Dipper Pines, Paranormal Detective p3

Eventually, Pacifica and I arrived at Multi-Bear's cave. It took a little longer than I remembered, it was already starting to get dark. The hike up here was nothing new for me, but Pacifica? Let's just say the woman was out of her element.

Dipper seemed relatively untouched by the journey while Pacifica seemed worse for wear. Her outfit was in tatters, there was mud on her face, and her high heels? Gone. Completely gone. Dipper was about to offer to carry her or something when out of her purse she took out tennis shoes. When asked why she would have such things on her person she would merely reply that she was a very busy woman.

I had  no idea how long she has had the purse with her. Did she take in to the RV? Why didn't I noticed it before?

The journey was still rough though, hiking up a mountain was not an activity a fashionista heiress was used to. And tennis shoes, while a step above from heels, did not help her tread. She nearly tripped several times but Dipper caught her every time.

She did her best not to complain and take everything in stride. "Please tell me this is his cave! Any farther up this mountain and my feet are going to bleed!" She was, however, still only human.

"No need to worry about your tootsies, Tootsy. We're here."

I knew I was getting a little bold with the nicknames, but for some reason I couldn't stop myself. I will admit though, I had yet to hear her really complain about it. However, there was a time for teasing and there's a time for business.

"Why are there so many bones all over the place?" asked Pacifica.

"A Multi-Bear has got to eat." Dipper explained.

"Ugh!" Pacifica flinched.

"Ha! Ha! Ha! I've forgotten how much I've missed it when you make that face!" laughed Dipper.

"What face?!"

"That face! The face you're making right now!"

"This is just my face!!" snapped Pacifica.

"No, not your normal face! The other face!"

"What? I only have one face, Dipper!"

Dipper couldn't help but laugh at the situation. She had no way to know what he was talking about so he knew he should probably just let it go now.

"You know what? It's not important. Now stay close, all seems quiet but that's exactly why you need to stay close."

I've always hated the quiet. Especially in wild forests like the one this cave is in, when there isn't noise it's usually because they don't want to call the attention of something. However, even outside the forest my job experience has taught me not to trust the silence. Usually, it means somebody is waiting; that was the name of the game too, waiting to see who slips up first and makes a sound to announce to the other they were here.

He kept his hand on his gun as he and Pacifica went deeper in to the cave. Squinting his eyes, he saw something in the dark at the back of the cave.

"Stay here, I think I see something but it might be a trap." instructed Dipper.

Dipper made sure to be extra quiet as he sneaked over. He made it all the way to the back without a single sound, taking a chance, he reached in to his inner left trench coat pocket and pulled out a flashlight. He shined it on his surrounding area first, it seemed he and Pacifica were the only ones in the cave. Feeling a little more secure he shined it on the object in question.

Picking it up, there was no doubt, it was a sack. Large enough for a person to fit in, it had to be the one the Lightning Goblins used.

He walked back to Pacifica. "Sweetheart, I think I found that sack the Lightning Goblins were using."

"How long are you going to keep calling me 'Sweetheart'?"

"If it bothers you, just ask me to stop and I'll stop!"

Pacifica opened her mouth while holding up her finger to make her point...and yet not words came out. She tried to find the correct words to emphasize her point but instead she found herself clamoring aimlessly, opening and closing her mouth like a fish.

"You know what? Never mind. Take a look at this!" Dipper instructed.

He handed it to her making sure she was taking a good look at it. "It's a sack."

"Yeah, big enough to fit a person don't ya think?"

"Wait! I think I see something in it!" She reached her arm in it and started feeling around inside it. "Aha! Found it!" She pulled out a purple pen with a golden N on it.

"What is that?"

"This is a Northwest Family Pen, we only give them out to our most trusted employees."

"Like your missing accountant."

"Exactly!"

"Okay, hold on to that! That's evidence! Now the sack was found here but our perps aren't anywhere to be seen so they've probably got some kind of secret entrance or something." He pulled out a second flashlight and handed it to her. "Take this and see if you can find anything out of the ordinary."

"Exactly how many pockets do you have?" Pacifica asked. She had to know, it was as if every turning point they encountered was an opportunity for him to use another hidden pocket.

He seemed to stare out in to space for a moment before turning back to her with a smile. "I have a total of eight!"

I could understand her feelings about this. I have a lot of tools so I need a lot of pockets to carry them. I got the two front pockets, a hidden one on the back, two inside chest pockets, and three more on the lower inside.

