project.

"As of April 1981, four months ago, he's halted all research and development for our main projects, instead shifting over to quote on quote 'new horizons' by pulling countless researchers out of the field. He's bringing them to new complexes that he's setting up, but he won't tell us what they're for. Hell, I'm even in charge of one and I have no idea what's going on!

"He's told us that we're to keep working, but his instructions were…vague at best. He mentioned something about testing the limits of mathematics and science, and 'bringing forth a new era of technology', whatever that means.

"Frankly, I have no idea what he's talking about. We'll just have to wait and see what the future holds, I guess.

"Anyway, the first complex is just outside of Sante Fe, New Mexico, and Mason said that it will function as a branch focusing on the biological. What that has to do with technology, I have no idea. But, as of now, there is a radio tower in the position that he wants, so acquiring the land could prove difficult. I don't understand why he'd choose that exact spot when there's hundreds of miles of desert surrounding it, but I'm sure he has a reason. I'm going to try and figure it out. If this is the last you hear of me, assume the worst. Johannes out."

The tape clicked off.

I was dumbfounded. Why was a tape like this just sitting in the stairwell, propping a door open? Had it been put there purposefully? I didn't have time to think about it. I took the tape out of the player and stowed it in my vest, returning the player to the bin.

"You," a female voice stated, jolting me out of my thoughts.

I nearly jumped, and looked up to see the redhead, leaning casually on a nearby bookcase. "Huh?" I asked, really showing off my intelligence.

She smiled reminiscently. "I'm giving fair warning here. You don't know what you're getting yourself into, Mason."

"Wait, how do you know my real name?" I asked, incredulous.

"I have my ways, kid. It isn't hard to figure out. It's kind of weird how you have the same first name as Mr. Austillor, though. Funny how things work out, isn't it?" she said, shrugging. "Anyway, I'm on your side here, kid. Trust me, Mr. Austillor and his…associates…are far more dangerous than you think. It isn't wise to keep going. You seem sensible, Dipper. Call this whole thing off, you know deep down that it was never a good idea in the first place. Heck, if you'd just stayed put a few more days, you'd have met the author for yourself. These are the kinds of things you miss when you go off on wild goose chases, Dipper."

"T-the author? You mean..?" I trailed off, startled.

She smirked. "Yeah, that one."

I shook my head. "It doesn't matter. I'm sorry…whoever you are. But, I've already come this far, and I'm not giving up just yet."

She rolled her eyes. "Dude, you have one out of the seven pieces." She sighed. "Fine. I see that I'm not going to dissuade you. I'll see you again, Dipper, I know that for sure. But, next time we meet, it won't be such a friendly debate. Mr. Austillor doesn't play nice."

She started to leave, but I called out to her. "Wait, hey-"

She cut me off. "We could've been friends, Dipper. I've seen it happen before, I know you're a nice person. Sadly, that's just not how the dice fell." With that, she tucked the ruby amulet she'd been wearing into her back pocket, then disappeared into the halls of the library. I looked around for a second, but there was no sign of her. The girl with the amulet was gone.

- - - Pacifica Northwest - - -

I heard a door slam and looked up from my phone to see Dipper walk into the hotel room. He shook his head and mumbled something about wanting to punch someone in the face. "What's up? Something wrong?" I asked.

He snapped his gaze to me, before shaking his head in frustration. "It...it's nothing. Don't worry about it. I just ran into an old friend in the library."

"Doesn't sound very friendly to me..." I trailed off, then quickly changed the subject. "They have a library here?"

"Yeah, up on the 8th floor."

"Cool. Anything you wanna do in town? Shopping? Food?"

"I don't know, not really feeling anything right now."

I half slid, half slumped off of the bed, and walked over to him. "Dipper, what's wrong? Something's bothering you."

"I'll tell you about it later. I don't even know enough about what's happening to talk about it."

I rolled my eyes. "Everything's such a mystery with you, doofus."

