Summary: Steven, Dipper, and Mabel team up to search for the legendary Gravity Falls Gobblewonker. Can they also find a way to convince the quarreling Amethyst and Pearl to fuse into the equally legendary Opal?
It wasn't unusual for the Gems to be away all night on some far-off mission, and in the same way, it wasn't unusual for Steven to get up early to wait for them. He was still in the middle of breakfast when the warp pad lit up with its telltale glow, prompting Steven to leave his cereal behind to welcome his guardians back instead.
"Hi, you guys!" he called, bounding over to the pad. "Whoa…" he stopped short upon noticing that the Gems were a little worse for wear after whatever they'd just been through.
"Hello, Steven," Garnet greeted coolly, despite the feathers scattered through her disheveled afro. Amethyst cheerfully leapt off the warp pad almost as soon as they returned, toting a large, oddly colored egg over to the kitchen.
"Amethyst, we do not need that!" Pearl scolded as Amethyst began trying to squeeze her prize into the fridge. "It's not going to fit in there!"
"Aw, c'mon, Pearl, I totally got this," Amethyst assured. In one swift move, she pulled the middle shelf out of the fridge, sending any food that had once sat upon it onto the floor. From there, she pushed the egg in as she shot Pearl a smug grin. "See? It fits!" She slammed the door shut, wincing when a sickening crack sounded from within. "Oh man…" she looked away from the fridge, disappointed. "Eh, I guess it's not a total loss. Now we can make a big omelet, or a quiche, or a huge sunny side up!"
"Amethyst…" Pearl groaned, pinching her nose in annoyance.
"Uh, gimme a break, Pearl," Amethyst crossed her arms. "You're no fun anymore. This is why we never form Opal anymore."
"We don't form Opal because you're difficult and a mess ," Pearl retorted just as crossly.
Amethyst stormed over to her, her hands in tight fists at her sides. "We don't form Opal because you're uptight and-"
"Guys! Guys!" Steven suddenly jumped between them, immensely curious. After all, it wasn't every day that he got to discover something new about his mysterious guardians and their mysterious lives. And since he was technically one of them, he was always eager to learn more. "What's Opal?"
"Opal is the two of us," Amethyst smirked as she loudly clapped her hands. " Mashed together."
While that alone was more than enough to intrigue Steven, Pearl quickly jumped in to elaborate much more eloquently. "Is water just hydrogen and oxygen 'mashed together'?" she asked, only to receive blank stares from Steven and Amethyst alike. "Ugh… analogy wasted."
"Steven," Garnet finally cut in. "What Pearl and Amethyst are trying to say is that Opal is the fusion of both of their forms. When Gems synchronize physically, mentally, and emotionally, we can unite into a single, more powerful Gem."
"Whoa…" Steven gaped, stars in his eyes. For as many magical feats he knew the Gems were capable of, this 'fusion' thing sounded like it was one of the most impressive by far. "That's so cool! Tell me more about Opal!"
"Well, Steven," Amethyst wrapped an arm around his shoulder. "She's an ultra-powerful, stone-cold betty–that part's me. And she's like… kinda tall? That part's Pearl."
"As I was trying to say earlier," Pearl interjected. "Opal isn't that simple. She's an amalgam of our combined magical and physical attributes fused into a single entity."
"Wow! So can you do it right now?" Steven asked, looking between the pair pleadingly. "Come on, form Opal!"
Amethyst and Pearl were notably quiet at such a request, exchanging an uncertain glance with each other first before looking to Garnet. She simply crossed her arms and nodded stoically, knowingly. "Well?"
"Uh… well…" Amethyst trailed off, scratching the back of her neck.
"Garnet, you know we only fuse when it's absolutely necessary!" Pearl protested, flustered.
"Alright then," Garnet relented surprisingly easily. Even as Steven let out a loud, disappointed sigh. "If you don't want to fuse, then I won't force you. However, we should set out on our next mission immediately. We need to retrieve the Geode Beetles of Water and Earth."
"Oh! Oh! Can I come this time?" Steven asked. It wasn't often that the Gems allowed him to accompany them on their dangerous missions. But whenever they did, he leapt at the chance to join his team in their important, Earth-protecting work.
"Yes," Garnet nodded before Pearl could put forth any concerns about his safety. Steven gasped, delighted, as Garnet continued. "We'll be splitting up to retrieve them."
"Well, I'm going with not Pearl," Amethyst glared away from her teammate, crossing her arms.
"That's fine with me because I don't want to go with grammatically incorrect people anyway," Pearl turned her nose up at the smaller Gem.
"You three go together,"Garnet commanded, turning back to the warp pad. "I go alone."
"What? Why?" Pearl and Amethyst asked in disgruntled unison.
"The Earth Beetle is at the bottom of a boiling lava lake, and only I can swim through lava," Garnet explained. With a wave of her hand over her face, her usual shades turned into a pair of swimming goggles suitable for the task ahead of her. "You won't even need to warp to find the Water Beetle; it's located somewhere around Lake Gravity Falls. It's safer."
"You mean boring -er ," Amethyst huffed.
"You mean more boring," Pearl corrected, rolling her eyes.
"So you agree with me."
Pearl simply shot her an annoyed look before trudging her way over to the door. "Come on, you two!" she called to Steven and Amethyst, wanting to get this mission over with as quickly as possible. "Let's go."
"Coming!" Steven hurried over. He only stopped short when Garnet addressed him once more from her spot on the warp pad. "Steven! Remember to keep the harmony!"
While Steven didn't know what quite she meant, he still offered her a firm salute as she warped away. "No problem!" He stepped between Pearl and Amethyst, both of them still far from pleased about having to undertake a mission together. Hopefully, they wouldn't be for long, however, if Steven had anything to do about it. "You heard what Garnet said, guys!" he said as they all began their voyage out to the lake. "Today's gonna be all about HAR-MON-Y!"
"Are you ready for the ultimate challenge?"
"I'm always ready."
"Then you know what this means…"
"Syrup race!" And with that, the battle was on. Dipper and Mabel tipped their syrup bottles back, eagerly awaiting to see which stream of sweet, sticky liquid would reach their awaiting tongues first. As usual, it was a rather slow race, one that Mabel ultimately won as she got the first taste of syrup.
"Yes!" she cheered, slamming her bottle back down onto the table.
Dipper simply shrugged, accepting defeat as he turned his attention back to the magazine he'd been reading. "Whoa, no way!" he exclaimed upon noticing an interesting ad. "Mabel, check this out."
Mabel gasped, immensely fascinated by the bizarre novelty item the magazine was advertising. "Human-sized hamster balls? I'm human-sized! It's like it was made for me!"
"No, not that," Dipper pointed to the opposite page. " This ," The page in question promoted a monster photo contest, with the previous month's winner looking far from impressive–-or even real for that matter. What really caught the twins' attention, however, was the incredibly enticing grand prize: $1000 dollars for the winning photo. "We've only been here for a few days, and we've already seen way weirder stuff than that," Dipper said. "We didn't happen to get any pictures of those centipeetles? Or the gnomes?"
"Nope, just memories," Mabel shook her head. "And a few minor acid buns. Oh, and this beard hair!" She held up a handful of gray hair she'd accidentally snagged during their escape.
"...Why did you keep that?"
Mabel could only shrug, not entirely sure of the answer to that question herself.
At the same time, Stan entered the kitchen, strangely upbeat as he offered the twins a seemingly sincere smile. "Morning, knuckleheads. You two know what day it is?"
"Um… happy anniversary?" Dipper guessed.
"Mazel tov!" Mabel chimed in for good measure.
Stan rolled his eyes, lightly tapping Dipper on the back of his head with his rolled-up newspaper. "It's family day, genius! We're cuttin' off work and having one of those, ya know, bonding-type deals."
"Grunkle Stan, is this going to be anything like our last 'family bonding day'?" Dipper asked, concerned. "You know, when you forced us to help you make counterfeit money and said it was 'arts and crafts'?"
"The county jail was so cold," Mabel shuddered at the memory of what happened after they were caught.
"All right, so maybe I haven't been the best summer caretaker so far," Stan admitted. "But I swear, today we're gonna have some real family fun."
Despite their reservations, the twins shared a small, intrigued smile. They couldn't deny they were curious to see what their uncle had in store for the day–just as long as it didn't end up getting them in trouble with the law again. "Now," Stan's smile widened as he wrapped an arm around each of their shoulders. "Who wants to put on some blindfolds and get into my car?"