Pacifica rolled her eyes but said nothing as she started to search the area.

"OW!!! Son of a-"

She turned the flashlight back at Dipper to find him on his knees. "Dipper! Are you alright?!"

"I cut my shin on this sharpened bone!"

Not going to lie. It's a little embarrassing for a detective with an eye for detail to get cut by something he didn't see.

Upon closer inspection she saw that while he was bleeding it didn't look like anything too serious. "Let me help you."

Pacifica knelt down and ripped the arm sleeve off of her suit.

"What? Pacifica are you really okay with doing that to your outfit."

"Dipper, it's white. Nothing will be able to get out the stains I've earned today. It was dead as soon as we entered the forest."

"If you say so, Sweetheart..."

"You're just lucky the sleeves are clean!"

Ripping the sleeve in to more pieces she cleaned the wound and started to dress it.

"Pacifica, when did you learn this?"

"Well when I was sixteen my parents sent me basically hopping around the world to learn how to manage the family fortune. However, when they finally came to terms with the fact that they couldn't make me look down on common folk like they do...well the short version is they sent me to a snobby boarding school in Iceland a year later. I sharpened my math skills there but when it came time for the teachers' lessons on 'proper high society etiquette' I basically played hooky and visited the local town. There was an old village lady I met there who taught me nursing."

A well traveled woman was always appreciated in my books.

"You know that's awesome, right? However, there still an important question that needs to be answered."

"Oh yeah?" Pacifica smirked. "What's that? Am I multi-lingual? How many forms of world currency can I..."

"Uh no. I mean why is there a sharpened bone?"

"Oh..." Pacifica frowned. "Right! Of course!"

She finished wrapping the wound and regained her composure as Dipper started to examine the bone. "Why would he have a bone like this? It's too big to be a toothpick for any of his heads."

"The pile it's in is also bigger than all the others."

"Excellent point, Pacifica. Let's get a closer look."

A bone like this could be a good marker for a secret door or entrance. Something to make this pile of bones stand out even more. In my line of work, secret entrances usually pop up at some point.

Dipper pulled out the bone and the entire pile fell apart revealing a giant hole underneath. The hole itself seemed to be at an awkward angle, almost like a slide. "It's starting to make sense now."

"Sense?! I don't get it!"

"Think Pacifica. If our kidnappers did take this cave over to use as hideout then it'd be too easy for their victim to just escape through the entrance when nobody's looking. This is a good base of operations maybe, but it's a lousy place to keep a prisoner."

"Then why bother taking the cave over at all?"

I hated to admit it, but Pacifica had a point. Why take over a cave if you're not going to use it?

Dipper furrowed his brow thinking deeply. He looked at the hole, easily big enough for a human but the angle would make it hard to climb up but easy to slide down. He shined his flashlight down the tunnel before putting it away.

"Let's find out!"

"Wait! You aren't seriously suggesting..."

"There's only one way down Sweetheart."

"But-But we don't know what's waiting for us down there." Pacifica shined the light down the hole. "And the thing itself looks absolutely filthy!"

"This job of mine isn't always pretty. I did try to warn you not to come." Dipper sat in front of the hole positioning himself to slide down it. "Now this probably going to get messy, so if you want to turn back then now is the time, Sweetheart."

She took a moment to weigh her options considerably before coming to a decisive conclusion. As Dipper got ready to slide down he suddenly found two arms snaked around his torso; looking back he saw Pacifica sitting behind him.

"Pacifica?"

"We're in this together, Dipper! No matter how gross it's going to get!"

Good thing it was dark or else otherwise she might have seen him blush.

"Heh. Alright Sweetheart, but if we're both going to go down there together then that means I need to make extra precautions."

"Like what?"

"Go get the sack. This hole aint no water slide, with the two of us going down together we're going to need something to ride on. It would be one thing if I was going down there alone, I got trench coat to take the damage for me, but for both of us we're going to need something to sit on."

She did as she was told and went and got the sack where it was soon laid down in front of the hole.

They re-positioned themselves on top of the sack getting ready to slide down it.

There's a joke about getting her in the sack here somewhere but I prefer to think I have a little too much class to actually make it.

Pacifica had the flashlight ready to light their path while Dipper had his gun out (with a new battery inserted) for anything that might be a problem on the way down. Pacifica's free arm was wrapped around Dipper's front for safety; he did his best not to think about it but with how tightly she was holding him he came to the conclusion she was feeling very nervous. One little push and they were off. They screamed in unison as they sped down the tunnel at alarming speed.