He smiled, his beautiful brown eyes twinkling at me. Wait, beautiful?

"Yeah, and you just have to get good enough to solve them. Get to work, Northwest," he said, mocking a snobby tone.

"Shove it, Pines."

He winked before walking into the adjoining bedroom and practically jumping onto his bed.

"I hope you know that we're doing something in town before we go mystery chasing again," I called after him.

"Sure we are."

Dust swirled around me as I slammed the car door shut. I began surveying our surrounding as Mabel somehow tripped on her sock. "Agh!" came the sounds of instant regret.

"Oh my gosh, are you okay?" Dipper asked, kneeling down to help her up. She tried to get up, and groaned as she put her wait on her ankle.

Soos came over to help, and I looked up from the scene to see 319 surveying the landscape. We were parked just below the peak of a plateau overlooking the New Mexican desert, in a small natural alcove to protect the car from the sands. From here, you could see everything for miles around, including the object of 319's attention, the San Pablo Radio Outpost. It was a medium-sized building, though it towered over the flat terrain around it. It was comprised of 3 small buildings with a massive radio tower sticking out of the middle, the biggest, building. The tower itself was decrepit and bathed in rust from top to bottom, giving it a foreboding atmosphere while also conveying a sense of antiquity, even though it was only a few decades old at most.

When Mabel had reached a point where she felt comfortable walking, we began descending the plateau and making our way over to the radio tower, which was about a half of a mile away. The summer heat beat down on us like a hammer, silencing all attempts at conversation. I tried a couple times to bounce questions off of 319 and sent a few mocking comments Dipper's way, but to no avail.

About midway to the building, Dipper suddenly looked up from the sand. He glanced at me, then nodded in 319's direction. I tried to sign somehow that I had no idea what he was implying. For all that I'd been forced to learn, body language evaded my grasp like the last Bran™ Flakie™ in a bowl of specially marked Bran™ Flakie™ Cereal Food™.

Dipper seemed to get the general idea, though. He cleared his throat, causing everyone to glance at him as they walked. "Hey, 319."

319 returned his gaze to the path in front of him. "Hmm?"

"Are you what the author actually looks like?" Dipper asked, an expression of curiosity lighting up his adorable face. I mentally chided myself. Thoughts like that don't lead anywhere good.

"What?"

"I mean, you're a clone of him, right?"

"I-it's not that simple. I'm…a sort of prototype, I guess you could say. I'm not a perfect replica. My facial structure is similar but different in a way that would make me unrecognizable as his clone. Our bodies are practically identical however. The more prominent, bigger details of the human body can be cloned, but the smaller details get muddied. At least, that's how I remember him explaining it to me."

Dipper bit the inside of his mouth. I noticed that he seemed to do that when he was thinking. "Do you remember what he looks like?"

"Not really. It's all a bit fuzzy. I mean, it was 30 years ago," 319 quickly replied, his voice faltering slightly.

Dipper flashed me a look, but I shrugged it off. I sighed, a bit confused with myself. I was usually so good at reading people, why were 319 and Dipper different?

About 5 more minutes of walking in silence later, we arrived at the station. A metal chain link fence separated us from the group of buildings, but 319 broke the lock on the gate with a pair of pliers from his coat, and a screwdriver. Soos ran over to the nearest, smallest building, and haphazardly threw the door open, spewing dust every which way. He coughed and flailed his arm through the air, trying to wave away the dust. "Aw, dude, it's like I inhaled an entire lint trap!" he wailed in between coughs.

"This place is old, we shouldn't be too violent with anything here. Remember, anything could jump out at you at anytime, as Bill is watching us. He knows we are here, and could use this opportunity to strike us down!" 319 warned, checking his watch.

"There's no way he'd do that," Dipper said, only half-believing it, "we're too important to his plans." The dust had cleared and we'd revealed the building to be nothing more than a mostly empty storeroom. Nothing of importance to us there.