"Yay!" the twins cheered, excited. At least until Dipper actually realized exactly what Stan had just said. "Wait, what?"
The ride to the lake was a bumpy one, not that Dipper or Mabel were able to see much of it through their blindfolds. Stan was a reckless driver to say the least, which was why it was practically a miracle when the Pines arrived at their destination in one piece. As soon as the car screeched to a stop, Stan escorted them out of it before finally letting them take their blindfolds off to see exactly what their 'family day' would entail.
While the twins had been expecting Stan to take them to a bank or a diamond mine or somewhere else where they could help him illegally acquire money, that wasn't the case. Instead, the town lake stretched out ahead of them, its murky waters shimmering in the mid-morning sun. Countless boats and dinghies floated upon those waters, filled with townsfolk all there to enjoy the very same pastime Stan had brought them there for.
"Ta da!" he proclaimed with a proud, practically excited grin. "It's fishin' season!" While he had hoped his niece and nephew would share his excitement, the most they had to offer for him was confusion.
"Fishing?" Mabel questioned.
"What are you playing at, old man?" Dipper raised an eyebrow, suspicious.
"I'm not playing at anything," Stan assured, surprisingly believably innocent. "You kids will love it. The whole town's out here! And you know what they say: fishing is some quality family bonding."
"I don't think anyone says that," Mabel said, frowning. "Ever."
"Grunkle Stan, why do you want to 'bond' with us all of the sudden?" Dipper asked. After all, since they'd first arrived, Stan had been rather standoffish with both of them. Aside from his brief bout of appreciation after the centipeetle incident, he hadn't shown much interest in spending any 'quality time' with either one of them in favor of putting them to work at the shack instead. Which of course, made today's outing even more sudden and strange.
"Come on, this is gonna be great!" Stan encouraged, though the fact that neither of the twins shared his zeal in the slightest wasn't lost on him. "I know what'll cheer you sad sacks up," he smirked as he pulled two fishing hats out of his vest and popped them on both of their heads. "Bam! Custom-made Pines family fishing hats! That's hand-stitching, you know."
"No kidding," Dipper muttered as he and Mabel both pulled their hats off to get a better look. Stan had embroidered the twins' names onto the hats, though Dipper's was shorted to "Dippy" and the L in Mabel peeled itself off as she was holding it. As if the prospect of having to muddle through the mind-numbing boredom of fishing hadn't been bad enough, these embarrassing hats only turned the twins off from it even more. At least until Stan somehow managed to make the entire affair sound even worse than it already was.
"Yup, it's just gonna be you, me, and those goofy hats on a boat, out on the open lake, for ten hours!"
" Ten hours?" the twins asked in unified alarm.
"I even brought the joke book!" Stan cheerfully held up his copy of 1001 Yuk 'Em Ups, the "Uncle Approved" edition.
Dipper and Mabel shared a horrified gasp, knowing that the only thing worse than fishing and silly hats were bad uncle jokes . "There has to be a way out of this," Mabel whispered, desperate and anxious.
Dipper shared his sister's dread, though it soon turned to hope when he spotted a trio of familiar figures making their way down the shoreline. "There just might be…" he grinned, relieved. He pointed Mabel's gaze in the direction of who they only hoped could save them from a dull day spent with Stan.
Steven trailed close behind after Amethyst and Pearl as they finally reached the lake. Ever since they'd left the temple, he'd been pressing them with a barrage of curious questions concerning Opal, questions that neither of them were too keen on answering. "So when you fuse, do you turn into a giant giant woman or just a regular-sized giant woman? Does one of you control the right arm and the other control the left?
"Come along, Steven," Pearl urged over Amethyst's exasperated groan.
"Wait! These are extremely important questions," Steven asserted. "What if you eat a hot dog? Whose stomach does it go into? Or do you share the same stomach? That would be gross!"
"Steven, please," Pearl shook her head, annoyed. "You know Gems don't need to eat."
"But Amethyst likes to eat!"
"True 'dat!" Amethyst proclaimed, laughing,
"So would that mean that Opal would like to eat too?" Steven continued with his endless round of questions. "Or would she only like to eat sometimes, since you don't like to, Pearl?"
"That doesn't matter right now," Pearl concluded as they came to a stop on the shore. "What does matter is that we've finally reached the lake."
"And on opening day of fishing season too!" Steven grinned as he spotted the banner hanging from the nearby bait shack. "Cool!"
"So where's this Water Beetle anyway?" Amethyst asked, absently twirling her hair.
"It's hard to say for certain…" Pearl mused, looking out over the lake. "For all we know, it could be anywhere around here, even at the bottom of the lake itself."
"Great," Amethyst said dryly. "Then we better get our swimming caps on, huh, Pearl? After all, you wouldn't want to mess up that 'perfect' point of yours."
Pearl scowled, raising a hand to cover the tip of her hair. "Actually, it would be completely illogical for us to swim all the way down there. Instead, I was thinking that we could use the nearby resources available to us to craft a vessel that could help us retrieve it. That is, if the beetle is even located in the lake bed… We should probably get to searching around for it first before we-"
"Hey, look who it is!" Steven interrupted, smiling when he finally caught sight of the twins. Ever since they spotted him, they'd discreetly been trying to catch his attention while Stan continued rambling on about the day of fishing ahead of them. "Dipper! Mabel! Mr. Pines!" he called, running over to them. Amethyst and Pearl followed, albeit at a much less eager pace.
"Oh geez…" Stan grumbled to himself, annoyed. "I can't go one day without having to put up with them, can I?"
At the same time, Dipper and Mabel received Steven with a set of hopeful smiles. An unexpected adventure with him had already set their summer off on a strong note; if they were lucky, maybe he could help them keep that momentum going. Really, anything would be better than being stuck on a boat with their out-of-touch uncle all day; even squaring off against deadly, magical monsters like they had the other day.
"Hey, Steven," Dipper said as Mabel offered him a cheery wave. "What are you guys doing out here?"
" Please tell us you aren't going fishing," Mabel pleaded in a whisper.
"No, but I wish we were! That sounds like a ton of fun!" Steven said, optimistic. "We're actually here looking for a magical Gem thing called the Water Beetle. It's-"
"I'm sorry, Steven," Pearl cut in, resting a hand on Steven's shoulder. "But there's no time for you to play with your friends right now. We have to start looking for that Water Beetle." She turned him around to guide him away from the twins, though not before sending Stan a distrustful scowl that he was more than ready to return in full.
"Yeah," Amethyst added boredly. "The sooner we get this mission done, the better."
"Yeah, well, we can't stand around and chat all day either," Stan grabbed the twins by their arms, yanking them away from Steven and the Gems. "We have a full day of fishing ahead of us, right kids?"
Dipper and Mabel exchanged a nervous glance, knowing that their window for getting out of fishing was quickly closing. Trying to convince Stan to let them go with Steven and the Gems on their much more interesting adventure would be a hard sell. Fortunately, a new interruption suddenly rang out through the air from the far side of the shore just in time.
"I SEEN IT! I SEEN IT AGAIN!"
"Oh boy," Amethyst chuckled, elbowing Steven and the twins. "Look out, everyone; crazy old man McGucket is having another one of his 'episodes'."
The kids turned their attention to the unhinged elderly man who had just cut his way through a group of fishermen gathered near the dock. He screamed again, frantic as a crowd began to gather to watch his frightened breakdown unfold. "The Gravity Falls Gobblewonker! Come quick before it scrabdoodles away!"
Before he could get another panicky word out, McGucket was quickly chased off by the lake ranger and the spray bottle he wielded against him. "Hey!" he scolded, spraying the old man. "What did I tell you about scaring away my customers?! This is your last warning, Dad!"
"But I got proof this time, by gummity!" McGucket protested as he began scrambling down toward the dock. The crowd followed, curious to see exactly what this "proof", if there was any at all, might be. "Behold!" he motioned to the messy remains of a broken boat only barely resting above the water's surface. "It's the Gobble-dy-wonker what done did it! It had a long neck like that bird there!" He pointed at Pearl. She blushed, embarrassed as she placed a hand against her neck and shot Amethyst a fierce glare when she heard her laughing beside her. "And wrinkly skin, like this gentleman here!" McGucket pointed out Stan next, who largely hadn't been listening to the old man's meltdown at all. "It chewed up my boat to smithereens and then it shim-shamed over to Scuttlebutt Island! You gotta believe me!"