There was nothing slippery in this tunnel, but there was something about the perfect smoothness in it which only increased our velocity.

The sack was doing it's best to protect them from the ride but was quickly deteriorating. Not that Pacifica would know anything about it, she had her eyes closed the entire trip. Dipper did his best to keep a cool head but Pacifica's grip was making it a little hard to breathe.

They came barreling towards the end of the tunnel, unless they found a way to slow down they weren't going to survive the crash.

*PLOOT!*

A giant green blob of rubbery goo cushioned their landing after being shot out of Dipper's gun, absorbing the impact of their crash.

"Ewwwwwww!" grimaced Pacifica.

Dipper pulled himself off of the glob and then offered his hand to Pacifica. "Sorry about that, Sweetheart. Had to think fast..."

"It's fine." Pacifica said as she let him help her off of the glob. "It's a little sticky but it's fine! None of it is in my hair so you're off the hook." She flipped her hair. "Thanks for saving me."

The more things change the more they stay the same.

She shined her flashlight around. "Where are we?" It seemed like a cave and yet there was something humanish about it.

"Pacifica! Down here!" Dipper announced. She flashed her light down to where he was crouching. Dipper was pointing at metal bars which were nailed to the ground with wooden planks. "I think we're in a mine of some kind."

Following the tracks Pacifica spotted a mine cart, but there was something familiar about it. Investigating the cart, Pacifica got her answers almost instantly. "Dipper! Come look at this!"

On the side of the cart was a giant N painted gold. "Wait, Pacifica does this mean that this mine..."

"Is a Northwest mine, yes. I remember once my family told me about Jebediah Northwest, grandson to Nathaniel, who opened up a gold mine so he could 'share' the pleasure of wealth with the townsfolk."

"I guess this is it, then." deduced Dipper.

"I suppose...but the mine was supposed to be all dried up! Completely spent! And even then, I had no idea it was as far as to be underneath Multi-Bear's cave!"

Dipper held up his hand. "Wait! I think I hear something!"

Pacifica listened silently as she strained to hear whatever it was Dipper thought he heard. At first there was nothing, she waited for a moment and then she heard it. The snickering, the same snickering she heard every time her family lost more money.

She didn't even have to say anything, Dipper had the same exact idea. "It's coming from this direction! Stay down, and keep quiet."

Quietly they snuck down the tunnel in the direction that they thought they heard the snickering. A light shined from around the corner, there was more than just snickering now, there was talking and odd noises.

Dipper was about to investigate when Pacifica grabbed him by the arm. Looking at her, she shook her head 'no' at him and took out a compact mirror. Understanding almost instantly, he took it from and started to use it to peer around the corner.

I can't help but love a resourceful woman!

Looking in to the mirror he saw was quite a sight indeed.

Three small green creatures were dancing around a laptop. They were just a little taller than a gnome, their bald heads and pointy ears reminded Dipper a little bit of the gremoblin he caught as a kid. Their skin was wrinkly and covered in warts, pointed fangs stuck out from their bottom jaws. What really stood out was their hands.

Giant hands were attached to their long arms, almost disproportionate to the rest of their bodies. Their fingers were covered in metal plating, sharpened at the ends, almost like hooks. Believe it or not these seemed even larger than the hands making their bodies seem even smaller in comparison. Each goblin had a different metal however, there was copper, iron, and gold.

In the corner of the room was a man tied up from head to toe with various ropes. His bald head shined above his mouth gag which was wrapped tightly around his head. A single light bulb hung in the room, dimly lighting the area. He didn't seem to be going anywhere and the lightning goblins seemed to be devoting all their attention to the laptop so Dipper motioned to Pacifica that they should move closer. They moved quickly and quietly before hiding behind an overturned mine cart.

"Hey! That's him!" Pacifica whispered.

"What?"

"Dipper, that man tied up! That's definitely the family accountant! I'd recognize that bald head anywhere!"

"Shhh! They're up to something!"

One of the goblins stopped dancing and placed his iron claw on the top of the screen. It changed to a web page with a golden N on it, soon a window  popped up asking for a password "Look! I got another one! Account number.....213756."

Squinting her eyes, there was no mistaking it. This was one of her family's accounts. However, in order to log in to such an account they would have to have access to the cyberspace on the private site where it was located. How did they find the site? Who told them? How did they know what to do? All important, valid questions. However, at the moment there was only one question on Pacifica's mind...

"How the heck can they get internet connection in a mine?! It's almost like mag-Oh..."

