Wendy Valentino slouched across the street, glowering at everything as she passed. The sun was too bright for a winter day; the weather was chilly, but not that cold. Even winter couldn't get it right in this backwards town.

Wendy settled against a brick wall, the spray paint cans in her hoodie pocket rattling slightly. She'd lean against this wall until she got the inspiration for her next greatest achievement. Her best ideas were reserved for paint and canvas, but any idea that could be expressed to the public on a nice, graffiti-free wall was an idea that needed to be shared. Wendy often wished she could live somewhere with a subway or train station where graffiti was never cleaned off, where street artists like her were immortal. But, at the same time, she liked being the only graffiti artist in town; that way, people could really admire her work. Until they scrubbed it off, of course.

She could feel an idea itching at the back of her brain. Another few minutes of patiently waiting and it would be realized. She could almost. . . see. . .

"Wendy! Wendy I need your help!"

Wendy was pulled out of her trance, and she blinked wildly before growling. She had almost had her idea! How did people know the perfectly wrong time to interrupt her?

She looked down to see none other than the little Pines squirt that had been hanging around with Robbie last night. Mabel? What an old lady's name. "What do you want?" Wendy grunted, folding her arms and glaring at the girl.

"Please, you have to go visit Robbie right now, otherwise something terrible will happen. You gotta stop it!"

"Stop what?" Wendy asked, bewildered.

"Please just come! I don't know how to explain." Mabel clasped her hands over the dark blue broken-heart symbol on her shirt. Huh, it looked kinda like the stitched heart on Wendy's hoodie.

"I'm busy, kid."

"You're just standing here!" Mabel said. "C'mon, please? You don't want me dating Robbie, do you?"

Wendy stared at the girl incredulously. "What does that have to do with anything? Why would a kid like you ever date Robbie?"

"I wouldn't!" Mabel replied. "But if you don't come I might! I mean. . . please just come! There's no time to waste!"

Wendy blinked. She was very confused. But, now that her creative process had already been interrupted by the squirt, she might as well go pay Robbie a visit. "Fine, fine. Calm down, kid. We can head over to the Museum."

"Thank you, thank you!"

Wendy put out a hand to shut her up and started towards the Museum; it was just down the street.

Mabel bounced up and down impatiently as Wendy ambled down the road until Wendy stopped and shot her a look. "Are you wanting me to go faster, kid?"

"Yes, please!"

What was with this girl? She wasn't half this energetic last night. Wasn't her brother the hyper one or whatever?

Mabel suddenly took off running, shouting, "Come on!" over her shoulder. Wendy grumbled to herself as she picked up her speed, jogging down the street until she came to the Museum, where Mabel had already torn the door open and run inside.

Wendy entered the Museum to see Robbie behind the counter, talking to. . . Mabel?

The two turned and looked at her, and Mabel's face quickly turned from happiness to thinly veiled anger. "Hey, Robbie," Wendy said casually, leaning against the doorjamb.

"Hey, Wendy! I thought you were painting."

Wendy shrugged. "No ideas." There was going to be one, but somebody had ruined that. "What exactly is this game you're playing, kid?" she said to Mabel.

Mabel looked confused. "What do you. . . ?" She stopped, and her expression turned to one of understanding. "Never mind. I'm not playing any games." There was something different about her than there had been just a minute ago, and it wasn't just her attitude.

"You lead me on a goose chase just to come. . . what?"

Mabel stared at Wendy for a moment before glowering at nothing in particular. "Give me a second," she growled, hopping down from her stool and stomping off into another room.

As she did, Wendy could clearly see her shirt. The broken heart that had been on there just a minute ago was now whole. Huh? "Okay," Wendy said slowly, watching Mabel go.

"What was that about?" Robbie asked as soon as the kid was out of sight.

Wendy shrugged again. "She came running up to me and begged me to come see you, or else something bad would happen. Well, I'm here now, so. . . I guess I stopped it." She added a sardonic grin to her last words.

Robbie smiled back. "I guess so." Wendy loved it when he smiled.

A sudden thump came from the other room, like something had hit the wall. Another thump, this one on the floor, followed. Wendy and Robbie looked over in surprise. "Uh, what's going on in there?" asked Wendy.