The crowd was silent for a beat as they took the hillbilly's story in. A few folks were nearly on the verge of believing his claims, at least until the police boat pulled up to the dock with Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland on board.
"Attention all units," Blubbs began into his intercom. "We got ourselves a crazy old man!"
Just about everyone broke into a round of laughter at the old man's expense. Defeated, McGucket hung his head in shame as he sulked away, muttering incoherently to himself all the while. "Aw, donkey spittle! Banjo polish!"
The rest of the crowd dispersed soon after, everyone heading back to their boats to get back to fishing. With such a chaotic distraction finally cleared out, Stan was more than ready to do the same. "Well, that happened," he concluded indifferently. "Now," he grinned to the twins before he turned his own boat, a small, ramshackle thing that hardly looked like it was seaworthy. "Let's get this boat untied and get out on the lake!"
Dipper and Mabel decided to largely tune Stan out in favor of turning their attention back to Steven. "Aw, poor Mr. McGucket," he frowned, genuinely sympathetic for the old man. "I believed his story about the Gibble-… Grubble-… whatever that thing was called!"
"But did you guys hear what he said?" Dipper asked, spurred on by a newfound idea.
"Aw, donkey spittle!" Mabel quoted, swinging her arms just as McGucket had.
"The other thing," Dipper said. "About the monster. If we can snag a photo of it, then we can split the prize!"
"What prize?" Steven asked, curious.
"This one," Dipper pulled out the magazine he'd brought along with him, handing it over to Steven. "The winner of this contest gets $1000. And if we win, then each of us would get a little over $300 a piece!"
"Wow! $300?!" Steven gasped, awestruck. "That's so much money! I don't even know what I'd do with all of it!"
"Well, I already know what I'm doing with my share!" Mabel practically squealed with excitement. "Four words: Human. Sized. Hamster. Ball. Dipper, I am 100% on board with this!"
"So am I!" Steven readily agreed. "Even if we don't win, I still want to see a super-huge lake monster! And who knows? Maybe this monster won't try to kill us!"
"Then it's on," Dipper grinned as he put their plan into motion. "Grunkle Stan, change of plans. We're taking that boat to Scuttlebutt Island and we're gonna find that Gobblewonker!"
"What?" Stan started, confused.
"And can I go with them?" Steven asked Amethyst and Pearl with a hopeful smile. "Please?"
"Only if you count me in!" Amethyst eagerly exclaimed. "I'm always down for a good monster hunt!"
"Yeah!" Steven cheered, quickly roping the twins and Amethyst into his zealous chant of "Monster hunt! Monster hunt! Monster hunt!"
" Excuse me," Pearl cut in, giving Amethyst and Steven a stern frown. "But we aren't going on a 'monster hunt'. We have a Beetle to find, remember ?"
"Ugh, come on," Amethyst groaned, rolling her eyes. "Don't be such a party-pooper, P."
"I am not being a party-pooper!" Pearl asserted. "I'm simply thinking realistically! For all we know, this 'Gobblewonker' or whatever it is, might not even exist!"
"But Pearl, what if the Gobblewonker is really a Gem monster?" Steven asked. "Then shouldn't we stop it before it can hurt anyone?"
"Well… I suppose, if that was the case, then yes, but-"
"Yay!" Steven exclaimed before Pearl could continue, picking up their cheer from earlier. "Monster hunt! Monster hunt!"
The loud sound of a horn blaring cut through the excitement as a boat, much larger than Stan's dinghy, pulled up to the dock. "You dudes say something about a monster hunt?"
"Soos!" the kids cheered, glad to see him.
"Wassup, hambones?" he offered the trio a friendly grin from his spot behind the boat's wheel. "You know, you dudes could totally use my boat for your hunt. It's got a steering wheel, chairs; normal boat stuff."
"I bet we could use that boat for Beetle hunting too," Amethyst flashed Pearl a wide, smug grin. "Unless you wanna go for a pretty long swim."
Pearl returned her smirk with another glare, refusing to admit she was right. Really, she'd rather go on that ridiculous "monster hunt" than give Amethyst that kind of satisfaction. She figured the most she could do was try to keep her team focused on their actual mission as opposed to what she believed was nothing more than a wild goose chase. One that she wasn't at all surprised to find Amethyst of all Gems so easily wrapped up in.
At the same time, Stan was quick to intervene as soon as he noticed Dipper and Mabel heading for Soos' boat. "Whoa, hold on now," he began, his tone stern and serious "Remember what we talked about the other day. There's no way I'm letting you two go on some 'magical adventure' with… them ," he fixed the pair of Gems with a bitter glare.
"But we're not going with the Gems!" Mabel pointed out. "We're going with Soos, and Steven and the Gems just so happen to be tagging along."
"That's right," Dipper nodded. "I don't see why you'd have any problems with that, Grunkle Stan."
"Well, I do have a problem with it!" Stan snapped, though he swiftly settled down. The last thing he wanted was for their family bonding day to get off on the wrong foot after all. "Just… think this through, will ya? You kids could waste your time on some epic monster-finding quest… or you could spend the day learning how to tie knots and skewer worms with your Great Uncle Stan!"
Dipper and Mabel were silent for a moment as they weighed their options. On one hand, they had Stan and his leaky old dinghy, and the promise of a boring day out on the lake trying to catch fish that probably wouldn't bite all while having to put up with their embarrassing old grunkle. And on the other hand, there was the chance to search for the Gobblewonker, to have a real, exciting adventure that they could actually profit from, all while hanging out with Soos, Steven, and the Gems and exploring the mysterious unknown that lurked underneath the depths of the lake. Neither of them had to put much thought into what option sounded like the most fun.
"So?" Stan asked with a hopeful grin, trusting they'd make the right choice. "Whaddya say?"
"We made the right choice!" Mabel proclaimed as Soos's boat sped away from the dock with all of them on board. Neither her nor Dipper felt too guilty about leaving Stan behind, figuring that he'd only briefly sulk about being ditched before going off to sullenly fish on his own anyway. Besides, how could they harbor any sort of regrets when a magical monster hunt awaited them alongside Steven and the Gems.
"Yeah!" Steven happily threw an arm around both of the twins' shoulders. After their struggle against the gnomes and the centipeetles a few days ago, it was a nice change of pace to be going after a monster instead of being chased by one. "We're gonna find that Gobblewonker!"
" After we find the Water Beetle," Pearl insisted firmly. "That's our first and foremost priority, remember?"
"As if you'd let us forget," Amethyst reclined back in her chair. "Chill, Pearl. We'll find the Beetle whenever we find it. Can't you just hang back and go with the flow for once? Who knows? Looking for this monster might actually be fun."
"We're not here for fun," Pearl argued. "We're here on a mission . And maybe if you took things more seriously, then you'd insist on getting it done, like I do."
By now, Amethyst had largely tuned her teammate's usual nagging out in favor of turning her attention over to the kids and Soos instead. While Pearl wanted everyone to focus on the Beetle hunt, it was clear their priorities were more skewed toward the monster hunt instead as they began to carve a strategy out for it.
"Alright," Dipper bega as he paced before the others. "If we want to win this contest, we have to do it right. So think: what's the number one problem with most monster hunts?"
"Oh! I know!" Steven raised his hand. "When you run out of snacks! That happened to me once when I was on a mission with the Gems and I would have given anything for just a few chips or a cookie!"
"Or if you're a side character," Soos added. "Then you die within the first five minutes of the movie." He paused for a beat before reaching a startling realization. "Dudes, am I a side character!? Do you ever think about stuff like that?"
"No and no," Dipper shot both of their suggestions down. "Camera trouble! That's why I brought twenty disposable cameras." He grinned as he ran through all of the places he'd stored his extensive stock. "Two on my ankles, two in my jacket, three for each of you, and one-" his smile widened as he lifted his cap to reveal the final camera resting on his head. "Under my hat. There's no way we're gonna miss this."
"Wow, Dipper," Pearl said, surprised as he handed her a trio of cameras. "I have to say, your thorough preparedness for this situation is quite impressive."
"Yeah, you would think something so dorky would be 'impressive'," Amethyst muttered, chuckling to herself.
"Thank you," Dipper said to Pearl, proud that at least one of the Gems appreciated his drive. "Ok, everyone, let's test those cameras out!"
The others did so, only for things to quickly begin to go wrong. Soos snapped a photo of himself by accident, startling himself with the bright flash as his camera fell out of his hands and into the lake. "Aw, dude!"