The one with copper broke from the group and hobbled his way over to their hostage. He climbed his way up the ropes till he was face to face with their victim, he smacked the hostage once across the face before pulling down the face gag.

"Account 213756, what's the password?"

"I tell you, and then you'll let me go? For real this time?"

The lightning goblin grinned evilly. "Perhaps, either way you don't have a choice do you?"

"I...alright, but then you have to let me go okay? The password is 65465165184."

The grin got bigger. "Thank you." He re-gaged him and returned to the laptop.

He stuck his metal covered finger in the USB slot and in a bright flash changed in to a bolt of lightning and went inside. The pop up window had the necessary password numbers entered one at a time.

"Pacifica, are you seeing this?" Dipper asked.

"Seeing, still working on believing."

"An eleven numbered password is all it takes to gain access to the account?"

"Hey!" Pacifica whispered harshly. "Getting to that page alone would require getting past like seventy-five different types of firewalls!! We never thought anything could just zap right past it!"

As soon as the password was accepted, the account amount popped up in another window. The amount was dialed down to all zeros in a blink of an eye.

They snickered together at the sight of the empty account. In another bolt of lightning the goblin zapped out of the laptop rejoining his kinsmen. Another moment to snicker together and then they clanged their hands together in a three way high five.

"Revenge on the Northwests feel so good!"

"I hear ya brother, that'll teach them! I don't think there's too many accounts left though!"

As the group snickered amongst themselves, Pacifica nearly walked out to them but Dipper was quick enough to catch her before she did anything hasty. He had to drag her away just so their cover wouldn't get blown. Once far enough away he let her go so she could calm down.

"Dipper, those are our criminals!!" she whispered to him harshly. "You can't deny that!! Give me one good reason why we shouldn't just charge in there and arrest them!"

"I'll give you a number of reasons! One, we don't know what they're really capable of! All we've seen is what they can do with a laptop, who knows what they'd do when facing conflict! Two, we'd run the risk of hurting the hostage! Judging by the bruises and scars I'd say he's been through enough! And finally three, we don't have an escape plan! Even if everything else did go swimmingly we'd still be walking a dangerous line because we don't know where the exit is!"

Pacifica gritted her teeth in anger. Dipper thought she might try to chew him out for his reasoning but instead she sighed in defeat and calmed down. "You're right! So what's the plan?"

I'll be honest, I thought she was going to lose it with me. She was capable of keeping a cooler head than I thought she could. She's grown up. That's something to take note of.

Dipper smiled at her. "Well Sweetheart, first things first. We need to find the exit to this place, then we quietly rescue the accountant and then finally we make my arrest."

"Alright then, how do we go about finding the exit?"

"Following these tracks seem to be a good start. We'll see where they lead and work our way up from there."

However, as they followed their tracks away, the lightning goblins had deviated from their celebration. The one with gold claws was busy sniffing the air.

"What is it brother?" the iron one asked. "What do you smell?"

"I smell...blood! From a wound..." he grinned evilly. "That's fresh!"

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The tracks lead them down the inner workings of the mine. There were a number of turns and corners which lead down to other tunnels; tunnels with dead ends sadly. The main tracks they were following continued to lead them on and on throughout the rest of the mine. They even found some ancient dynamite abandoned by the last of the mine workers. Just when it seemed like the tracks would never end, they came upon a metal door. It seemed horribly dented and covered in scratches, through one of the broken hinges they could smell fresh air. This had to be the exit. Dipper tried to open it but it wouldn't budge, it wasn't even locked, it was jammed. More like wedged actually, it's deformities basically made it impossible to open.

"I see...that makes sense."

"How?! I'm sorry, Dipper; but how does a busted jammed door make any sense? This is the only exit we've found and it's broken!"

"Exactly!"

"Huh?"

"Well if this is the only exit the workers had then it stands to reason those little thieves were sealed in here before it got abandoned. The only other way they could get out would be through digging!"

"Digging?"

"Did you see those metal gloves the lightning goblins had? I'm willing to bet they use those for digging."

"What about that hacking thing?"

"I'm guessing have multiple uses for it, but remember the tunnel we slid down? They must use those claws with their personal electricity to dig their own tunnels."

"Why dig up though? Wouldn't any other direction that lead to the outside be better?"

"True. However, this mine is super ancient, I'm surprised it's still standing! I'm willing to bet that if they aren't careful they could bring the whole place down right on top of them. They don't seem very smart and this kind of work in a place as old as this must be very delicate work."