319 was ready with a response immediately. "In my experiences at least, Cipher is not a threat to be trifled with, a being who's plans could change for the more chaotic at any moment. We should at least proceed with caution."

"Now that, I can agree with," Dipper said, adjusting his bangs. By this time, we'd reached the main building, and Dipper opened the door gently, barely putting forth the effort required to budge the rusted metal.

"Come on, you guys are no fun!" Mabel pouted, shoving past him into the building. She twirled and fell backwards onto an old couch cushion lying crumpled against the wall. Dust exploded into the air around here, but she seemed to be unfazed.

I wasn't so lucky, as I'd walked int with here, assuming I was safe. "Gah, a little warning next time, will you?"

Dipper's dormant expression grew into a slight smile at the scene. "Mabel, we're trying not to die of suffocation here."

The inside of the station was exactly as I expected. Dilapidated tile flooring and walls complete with peeling paint and mold-infested drywall. The fluorescent lights on the ceiling most likely hadn't been on in 30 years, and there was a smell of must in the air. The door we came through opened into a long hallway with rooms leading off on each side. At the end of the hallway was a fuse box, with a stairway to each side. Left went up, and right went down.

Soos peeked into one of the side rooms, and waved for us to come in. I walked over to him, and noticed 319 looking at some mold growing on the walls. He said something about wishing he had a notebook, then shook his head and continued looking around. I got to Soos and glanced around him, seeing an array of furniture spread across the room. It almost looked like a waiting room at doctor's office, but then state of decay and dilapidation gave it a more uneasy feeling. I stepped into the room to get a closer look at something that had caught my eye, a newspaper. I was followed by Dipper, who peered over my shoulder as I read the date in the top right corner of the page: August 19th, 1981.

"Seems like this place wasn't used after '81. That's a few days after..." Dipper trailed off, mumbling to himself about a recording.

I glanced over my shoulder at him. "Huh?"

He blushed and quickly looked away with a yelp before coming to his senses and answering me. "Oh, uh, nothing. Just thinking out loud."

I shook off my uneasy feelings, and stepped back out into the hallway, where Mabel was already bounding into the next side room. I was about to head in that direction when the wind picked up outside, making a sort of howling noise as it blew throughout the desert outside. 319's gaze snapped from the second side room to the door to the outside. We hadn't shut it, so you could see for miles across the sand.

"This isn't good," 319 grumbled, sneaking a look at the dial on his watch before quickly walking over to the door and forcing it shut.

"What's wrong?" I asked, my attention temporarily torn from exploring the building.

"If the winds get strong enough around these parts, a sandstorm is more than likely to follow. Judging solely on the noises coming from outside, I'd say that it's far surpassed where I'd like it to be. A rough guess puts the storm at about 10 minutes away. Quickly, everyone! If there are any open windows, we need them shut, immediately!" 319 called over the ever-increasing winds.

We spread out and scanned the first floor, not finding an open window. When we got to the end of the hall, we tried to figure out how to split up our group.

"There aren't going to be any windows downstairs," I pointed out.

"Yeah, if you guys want, I'll cover the upstairs. I'll make sure that not a single window is left open!" Soos said, saluting.

"I'll come with you!" Mabel countered, jumping to Soos's side, punching the air in front of her. "It'll be great, Soos and Mabel, the dynamic duo, back in action!"

"Heheh, more like dynamic dude-o, right, dude?"

Dipper groaned at the pun, and I patted his shoulder in mock reassurance, though I couldn't help but snicker.

319 turned towards the right-hand staircase. "This arrangement is suitable. Come along, Dipper, Pacifica, the underground awaits us yet again!" With that, he began marching down the stairs, not waiting for a response.

I glanced at the fuse box on the wall in front of us before following along. '2'. I wondered at it's significance. Was this the second fuse box? Where was the first?