"See? This is exactly why we need backup cameras," Dipper said, far from losing his cool. At least, not yet.
Unfortunately, his hopes were quickly dashed when a seagull flew in low, startling Mabel as she chucked her camera at it. "Ah! Bird!"
"Eighteen!" Dipper kept count, already starting to panic a little. "Ok, guys, I repeat: don't lose your cameras."
"Wait, what was that?" Steven asked. He'd just finished dropping a camera over the side of the boat on purpose, thinking that the fish below could use it to take group photos together. " Do lose the cameras?"
" Don't ."
"Dude, I just threw another one away," Soos confessed.
"Oh, yeah, I kinda thought they were snacks for later…" Amethyst admitted right after swallowing her second camera whole.
"O-okay, fourteen! We still have fourteen-" Dipper stopped short when he threw his fist down, inadvertently crushing one of the cameras in the process. "...Thirteen," he sighed. "We have thirteen cameras."
"So what's the plan?" Mabel asked, already preparing to discard another camera. "Throw more cameras overboard or what?"
"No!" Dipper quickly took it from her, desperate not to lose anymore."Ok, Mabel and Steven, you guys can be lookouts. Soos can work the steering wheel. Amethyst and Pearl, can you make sure we don't lose any more cameras?"
"Sure thing, dude," Amethyst yawned as she stretched out and closed her eyes, soaking in the sun as she prepared to settle into a nap. Pearl fixed her with an unamused glare, far from pleased with her usual laziness.
"Yes, I can," Pearl pointedly agreed. "And I suppose I'll have to keep an eye out for the Water Beetle as well."
"Really?" Amethyst grinned, cracking one eye open. "Thanks, P. I can always count on you."
"So how are we gonna find the Gobblewonker anyway?" Steven asked, peering out of the side of the boat. The lake's surface however was just as still and calm as ever, without any signs of a large, looming creature in sight.
"We're gonna lure it out using this," Dipper motioned to the large barrel of fish foot resting on the far side of the boat.
"...You dudes think I should taste some?" Soos asked, eyeing the barrel curiously.
A beat of silence passed between the kids before they offered their mutual agreement. "Yeah, ok."
"I don't see why not."
"Do it, Soos!"
"Here goes," Soos scooped a handful of the food out before giving it a small lick. "Ugh!" he immediately gagged on the foul flavor. "Dude, I don't know what I expected it to taste like!"
The kids got a good laugh out of this, especially as Amethyst rushed forward to swipe some of the fish food for herself. "I wanna try!" she yelled, leaping headfirst into the barrel and shoving a fistful into her mouth. "Mm! I dunno, Soos; I think this stuff is pretty great!"
While the kids were clearly enjoying Amethyst's antics, Pearl was far from amused as she continued scouring the lake for any signs of the Water Beetle. At the same time, someone else noticed the noisy fun happening aboard Soos' boat. And needless to say, Stan was far from happy about it.
"Traitors!" he shouted after the group as the boat sped even further away from his. "Who needs 'em? I'll just find my own fishing buddies instead." He surveyed the nearby lake for anyone who might be willing to join him in place of the twins. "Aha!" he grinned as he spotted a young couple sitting on their own boat not too far away. "There's my new pals!"
What Stan didn't know as he drove his boat over to his new "fishing buddies" was that the young man was in the middle of attempting to propose to his girlfriend. A proposal that was rudely interrupted when Stan arrived.
"Hey!" he pulled his boat up alongside theirs, startling them. "You two wanna hear a joke? Here goes: my ex-wife still misses me… but her aim is gettin' better!" He flashed a wide smile, only for the couple to meet him with shock and disgust at such a distasteful, off-color joke. "Her aim is gettin' better!" he tried again, only to get the same unsavory result. "Y'see, it's funny because marriage is terrible."
Without another moment of delay, the couple hurriedly began rowing away, hoping to get as far away from Stan as possible. Not that he really understood why when his sense of humor was obviously the peak of comedy. Or at least, he thought it was. "What did I say?"
Scuttlebutt Island was practically obscured by a thick, ominous fog, one that even the headlights on Soos' boat couldn't penetrate as it slowly cut through it. With the vessel already set on its course toward the island, Soos positioned himself at the back of the boat, trying to lure the Gobblewonker in with the fish food as he spilled it over the stern.
The kids, meanwhile, kept up their lookout post near the front of the boat, keeping a close eye out for any signs of the monster. Or at least, Dipper and Mabel were, as Steven looked back to Amethyst and Pearl instead. Their arguing hadn't really let up since this mission began, a fact that left Steven feeling largely lost in the shuffle. Garnet had instructed him to keep the harmony, but so far, he hadn't been doing a very good job of it.
So perhaps, it was finally time to try and change that.
"You know…" he said to Amethyst and Pearl, throwing on a small, convincing grin. "I bet Opal would be really helpful in finding the Gobblewonker…"
Pearl sighed, exasperated, as Amethyst simply turned her gaze tightly on the fog-covered waters. "Steven, we only fuse in deadly situations," she reminded him, not noticing as a pelican landed on the railing beside her. "Does this look like a deadly situation to you?" No more than a second after she said this, the pelican suddenly pecked her harshly on the side of her head. "Ow! Hey! Bad pelican!" she scolded the bird as it fluttered its wings and squawked at her. "Shoo!" As the pelican took flight, Amethyst couldn't hold in her heavy burst of laughter any longer, much to Pearl's embarrassed aggravation.
"Darn it," Steven hung his head. "I'm never going to get to see Opal…"
"Who's Opal?" Dipper asked him, confused.
"Opal is Amethyst and Pearl fused together into a giant woman," Steven explained. "I've never seen her before, so I've been trying to convince the two of them to form her all day, but they just don't seem to be getting along…"
"Wait, how does that even work?" Dipper wondered. It seemed the more he learned about the Gems, the more fascinating they became with all of the peculiar powers they seemed to possess. "They don't actually fuse into one person, do they? That's not–well, I guess they said so themselves. They are basically holograms, so maybe-"
"Who cares?" Mabel cut through her brother's theorizing. "I wanna see a giant woman! Steven, we gotta convince them to form Opal!"
"Exactly!" Steven agreed, picking up a daring grin as he looked back at the pair of Gems. "And I think I know of a way to do it…"
Amethyst and Pearl were surprised to be pulled out of their ongoing, bitter silence by an upbeat, cheery song, courtesy of none other than Steven. "All I wanna do is see you turn into a giant woman, a giant woman!"
Steven stood between the pair, singing brightly even as the pair glared away from each other. "All I wanna be is someone who gets to see a giant woman."
"'All I wanna do is see you turn into a giant woman, a giant woman!"
"All I wanna be is someone who gets to see a giant woman!"
"How does he just… come up with songs on the fly like that?" Dipper asked, baffled as he and Mabel watched Steven's performance.
"I dunno, but he's great at it!" Mabel smiled, enthralled. "This one's super catchy!"
"Oh, I know it'll be great and I just can't wait to see the person you are together," Steven continued as he tried pulling Amethyst and Pearl into a hug. They both only barely tolerated it for his sake, bitterly looking away from each other the second they happened to make awkward eye contact.
"If you give it a chance you could do a huge dance, because you are a giant woman!"
"You might even like being together and if you don't it won't be forever-" The pair of Gems finally looked back at each other, both of them blushing before they finally pulled away from Steven–and from each other–entirely.
Steven sighed, but still continued in the hopes that he could still somehow convince them all the same. A feat that was starting to become more and more difficult on all accounts. "But if it were me, I'd really wanna be a giant woman, a giant woman!"
"All I wanna do is see you turn into a-"
"GIANT WOMAN!" Mabel joined him, loudly singing the song's final words alongside Steven. The melody soon faded into the fog as silence settled back in; silence that seemed even heavier than ever between Amethyst and Pearl.
"I appreciate the… effort you put into that song, Steven," Pearl began as gently as possible. "But no."
"Yeah, sorry," Amethyst said, even if she really wasn't. "No amount of singing is gonna make me wanna fuse with her ."
Pearl glared harshly at her, crossing her arms and turning away. "Likewise," she said crossly.
"Aw…" Steven and Mabel shared a disappointed sigh. The both sulked back over to join Dipper at the front of the boat, still longing to see Opal in all her supposed glory. Something that, right now at least, seemed as elusive and improbable as the monster they were searching for.