Pacifica was a little impressed. "Alright smart guy, then can you tell me why they're doing this?"

Dipper rolled his eyes playfully. "I'm going to go out on a limb and say 'revenge'. You know, with how they were talking about revenge on the Northwests and everything? Your family probably either A.) Screwed them over. B.) Sealed them inside. Or C.) Both A and B."

Pacifica smirked at the playful little jab.

"They probably entered Multi-Bear's cave without even knowing he ever existed. If they actually had time to plot out their revenge plan then they must have instantly recognized him as an inevitable obstacle, hence why they chased him out. He was a variable they couldn't afford!" added Dipper.

She put her hands on her hips and leaned forward in a challenging way. "Alright 'Sherlock', do you have a way for us to get out of here then?"

Heh. Sherlock...I'll take that as a compliment.

"I was hoping you would ask." He held up his gun triumphantly. "The door isn't going to budge so what do you say we just eliminate the door?"

"With the laser again?"

Pacifica wasn't going to lie, the laser had been her favorite feature of the gun so far. She wouldn't mind seeing it again.

"No. I'm in no hurry to use up another battery." Dipper said as he adjusted the dial again. "To bust this thing open, we're going to have to go cold!"

I always enjoyed showing off my gun. I have honestly never had a better tool.

The barrel of the gun opened up wide making a buzzing sound. "We're going to want to stand back."

Dipper took a couple of steps back but when he found Pacifica next to him he scratched the back of his neck nervously. "Um...since this is your first time seeing it, you might want to stand behind me. This setting is no joke."

Pacifica did as she was told and Dipper took aim. However, as he was lining up the shot the three lightning goblins were watching them from the shadows.

"Look, the one with the weapon. He is the injured one, I am sure of it!" the gold one stated.

"What of the woman? Something seems...familiar about her." the iron one asked.

"Hmm...she does have a slight similarity to Jebediah Northwest in the way she holds herself, but it could just be a coincidence. We'd need something more rock solid to know if she was a direct descendant."

"This isn't going to mess with my hair is it? My hairstylist doesn't come cheap you know." said Pacifica.

"She's a Northwest." the three said in unison.

"What do you say fellas?" the gold one smirked to the others. "Want to milk this revenge?"

The other two said nothing but grinned evilly as an answer.

"Okay Pacifica, what you are about to see is a mixture of chemicals known only to myself and my Great Uncle Ford."

As soon as Great Uncle Ford became a teacher at his dream school he opened a whole new world (metaphorically of course) of inventions and discoveries. Heck he even discovered twelve new elements not found on the periodic table on his first day!

Giving her one last confident smirk, Dipper pulled the trigger.

*KACHINK!**KACHINK!**KACHINK!*

Three glass balls shot out of the gun and shattered against the door. With their liquid content sprayed across the surface, the door started to ice over. Once it was completely frozen Dipper heard Pacifica gasp and his smirk got bigger. Dipper flicked a single pebble at it and it shattered like glass.

"Ha! See that, Pacifica? So cold it makes liquid nitrogen look like an ice cream headache in comparison! Because of this, it's considered more dangerous than an actual gun."

No. Really. It is. The government had to create brad new regulations, permits, and licenses because of this thing. 

Pacifica was impressed, she wasn't even sure where those glass balls were being stored in that gun. What she found more impressive though might have actually been Dipper. Not only did he seem to be an expert with an overly complicated weapon but he seemed to have an answer for just about every obstacle they faced. It was starting to look like nothing could stop him.

'I guess the 'dweeb' really has grown up.' she thought with a smile.

However, as Dipper made his way to check the surrounding location of their new exit he had left Pacifica alone with her thoughts. The lightning goblins took advantage of this and emerged from the shadows to grab her from behind. Suddenly sending an electric surge through her body Pacifica found herself unable to move a muscle fully paralyzed. She tried to move but the best she could manage was a twitch. The lightning goblins snickered again as they dragged her in to the shadows.

Dipper, having finally finished his perimeter check of outside, came back.

"Good news! Nothing is out there waiting to ambush us! In case you're wondering, that feature is actually an upgrade my Great Uncle Ford gave me for my last birthday and I...Pacifica?"

Looking back? I couldn't believe I made such a rookie mistake. Leaving her alone with those things about? Something bad was bound to happen. It didn't take me long to find clues, signs of a struggle and multiple footprints dragging something. They took Pacifica, but I swore on my badge I'll get her back!