I pointed it out to Dipper, who looked just as confused as I was. "Maybe it's the building number?" he suggested, referring to the other, smaller building we had still yet to clear. "Either way, we don't need to worry about it. We have other objectives."

"Right," I said, absentmindedly twirling my hair. I noticed what I'd been doing, and forced myself to stop. I remember thinking that it was kind of weird; I only did that around boys I liked.

- - - Dipper Pines - - -

The brittle metallic clanking of our shoes on the stairs resounded throughout the stairwell, the only sound aside from our breathing. After only a flight, they gave way to another hallway. Opposite us was another staircase, and on the wall to our right, another fuse box. '1'.

"Hmm, maybe there's a box for every floor?" 319 offered before taking a quick glance down the long hall to our left. I started to say something, but I was cut off by the building groaning against the force of the sand and wind outside. "It appears that the sandstorm is here," 319 said grimly.

"How long until it stops?" Pacifica asked.

"Who knows? It depends on how lenient nature is feeling. Could be anywhere from an hour or two, to somewhere in the ballpark of two days. Depends on what type of sandstorm it is, as well." 319 made no physical movements to acknowledge Pacifica's question, instead intently studying the slight erosion on the walls. He quickly pulled out a small notepad and jotted something down, before returning it and moving on. Wait, what?

"Oh, great. We didn't think to bring any food with us, did we?" she asked, glancing back at the stairs, as if longing to leave.

I reached inside my jacket and tossed her a granola bar. I had brought three of of them, just in case. I opened a second, and offered 319 the third, but he made no motion to accept it.

"Thanks, Dip," Pacifica said between bites. The two of us had started walking down the corridor, for a moment not caring that 319 had been left behind. Not wanting to just leave my wrapper in an abandoned building, I stuffed it into a pocket in my shorts. Pacifica didn't have this luxury, as she was wearing a weird kind of leggings, so she sheepishly handed it to me and asked me to keep hold of it.

I suppressed laughter, and focused on the hallway ahead to get my mind off of the girl next to me who I am not going to name for fear of...dammit. The hall was coming to an end pretty quickly. I sighed, preparing to return to the stairwell to head down another level when I saw a slight discontinuity in the wall on the right side. Not seeing a way to break the now-awkward silence, I silently walked towards what I now saw to be a hole in the wall. It seemed that the seismic activity had caused the wall to cave in at this spot, revealing caverns further down. "Woah," Pacifica said, peering into the cave-in.

"Hey, 319, you might want to see this!" I said, waving him over. He stepped out of one of the side rooms and came to investigate, snapping a coat pocket shut.

Upon reaching us, his demeanor seemed to change. "Wonderful, has the seismic activity in the area caused a cave-in? We must explore this at once!" he said.

"Wait, I don't if we shou-" I was cut off as 319 laughed clearly, like the ringing of a large bell, grabbing us by the hands and near-sprinting into the caverns below.

- - - Mabel Pines - - -

So far, sandstorms have a 2/10 on the Mabel recommendation scale. I opened a door, revealing another empty ceiling fan was spinning, probably because of the sucky sandstorm. I quickly looked around for anything that might be cool, but there wasn't so I went back out into the hallway. Soos was clanking around in another room down the hall, so I went to join him. When I got to him, he was looking through a stack of papers on a desk by the far wall. Hearing me walk in, he turned around. "Hey, Hambone, you should check this out. It's like some kind of report on the earthquakes and stuff."

He handed me the first sheet in the stack and kept reading. It was a letter by someone named Logan Browning to a guy named Johannes Aideweiller, dated September 15, 1981.

"After looking into it, you were right, Johannes. There is a small fault line in this area that the station just so happens to be built over. I don't know why your guy wants our station, but I guess this'll be the reason for a drop in price, if you even still want it.

"Anyway, it turns out that every so often there's a surge of seismic activity, and the area shifts slightly. I've never had any problems with the tremors, and I had just excepted them as the normal. I'll let you know if they cause me any trouble. Keep in touch."