"I really thought that would work," Steven looked back at the Gems, frowning.
"Maybe next time you need to go bigger ," Mabel said, already devising a master plan. "I can help! We can do another song, this time with a choreographed dance number, costumes, fireworks, the whole nine yards! If that doesn't convince them, I don't know what will."
"Or maybe you guys could just let up a little?" Dipper suggested. "I wanna see how this whole 'fusion' thing works as much as you do, but it's pretty clear Pearl and Amethyst aren't up for doing anything together. They don't always argue like this, do they, Steven?"
"No, not… always ," Steven rubbed his arm. "But… they don't always get along either. They're really different from each other, but I just think that'll make them coming together to form Opal even more amazing!"
"...If you say so," Dipper said, not entirely convinced. "By the way, aren't you two supposed to be on lookout duty?"
Almost as soon as he asked this, the boat suddenly, violently ran aground. Its bow dug into the sand of Scuttlebutt Island's fog-enshrouded shore, throwing just about everyone off balance until it finally came to an abrupt stop.
"Look out!" Steven called, much too late.
"We're look-out geniuses!" Mabel proclaimed, high-fiving Steven as the both hopped off the boat onto the shore. "Hamster ball, here I come!"
While not very large, Scuttlebutt Island was densely forested, which made traversing it a bit of a challenge. The Gems led the way, just in case any danger confronted the group, monster-related or otherwise. While silence as thick as the fog engulfing the trees settled upon the group, it was soon broken by a stark, unnerving noise echoing from somewhere in the distance.
"W-what was that?" Soos asked with a concerned frown.
"Oh! I bet it was the monster!" Steven exclaimed, running to catch up with Amethyst and Pearl. "Quick! You guys have to form Opal! If you don't, then it'll eat us all!"
"Steven…" both Gems groaned. If they didn't see eye-to-eye on anything else, at least they could agree that Steven's persistence on them fusing was starting to get old.
Once again, that sinister, snarling sound rang out, sending chills down Soos' spine as he leaned in to whisper to the twins. "Dudes, I dunno about this… Maybe this isn't worth it…"
"Not worth it?" Dipper echoed, appalled. "Guys, imagine what would happen if we got that picture! It's not just about the money; it's about the fame, the notoriety…"
"And being able to rub it in Grunkle Stan's face that we had way more fun monster hunting than we would have had fishing!" Mabel added with a grin.
"You guys are right!" Steven enthusiastically agreed. "We just gotta look at this from a different angle. In fact… I bet Opal would be tall enough to get a great view over the entire island. That way we could find the Gobblewonker and the Water Beetle all at once!"
"We don't need Opal to find the Water Beetle or the monster," Pearl asserted.
"Aw… but can you do it anyway?" Steven practically begged. "Pleeease? It would be easier, wouldn't it?"
"Not as easy as this!" Amethyst pulled her whip out of her gem, using it to cut through a thicket of branches blocking their path forward.
"Wow, Amethyst, that was a really good idea!" Mabel exclaimed, impressed.
"Hah, I know," Amethyst flashed a smug grin Pearl's way. "I'm full of 'em."
As the group ventured through the thicket, the unknown, unsettling noises suddenly grew louder than ever before. As sure a sign as any that they were getting closer to something –hopefully the monster they'd come all this way to find. "Guys, wait!" Dipper stopped the group, already pulling a camera out of his vest. "This could be it!"
"Yes!" Steven and Mabel cheered in an excited whisper. Their enthusiasm wasn't exactly shared by Soos as he grabbed a sharp stick, intending to use it to protect the kids if need be. Likewise, Pearl and Amethyst both took up their own weapon, just in case this alleged monster was real and a threat. At this point, they weren't sure what to expect, but they figured they'd be better off safe than sorry given how unpredictable they knew Gravity Falls could often be.
As they approached the island's far shore, a tall, very monster-like silhouette began to appear amidst the cloak of fog covering the water. Not wanting it to spot them, the group crowded behind a nearby log, preparing their cameras for the moment of truth. "Ok, everyone ready?" Dipper asked, and as soon as the others nodded their support, he issued the bold command to move out. "Go!"
Soos was the first to let out a brazen battle cry as he jumped out into the open, snapping a barrage of photos at random. The kids followed, largely doing the same as they made a beeline for the shore with the Gems not too far behind. But as they reached the water, it soon became clear that their "monster" wasn't actually a monster at all. Instead, it was the wreckage of an old wooden boat, sticking high out of the water as a group of beavers happily cavorted upon it.
"Aw, beavers!" Steven smiled. "They're so cute!"
"But… I don't understand," Dipper shook his head as he lowered his camera. "What was that noise then? I know I heard a monster noise!"
The answer to that question came from one of the beavers,haphazardly playing with an old, rusted chainsaw it had somehow gotten its paws on. "Oh, sweet!" Amethyst laughed as Soos snapped a handful of photos of them. "Beaver with a chainsaw!"
"Maybe that old guy was crazy after all…" Dipper sighed, realizing they'd wasted all this time on nothing.
"He did use the word 'scrapdoodle'..." Mabel added, just as disappointed.
"Well, it just goes to show that you shouldn't believe everything you hear," Pearl spoke up with a small, satisfied grin. "Now we can finally put all this 'monster' business behind us and focus on finding the Water Beetle like we should have been doing all this time."
"Yeah, yeah," Amethyst boredly waved her hand. "We'll find the beetle. Quit obsessing over it."
"I am not obsessing!" Pearl snapped. "I'm simply acknowledging that we need to find it! It could be anywhere on this lake and we still don't have the slightest lead as to where it is!"
"Maybe you should freak out some more. That's really gonna help us find it."
Pearl's fists curled into tight fists at her sides, her frustration mounting more and more by the minute. "I can't believe your attitude, Amethyst. All day long, you've been slouching around doing nothing to help!"
"Hey, it's not my fault we can't find the dumb Beetle!" Amethyst said defensively. "Why do you have to make things worse by squawking at me!?"
"I do NOT squawk!"
"Yeah, you do! You're squawking at me and commenting on my posture!"
"That wasn't squawking! THIS is squawking! SQUAWK! SQUAWK!"
The pair of Gems only continued to argue from there, all but ignoring Steven as he worriedly watched them on the sidelines. Not only had they failed to find the Gobblewonker, but he'd also failed to keep the harmony between his teammates as things only continued to get worse between them. And at this point, try as he might to come up with some way to turn things around for his team, for his friends … Steven knew he had no idea where to even start.
"Look, when you're threading the line—a lot of people don't know this—but you wanna use a barrel knot," Stan instructed the young boy he had happened upon and decided to teach his coveted fishing tips to. The very same tips he had wanted to teach Dipper and Mabel before they had abandoned him. "That's a secret from one fishing buddy to another!"
"Uh… I… who are you exactly?" the obviously frightened boy asked.
"Just call me your Grunkle Stan!" Stan proclaimed, giving the nervous boy a cheerful pat on the back.
"Sir? SIR?" the boy's mother angrily cut in. Along with his father, she was standing just on the other end of the family's small boat, obviously disapproving of the interaction between them. " Why are you talking to our son? If you don't leave right now, I'm calling the police!"
Stan chuckled nervously upon catching the suspicious glares of the boy's parents. "Uh… you see, the thing about that is…" he trailed off, before quickly switching his boat's motor on and speeding away as fast as he could. The last thing he wanted was to get the police involved again .
"Go bother your own kids!" the boy's mother shook her fist warningly as Stan's boat puttered across the lake, carrying only one lonely passenger upon it.
"You know, Pearl, I think that old guy was right about you being a bird, because you sure do squawk like one!"
"Stop accusing me of squawking! At the very least I get things done efficiently, unlike you , Amethyst!"
"Hey! I get things done and I have fun doing it!"
Steven frowned back at the pair of Gems behind him, who were somehow still arguing just as fiercely as ever. "Darn it…" he sighed as he sat upon the shore of the island alongside Mabel, absently drawing in the sand with his finger. "I can't believe we're not gonna get to see Opal or the Gobblewonker…"
"Tell me about it…" Mabel said, just as disappointed as he was. At least Soos was having fun as he continued to snap pictures of the beavers out on the wrecked boat, somehow blocking out Pearl and Amethyst's noisy bickering.
"What are we gonna tell Grunkle Stan?" Dipper asked as he sat upon one of the large rocks resting in the water close to the shore. "We ditched him over nothing." With nothing better to do, he picked up one of the smaller pebbles resting on the stone he was sitting on and skipped it across the surface of the lake.