"I'm not sure," Robbie said. "I could have sworn I saw somebody run through here just before you came in, but I couldn't tell who they were. Maybe it was Dipper; that kid is fast. And now they're fighting, I guess?" Then he frowned. "Wait, Wendy. You said Mabel came up to you and asked you to come to the Museum just now?"

"Yeah."

"But. . . she's been here with me for the past five, maybe ten minutes."

Wendy frowned too. "How could she. . . ? She was outside bothering me."

The two stared at each other in a confused quiet.

The sound of running feet broke the silence as Mabel burst into the gift shop. "I won!" she announced, bearing the broken heart on her chest proudly. Maybe Wendy had seen wrong before?

"Uh, good job?" Wendy asked, cocking an eyebrow.

Mabel grinned at her. "Thanks so much for coming, Wendy; I couldn't have done it without you!" With that, she ran out of the Mystery Museum at top speed.

Wendy watched her go until she turned a corner and ran out of sight. Then she glanced back at Robbie, who looked as confused as she felt.

"Weird Pines kids," Wendy muttered, shaking her head.

~~~~~

Dipper didn't like feeling cornered by two versions of his sister.

"I have an idea!" Dipper said to the Mabels closing in on him. "Why don't you guys fight and stuff without, you know, involving me?"

Upside-Down Star Mabel grinned in a way that Dipper never wanted to see on his sister's face again. "Oh, we're going to involve you, for sure."

"No, we're not!" Star Mabel yelled, shoving at UDS Mabel. "I can't believe you would consider hurting our brother!"

"Just because he's our brother doesn't mean he gets some special treatment!"

"But he's not just our brother! He's our best friend!"

"He might be your best friend, but he certainly isn't mine."

Star Mabel let out a war cry and pounced on UDS Mabel. Dipper, Candy, and Greyson all stepped back.

"Well, I guess you got your request," Greyson said with a nervous chuckle.

"This is really, really weird," is all Dipper could say.

Star Mabel and UDS Mabel tussled on the ground for a while. Dipper watched and stepped back every time UDS Mabel tried to grab at his ankle and pull him down. All it did was make Dipper wish for his real sister even more.

Star Mabel suddenly broke away from the fight and jumped to her feet, running over to Dipper. Dipper shied back, but she already had her arm around him. "Dipper's our brother, and I won't let you hurt him!" she shouted, kicking at UDS Mabel as she tried to stand.

UDS Mabel fell back and didn't move. Her body turned to white smoke and mingled with the snow.

Dipper blinked, looking at Star Mabel. "Well, that was. . . easy?"

Star Mabel looked at him, grinning fiercely. "I knew I would win! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it! Nothing beats good ol' sibling love, right Dip?"

Dipper grinned back. "Yeah! Nothing beats it!" Maybe she wasn't his real sister, but she sure was nice to him.

Star Mabel hugged him and then stepped back, still smiling. "I gotta go back to the base and all. Bye Dip!"

"Wait, wait," Dipper said, grabbing her arm. "You're going back to Mabel?"

Star Mabel bit her lip.

"Could you please take us with you? I really, really want to see my sister again."

"You will," Star Mabel promised. "You will soon, but you can't follow me, okay?"

Well, if it worked on FF Mabel it would work on Star Mabel, right? Dipper brought the puppy-dog eyes back out.

"Aw, Dipper, please, don't do that! I'm doing this for your good as well as Mabel's. Trust me!"

"Dipper, let's try this my way," said Candy behind him. He shook his head without looking back, though he thought he heard Candy pound one fist into another.

"C'mon, Mabel, you don't even have to say you led us there. You can say we followed you. Pwease?"

Mabel stared at him, and then started shaking her head slowly. "I. . . I can't, Dip. I'm doing this because I love you. And I promise that once I'm back in Mabel and it's all over, she'll come and find you and love you the same way I do. Please, don't give me that look!" She closed her eyes and turned away.

"Mabel, c'mon. . ."

Mabel shook her head vehemently. "I'm sorry! Don't. . . don't follow me!" She took off running.

"Huh," Greyson said, "I thought that would work."

So had Dipper. But it didn't. So he did the only thing he could think of to stop Star Mabel in her tracks: He screamed at the top of his lungs.