I set the sheet down and picked up the next one. It was another letter from Browning, this one dated October 2, 1981.

"Hey, Dr. Aideweiller, I've been keeping a closer eye on the station. I measured a ton of the buildings and distances between things on a hunch, and I found something pretty interesting. After the most recent quake, the entire facility had shifted down. It was a small amount, less than a centimeter, but noticeable. Seeing this, I measured the height of the radio tower again, which is supposed to be 400 feet. I got 396. I compared to old pictures and did what I could to make sure the measurement was accurate, and noticed a small difference. As you know, the station is built upon a small platform about 3 feet above the desert. Guess what, when this place was built in '77, it was about 6 feet. I honestly cant believe I hadn't noticed. If this impacts your organization's stance at all, please let me know. The pictures are attached."

I looked at the pile and saw a stack of pictures, dated and labeled. The differences in height were very noticeable. I hadn't noticed the platform when we had walked up. Then, I noticed the white numbers on the side of the building, marking each floor. I remembered the fuse boxes.

The entire first floor has shifted underground.

I continued down the stack.

"...shifted another inch.."

"...getting more frequent..."

"...sandstorm yesterday..."

The second-to-last paper in the stack was another letter from Browning. This time it was addresseddirectly to Mason Austillor, dated June 17, 1982.

"Greetings, Mr. Austillor. Before beginning my message, I must thank you for the finalization of the contract last week. We're getting the station ready for the change of hands as I write. Yesterday we found something that might be worthy of your attention. There was another tremor in the night on the 15th, and I came out to the station yesterday morning to find that a room in the basement had caved in. The basement is a full foot underground now, as opposed to the floor of the basement being 2 feet below ground level. The room had collapsed, revealing a cave system underneath the complex. It turns out that there's a massive chasm almost directly under the station. I fear that one day a tremor will cause the station to collapse entirely. The best part is that we found some of the 'samples' you talked about in the caves. They exist, just like you said. I have no idea how, or why, but they do. There were hundreds of them. I believe that it is necessary for you to visit the station in person, as soon as possible. This could be the breakthrough. Looking forward to working with you."

The last letter sheet was a response, dated June 20, 1982.

"Dear Mr. Browning. I appreciate that you called this event to my attention. I will travel to Sante Fe at the earliest opportunity. Unfortunately, this might take several days or even weeks. A colleague and good friend of mine was killed suspiciously on the 18th, and the legal issues are insane, not to mention the weight this puts on us, the grief withheld. I will be in Sante Fe as soon as I can. I wish you well."

I put the sheet down, and looked up at Soos, who had just been watching me read the last letter. "Pretty crazy stuff, right, dude?" he asked, gesturing to the stack.

"Oh yeah. I wonder what 'samples' they talked about. But I mean, apparently Daniel's dad was here!" I said, a bit shocked.

"Yeah, crazy weird stuff was happening here," Soos said, shrugging.

I brushed the gathering dust off of my sweat, bonkers was it hot, and stepped back out into the hallway. I took a peek out of a nearby window and saw that the sandstorm was slowing down. "C'mon, Soos, lets go find the others, the storm is chilling out."

"Right, dude!" Soos chimed, starting after me. We started walking towards the stairwell when a stray sheet of paper caught my eye about halfway down the hallway. I bent down and picked it up, dusting it off in the process.

It was a picture, scribbled over in permanent marker.

"Mr. Austillor, here's a picture of one of the samples we found. -Browning."

It was a picture of a huge brown rock, and it seemed almost transparent. There were more in the background that looked pretty much the same. "Hey, dude, that looks like that one kind of rock. Y'know, the one that does the thing," Soos said, always happy to help.

What thing did he mean? I took a closer look and saw a pattern in the rock's face. Wait, that wasn't a pattern. Soos didn't mean what I think he meant, did he? I was able to pick up more of the 'pattern' and almost dropped the picture when I realized what I was looking at. I distinctly remembered it from earlier in the summer. "You're right, Soos. C'mon, we need to warn the others."