No more than a moment later, a stark, sudden ripple passed over the surface of the water, something that didn't go unnoticed by Dipper. "Hey, did you guys hear that?" he asked Steven and Mabel. While neither of them had felt the first tremor, the second, much stronger one rattled the ground, throwing Dipper off the rock he was sitting in and into the shallow water surrounding it. He quickly swam the short distance back to the shore as Mabel helped him out while Soos and Steven turned their attention back toward the lake in newfound alarm.
"Wait…" Steven strained his eyes to make out the large, unknown shape moving through the mist head of them. "Is that…?"
"That's gotta be it this time!" Dipper grabbed another camera, more than ready to snap the elusive, prize-winning photo he was after. It didn't take him very long to realize he was the only one, however, as Mabel, Steven, and Soos all took a step back when another sinister growl sounded from the lake. "Come on, you guys! This is our chance!" he urged, knowing they could use all the backup photos they could get.
"Dipper…?" Mabel whispered worriedly as she watched the monstrous figure begin to rise out of the lake.
"Dude…" Soos breathed in obvious shock as his jaw dropped nearly to the ground.
"Uh… Amethyst? Pearl?" Steven asked, his voice shaking a bit. As distracted as they were by their ongoing argument, neither of the Gems heard him, nor did they notice the frightening beast preparing to strike.
Until, of course, it finally did.
Dipper turned back around just in time to see the fearsome creature face-to-face as it finally fully emerged from the fog. The Gobblewonker certainly lived up to the terror surrounding it. It was a massive, snake-like beast, complete with a wide maw filled with sharp, serpentine fangs. Its piercing, empty golden eyes peered down at the group down on the shore as it reared back, ready to swallow its newfound prey whole.
The beast let out a bone-chilling roar, one that finally caught Pearl and Amethyst's attention as their bickering died out altogether. Likewise, as frozen in fear as he was, Dipper didn't even notice the camera slip out of his hands until Mabel and Steven rushed in to grab him and drag him out of harm's way.
"Run!" Soos shouted, kicking the inevitable chase off. The group began sprinting back toward the opposite shore as fast as their legs could carry them. The Gobblewonker was quick to follow after them, rampaging through the forest as it left a trail of destruction in its wake. Pearl made an attempt at landing a hit on the creature by tossing a spear at its head. Only for the Gobblewonker to swallow the entire weapon whole.
"This thing isn't a Gem monster!" Pearl cried, frantic.
"Who cares?!" Amethyst shouted back. "We gotta take it down, or we'll be as good as fish food!"
"You know what you guys could do?" Steven asked with an eager smile as he ran alongside them.
"Not now, Steven!" Both of the Gems quickly, sternly turned him down.
The Gobblewonker let out another fierce, furious roar, snapping its massive jaws down at the kids. Mabel only narrowly avoided them by hopping onto Soos's back, while Steven stumbled forward, only keeping his footing thanks to Amethyst propping him back up. At the same time, Dipper attempted to run backward, aiming his camera up at the Gobblewonker to snap an up-close and personal picture of it. That effort was quickly thwarted when he tripped over a rock, sending the camera flying out of his hands.
"The picture!" he jumped back to his feet, running back to get the camera. Before he could even get close, Soos suddenly grabbed him by the back of his vest to keep him from throwing himself into further danger. "Soos!" he protested, struggling against his secure hold.
"Dude, if it makes you feel any better, I got a ton of pictures of those beavers!" Soos said between heavy breaths.
"Why would that make me feel any better?!"
Soon enough, the island's opposite shore came into view, alongside Soos' boat. No one hesitated to hop on board as Soos shoved it back into the water, before scrambling up onto it and steering it away from the shore. The Gobblewonker didn't hesitate to follow them into the lake, determined to catch up to them and claim its slippery prey.
"All right!" Dipper took up a spot near the back of the boat with another camera in hand. "Here we go." However, as he looked through the viewfinder, he let out a dismayed scoff at what he saw. "Cracked lens!? Soos! Quick, get a photo!"
Soos did quite the opposite of that as he continued to steer the boat backwards, tossing all of his spare cameras at the Gobblewonker in the hopes that one would strike it. Amethyst joined him, letting out a wild battle cry as one of her cameras actually managed to hit the monster in its snout, enraging it even more.
"Yeah, that's right!" Amethyst brazenly challenged. "Oh, what? You want some more? Well, then take this!" she yelled as she threw another one of her cameras at the beast.
"Amethyst!" Pearl admonished, knowing she was only making their dire situation worse.
"What are you guys doing!?" Dipper panicked. He had no idea how many cameras were left now, though he imagined it wasn't that many at the rate they were going.
"Oh, don't worry, dude!" Soos reassured. "I still got one left!" He tossed his last camera Dipper's way, but his aim was off. It missed him and instead crashed into the nearby cliffside, shattering to pieces.
The Gobblewonker was clearly tired of playing games with its prey as it dove down into the water, deep enough so that it could no longer be seen. As Soos continued to push the boat as fast as it would go, the kids and the Gems all kept close to the railing as they peered into the water, keeping a close lookout for the monster that could easily swallow the boat whole if it managed to catch up with them. As distracted as they all were, none of them noticed as they sped straight past Stan's boat, nearly knocking him off of it altogether.
"Hey!" he shouted after them, frustrated. Not that his own niece and nephew likely even cared amidst the "exciting" adventure they were having with Soos and the Gems. Something far more exciting than he knew he could ever offer them. With that in mind, it wasn't surprising why Dipper and Mabel would choose them over him.
After all, it wasn't like this was the first time he'd lost something to the Gems.
"Guys, I know you're still not really getting along, but don't you think now would be the perfect time to form Opal?" Steven pleaded with the Gems. Somewhere in the water behind them, the Gobblewonker briefly emerged, a sure sign that it was gaining on them far too quickly for comfort.
In light of the danger they were in, Pearl and Amethyst knew they really didn't have too many other options. The Gobblewonker was too big and too vicious of a threat for either of them to conquer on their own. Which meant they had to do it together , whether they wanted to or not.
"Guys! Guys!" Steven grabbed Dipper and Mabel, forcing their attention away from the Gobblewonker and toward the Gems instead. "They're gonna do it! They're gonna fuse!"
"Steven, I don't think we have time to focus on this right-"
" Yes !" Mabel cut Dipper off, stars in her eyes. "Finally!"
Amethyst and Pearl began with a bow, one that soon split into two very different dancing styles. While Pearl performed an elegant spin, Amethyst shook her hips and spun about wildly. Pearl grumbled to herself, annoyed, as Amethyst grabbed her and tried pulling her in to finish their dance and fuse. The pair tripped together as a white light overtook both of their forms, captivating Steven, Dipper, and Mabel alike as they watched on in awe. And yet, instead of the long-awaited Opal, Amethyst and Pearl emerged from the light as it dissipated, falling away from each other onto the deck of the boat.
"So you wanna try that again?" Amethyst asked sourly. "With less hitting me in the face this time?"
"Well, it would have worked if your movements weren't so erratic and formless," Pearl countered just as coldly.
"So it's all my fault?" Amethyst asked as she got up and stormed over to her teammate. "You totally weren't even trying to sync with my dancing. You should know how I dance by now!"
Pearl practically shoved Amethyst away from her as Steven rushed forward to intervene. "Stop!" he cried, desperate for them to simply get along at this point. "Come on, guys! Please stop fighting! If you can't get along with each other, then we might never get to see your awesome fusion powers!" He paused for a moment as the Gobblewonker unleashed another fearsome roar. "And we might get eaten by a giant lake monster!"
Almost as soon as Steven said this, that exact thing happened. The Gobblewonker rushed at the boat, swiping its maw at the group gathered near the back of it. While Amethyst and Pearl were clear of its path and Dipper and Mabel managed to leap out of the way just in time, Steven wasn't so lucky. The Gobblewonker entrapped him in its wide jaw, and in one swift movement, it hoisted him off the boat and swallowed him whole.
" Steven!" Everyone let out a shocked, frightened cry. There was no time to do much of anything, even really react to what had just happened as the Gobblewonker came in for yet another attack. Its sharp teeth tore several holes into the side of the boat, and as water began to pour out of them, it was clear their vessel wouldn't last for much longer at this rate.