- - - Dipper Pines - - -

The sound of dripping water echoed throughout the cavern, bringing dread like a ticking bomb. It had been about 10 minutes since we'd entered the caves and I was getting a bit concerned since we had no way to contact Mabel and Soos. How did 319 plan on letting them know where we were?

I saw an opening at the end of this tunnel into what looked to be a large open area. Pacifica ran ahead, excited. "Come on, guys!"

I started to run after her before 319 pulled me back. "Let her go. We need to talk, kiddo."

I snapped my gaze to him, confused. "What?"

"We need to talk about what happened in the bunker. What did you find?"

The X-ray goggles and spell book. I wasn't going to tell him that, though. "Not much, I found a cool trinket with a sapphire in it. It refracts light in a cool way. I left it in my bag in the room."

319's expression shifted, and his eyes darkened. "Sounds interesting, mind if I see it when we get back?" he asked innocently.

Suppressing panic, I nodded. "Sure."

He suppressed a grin. "Good, I look forward to seeing it."

I nodded, and he let go of me. I was getting really suspicious of him now, something just wasn't right. I continued down the path, trying to catch up to Pacifica, who had only just noticed that we had stopped. She walked back over to us and though for a second, as if she wanted to ask something, then shook her head and turned back around.

We were nearing the end of the tunnel. The vast cavern lay ahead of us, its unknown wonders dangling ahead of us like a drop of water to our parched tongues. When we reached the end, I saw that the cavern was bigger than I expected, it was at least a few cubic miles. We were on a massive ledge, overlooking a huge cliff with what looked like a lush jungle at the bottom. The incline down to the bottom wasn't very steep, one could slide or even carefully walk down to the bottom if they wished, but the drop was big. It was at least a couple hundred feet. If I had to put a number on it, I'd say 550 feet. It looked like the safest way down, however was to take a side tunnel down to another ledge about a hundred feet below us.

The cave around the ledge was dotted in minerals and shiny rocks, sparkling in the dark cave. There were deposits of many a rare mineral, but what was most shocking was the large quantities of amber. The stuff was everywhere. There were mounds of it almost entirely covering the floor of the cavern, making walking across almost akin to navigating a maze. Without paying too much attention to the amber, I reached the edge of the cliff. I was on what I assumed to be the east side of the ledge, opposite the way we came in. The cliff with the jungle was to the north, and wall to the south. There was another drop off, thought less deep. It only looked about 150 feet down. There was a crumpled pile of rocks and metal at the bottom, which struck me as a bit odd until I saw the white 'B' spray paint onto the most intact piece.

I looked up, and saw the upper half of the basement floor of the station sticking out of the roof.

Just then, a tremor hit, and shook everything. I hit the deck, and I heard Pacifica and 319 do roughly the same thing wherever they were. I watched the basement as the tremor took its toll, and saw it shift slightly down with the quaking. A small piece broke off of the wall, and fell into the pit. So that's why it's sinking. That wasn't good, though. It meant that the whole thing was going to come crashing down at some point.

The tremor soon subsided, and I got up and dusted myself off. Looking around, I saw that some of the amber had been dislodged by the tremor, and some had just been moved by the rumbling. I also saw that there were amber shards everywhere, as if the tremors had already broken several pieces. There were strange markings and imprints in the ground that I thought I recognized, but I didn't want to test my theory. The piece of amber nearest to me had tipped over sideways. In the top, something I hadn't seen before was trapped.

A small dinosaurian creature was trapped in the amber, it's sickle claw sticking out of the rock.

The claw twitched.

I smiled devilishly as I paused to take a break from speaking. Your expression went from shocked to upset in a matter of a second. "Aww, come on! We can't take a break now!"

"Don't worry, Alex, we're not even to the good parts yet."