"What do we do?! What do we do?!" Amethyst shouted, distraught over what had happened to Steven.
"I… I don't know!" Pearl admitted, her eyes wide as she stared back at the Gobblewonker. They had no way of even knowing if Steven was still alive somewhere inside of its gut, but they could only hope that was the case. And if he was, then they had to do whatever they could to rescue him–and fast.
"Uh, I think it's kinda obvious what you guys need to do!" Mabel shouted, anxious. "You've gotta form Opal and save Steven!"
The Gems exchanged a glance, both of them reaching the same conclusion at the same time. Even if they didn't always see eye-to-eye with each other, there was one thing they could always agree on: keeping Steven safe. "She's right," Pearl said earnestly. "There's no room for failure this time. We have to do this; for Steven."
"For Steven," Amethyst agreed, extending her hand out to her.
With that, their dance began anew, not that Dipper, Mabel, and Soos were able to pay much attention to it. The boat was approaching the waterfall at a rapid pace, and with the Gobblewonker still in hot pursuit, they didn't have many other options on where to go. Unsure of if there was anything but a solid cliff awaiting them behind it, the trio braced themselves for a brutal impact. One that never actually came.
Instead of striking the waterfall and whatever was beyond it, they found themselves hoisted up off the sinking boat and into the air instead. Dipper and Mabel panicked at first, believing that the Gobblewonker had gotten ahold of them just as it had Steven. It was only as they dared to look up that they found that instead of being eaten, they'd been rescued –
By none other than Opal .
"Oh. My. Gosh ," Mabel gasped in a stunned whisper as she took in the sight of the fabled fusion. "GIANT WOMAN!"
"No way…" Dipper gaped, just as awestruck as Opal kept them in her secure hold.
"Dudes, this has gotta be the coolest way anyone's ever been rescued from certain doom, hands down," Soos noted in stark bewilderment.
As for Opal herself, was easily 20 feet tall, if not more, with more than enough features to make it more than clear she was Amethyst and Pearl all at once. But as much as she was them, she was also someone else entirely. Her long, white hair blew in a ponytail behind her as she clung onto the cliffside near the falls, holding Soos and the twins in three of her four massive arms. She bore both Amethyst and Pearl's gems, now cast in a color to match her pale lavender skin while her clothes carried hints of each of them as well. Sure enough, she was exactly what Steven had said she'd be: a fusion, in every sense of the word.
Opal spoke not a word, glaring down at the Gobblewonker as it continued speeding straight at them. She kept her protective hold on the three humans in her grip as she dove through the waterfall, gracefully landing in the cave on the other side. She didn't sink into the water filling it, instead standing solidly upon its surface as she safely set the trio down on the edge of the cave.
"Stay low," she instructed them, her voice deep, yet calm. The Gobblewonker arrived seconds after, crashing straight into the mouth of the cave only for its large body to stop halfway through, unable to clear it.
"It's stuck?" Mabel asked in disbelief. She glanced back to Opal, who offered no answer as she simply fixed the Gobblewonker with an icy, piercing stare.
Dipper breathed a laugh of relief at this, watching as the Gobblewonker struggled to break free from the cave entrance before a sudden realization struck him. "Wait, it's stuck?" he asked, acting fast. He patted himself down in search of a camera, only to find that they were all gone. That is save for one. Dipper was quite surprised when, out of all of them, Opal was the one who reached down and lifted his cap up to reveal the camera he had forgotten he had stored there.
"Oh, right! Thanks," he said to Opal, who gave him a small, brief smile in return.
"Did you get any good ones?" Mabel asked her brother after he had snapped several photos of the trapped monster.
"They're all good ones!" Dipper exclaimed, knowing that any one of these pictures could easily win the photo contest.
"Woo!" Mabel shouted triumphantly. "Hamster ball!"
As soon as Dipper was done snapping his photos, Opal stepped forward, knowing all too well Steven still had to be saved. From both of her gemstones, she called upon Pearl's spear and Amethyst's whip, bringing them together to form a single weapon all her own. A magnificent longbow formed in two of her hands, and as she took aim at the Gobblewonker, an arrow of pure light burst into existence under her other pair.
"Ok, I'll admit it," Dipper whispered, his eyes wide with awe. "Opal definitely lived up to all of the hype."
"And then some!" Mabel added, her excitement only growing as Opal pulled her arrow back. Magical energy charged around its radiant tip, and once it had reached its powerful peak, Opal finally let it fly straight into the Gobblewonker's face.
The monster reeled back, screaming and sputtering as its head fell into the water. Strangely, a plume of black smoke erupted from it as the light from Opal's arrow burned its "scales". Or rather, the fabricated scales meant to cover the metallic framework underneath it.
"What the…?" Dipper walked past Opal towards the Gobblewonker and touched its side. Sure enough, he felt nothing but cold, solid metal as opposed to smooth, slimy scales. "Huh?"
"Whoa…" Mabel said as she looked at the Gobblewonker's face. By now, the damage Opal's arrow had done to it was clear as its facade at all but melted away, revealing even more machinery "What's going on here?"
Still curious, Dipper tentatively knocked on the Gobblewonker's side, only to hear nothing more than a hollow noise, further confirming his suspicions. Wanting to learn more, he climbed up onto the monster itself, disregarding the potential danger.
"Careful, dude!" Soos called with concern.
"I've got this! Hold on!" Dipper reassured as he climbed onto the monster's other side, only to make a startling discovery. "Hey, guys! Come check this out!"
Mabel and Soos quickly joined up, and even Opal leaned forward to see what was happening. As if things couldn't get any stranger, there was a small handle on the Gobblewonker's side, which Dipper turned to open the hatch it led to. As the door fully opened, the group was met with the surprising sight of who had been behind this "monster" all along:
None other than Old Man McGucket.
"Work the billows and the… eh?" the hillbilly muttered to himself as he frantically worked the rather complex array of switches and buttons inside of the Gobblewonker. Upon realizing that the trapdoor had been opened, he spun around, shocked that he had somehow been found out. "Aw, banjo polish!"
"Wha—you?!" Dipper exclaimed, bewildered by such a bizarre turn of events. Mabel and Soos shared his confusion, and even Opal raised an eyebrow in a silent show of bewilderment. "You made this? Why?"
"Well, I… I… uh…" McGucket stammered, looking for a viable excuse but finding none. "I just wanted attention."
Before anyone else could ask any further questions, Steven suddenly poked his head out from underneath the Gobblewonker's metal interior. He was thankfully unharmed and seemingly calm as he greeted his friends. "Oh, hey guys! What's up?"
"Steven!" Everyone exclaimed, more than relieved to see him safe and sound.
"Wait, wait, wait," Dipper said, still trying to make sense of all this. "Steven, how are you ok? We saw this thing eat you alive!"
"Oh, well I thought I was a goner too until I found Mr. McGucket controlling the monster," Steven explained, still smiling. "And even he gave me this in exchange for helping him run it!" He pulled something out of his pocket: a small, insect-like object with a turquoise Gem encrusted on its back.
"I found that there doo-hicky while lootin' for spare parts for my robut here!" McGucket said, oblivious.
"The Water Beetle!" Opal exclaimed as she stepped closer. Steven's jaw dropped as he looked upon the fusion, stars in his eyes as he realized that his wish had come true after all, even if he wasn't there to see it happen.
"Opal?!" he exclaimed, amazed. Opal simply nodded as she held out her large hand to him to help him out of the robot safely. "...Do you… know who I am?" Steven asked her shyly. After all, with his limited knowledge on fusion, he had no way of knowing if she retained any of Pearl or Amethyst's memories.
And yet…
Opal chuckled softly as she sang a quiet, gentle reprise of Steven's song from earlier. "All you wanna do is see me turn into…"
Steven gasped in joyful surprise as he finished the melody in a bright whisper. "A giant woman!"
"Aww!" Mabel gushed, charmed by such a touching exchange.
Dipper, on the other hand, still wanted answers as he turned back to McGucket. "Wait, I still don't understand what's going on here."
"Well, first I just hootenannied up a biomechanical brain wave generator," McGucket began, going into the details of the inner workings of his robot. "And then I learned to operate a stick-shift with ma beard!"
"Okay, yeah, but why did you do it?" Mabel asked.
"Well, when you get to be an old fella like me, nobody pays attention to you anymore," McGucket glanced down and removed his hat. "My own son hasn't visited me in months! So I figured maybe I'd catch his fancy with a fifteen ton aquatic robut!" He broke into a maniacal bout of laughter before slipping into a morose sigh. "In retrospect, it seems a bit contrived. You just don't know the lengths us old-timers go through to spend a little quality time with our family."
The only thing Dipper and Mabel were able to think of when they heard this was Stan. Though he had an odd, almost offputting way of showing it, he had indeed put thought and effort into trying to have a genuine bonding experience with them. From taking a full day off work, to handcrafting hats for them, no matter how tacky they may have been, it was clear that he cared . And how had they repaid him for that? By ditching him at the first chance they got, leaving him all alone for the day without a second thought.
Soos was the first to point that fact out with a small, awkward laugh. "Dude, I guess the real lake monster is you two. Sorry, that was like–boom–just popped into my head there."
"So did you ever talk to your son about how you felt?" Steven asked McGucket.
"No, sir, I got to work straight on the robut!" he proclaimed with a proud grin as a projector rose up from the Gobblewonker's side, showing off blueprints of his past inventions. "I made lots of robuts in my day! Like when my wife left me and I created a homicidal pterodactyl-tron, or when my pal Ernie didn't come to my retirement party and I constructed an eighty ton shame bot that exploded the entire downtown area! Well, it's time to get back to work on my death ray!" he ducked back down into the robot's interior to continue on his latest, no doubt dangerous project. "Any of you kids got a screwdriver?"
"Well, so much for the photo contest," Dipper sighed as pulled out his camera once more. Afterall, they couldn't very well submit a picture of a monster that was nothing more than a robot and still expect to win.
"You know, I still have one camera left," Steven smiled as he handed that camera over to Dipper.
"What do you wanna do with it?" Mabel asked a question that both her and Dipper already knew the answer to. And this time, they had no doubts about exactly who they wanted to spend the rest of the day with.
Stan let out a defeated sigh as he began steering his boat back toward the dock. Not only had he failed to catch a single fish, he'd also failed to find anyone even remotely interested in fishing with him. The twins, wherever they were, could catch up with him after their monster hunt, or whatever they were doing, was over. Not that he even cared at this point. They'd already shown him how much they cared about him, so why bother concerning himself with them?
"Hey! Over here!" Stan jumped as a massive shadow suddenly rose over his boat. He turned, nearly falling out of his dinghy entirely at the sight of the giant, four armed woman somehow standing solidly upon the surface of the water just behind him.
"What the–?!" he cut himself off when he spotted Steven, Dipper, Mabel, and Soos sitting casually upon her arms and shoulders. "Kids?! What the heck is goin' on here? Who–or what is that ?" he stared up at Opal, confounded. "Don't tell me she's the 'monster' you went looking for. I mean, don't get me wrong, she's scary, but not that scary."
"Hm…" Opal pursed her lips, both amused and disgruntled. But as a fusion of few words, she let it slide; this time, anyway.
Steven laughed as he offered an explanation for Stan. "This is Opal! She's actually Amethyst and Pearl, fused into one giant Gem! Isn't she the coolest?"
Stan sat in baffled silence for a moment or two before he ultimately shrugged. "Eh, I dunno if I'd call anything involving Pearl 'cool'." He ignored the critical look Opal sent his way, instead shifting his focus to the twins. "So let me guess. You two have been livin' it up running around the lake with this big ol' broad here and playing spin the bottle with Soos, right?"
"Actually…" Dipper scratched the back of his neck, embarrassed. "We spent all day trying to find a legendary dinosaur."
"But we realized the only dinosaur we wanna hang out with is right here!" Mabel brightly proclaimed.
"Save your sympathy!" Stan exclaimed bitterly. "I've been having a great time without you! Makin' friends, talking to my reflection… I even had a run-in with the lake police! Guess I gotta wear this ankle monitor now." He held up his ankle to reveal the beeping brace clasped around it. "So that'll be fun."
"So… I guess there isn't room in that boat for three more?" Dipper asked, apprehensive.
Stan hesitated, trying to remain stoic and firm. He quickly broke, however, when he met the sincerely apologetic pouts both twins were sending his way. "You knuckleheads ever see me thread a hook with my eyes closed?" he asked as a small smile slipped onto his face.
"Five bucks says you can't do it!" Dipper challenged.
"You're on!" Stan readily accepted. At the same time, Opal set the twins and Soos down into Stan's boat, allowing Steven to keep his proud perch upon her shoulder.
"Five more bucks says you can't do it with your eyes closed, plus me singing at the top of my lungs!" Mabel added zealously.
"I like those odds!" Stan grinned, though it soon fell into a skeptical look as he eyed Opal once more. "You sure that tall drink of water there is up for fishing?"
"Oh yeah!" Steven nodded enthusiastically. "Opal's great at fishing! Right?"
Opal proved that point as she plunged both of her lower arms into the water, pulling out two large handfuls of fish. "Pfft, showoff," Stan huffed, though he was still smiling.
"Okay, everyone, get together," Dipper called as he held his camera up to snap a group photo. Even Opal and Steven managed to squeeze into the frame as everyone shared the same bright smile. "Say fishing!"
"Fishing!" they all shouted as the picture was snapped, the first of what would be many more.
From there, the rest of the afternoon was underway. Unlike their hunt for the Gobblewonker, this adventure was much safer, yet it somehow ended up being even funner , something that the twins could have never expected.
As it turned out, fishing was actually a decently good time, especially when Stan made good on his word and baited his hook with his eyes closed. The joke book that Stan had brought along actually turned out to contain quite a few side-splitters. A few of them made even Opal crack a smile as Steven nearly fell off her shoulder several times laughing at them.
As for Opal, she made the fishing experience all the more interesting as she performed a graceful dance atop the surface of the water at Steven and Mabel's request, which Dipper managed to catch several great pictures of. And of course, considering they were fishing with Stan, the trip was not without its mischievous escapades. After trying to steal a few fish from another nearby family, they were nearly chased off the lake by the police. The officers were quick to flee, however, upon being intimidated by Opal's towering, imposing presence. At the end of the day, not only did they catch plenty of fish, but even more memories that would last long after they left the lake.
As the sun began to set, Opal led the way towards the shore, with Stan's boat gliding across the water not too far behind her. Both Dipper and Mabel sat in front of Stan and Soos, both of them relaxed and content with the day they had had. In fact, the calm of the evening was only broken by the boat suddenly, softly shaking, something that didn't go unnoticed by the twins.
"Whoa!" Mabel exclaimed as she glanced down at the water.
"What was that?" Dipper asked, sitting up a bit.
Mabel simply shrugged, and Dipper ultimately did the same as he relaxed once more, knowing that not all mysteries could be solved.
Little did either of them know that, far underneath their boat, one of the last disposable cameras was still sinking towards the bottom of the lake. Only for it to be caught by the maw of a real massive lake monster lurking far below the murky depths…
Garnet stood at the base of the temple hill, watching as the Pines returned to the shack after their successful fishing day. Not long after them, Opal and Steven emerged from the woods, with the latter waving farewell to his friends as the fusion headed for the temple. Garnet kept her post, her stoic expression unchanging as Opal helped Steven off her shoulder so he could run to meet her.
"Hi, Garnet!" he called happily. "We're back!"
Garnet only briefly acknowledged him before glancing back up at Opal expectantly. "The Water Beetle."
Opal's usually calm exterior crumbled as she let out an alarmed gasp. "I don't have it!" In an instant, a bright light engulfed her as Amethyst and Pearl abruptly fell apart, their fusion over, at least for now.
"Amethyst! You got distracted!" Pearl accused, her eyes wide.
"Hey! You were the one getting carried away with all those fancy backflips!" Amethyst shot back just as hotly.
"Guys, wait!" Steven cut in before another argument could break out. He reached into his pocket, pulling out the Water Beetle to Garnet. "I've got it!"
Pearl and Amethyst could only gape at each other, bewildered as Garnet took the Water Beetle and bubbled it alongside the Earth Beetle she had found. "Opal always has been very forgetful," she noted, finally cracking a small smile. "Good job, Steven. I see you also helped your teammates fuse."
"Yep!" Steven proclaimed with a proud grin. "And all I had to do was get eaten by a robotic lake monster!"
"Nice work," Garnet nodded, turning to head back into the temple. "You'll be great at fusing someday."
"Yeah!" Steven held his smile. He began to follow his team, though he stopped dead in his tracks as he realized exactly what Garnet had just told him.
"Wait! I can do that too?!"