"Uh, Grunkle Stan, are you sure this is a good idea?"
"It's Ford's, not mine, now hurry up and help me with this sail."
Dipper sighed, assisting his uncle with the sail as Mabel skipped around the deck, singing loudly about mermaids. They had been at sea for a few days now, the start of their summer vacation with their Grunkles on the Stan'O War II. Mabel was sure that adventures on the sea were just around the corner, but so far nothing of interest had really happened.
Until Ford told them where they were headed.
"But seriously, Stan! The Bermuda Triangle?! That would've sounded like a bad idea even before Bill!"
"Yeah, probably," Stan said casually as he tied off a line. "But Ford's pretty adamant about sticking his nose in things that are bad news, if you hadn't noticed."
"All the more reason it's a bad idea!" Dipper said.
"Well if you're so against it, you talk him out of it." Stan shrugged, taking a seat on one of the chairs on deck.
Dipper went quiet. Stan nodded, then opened up a crossword puzzle book and ended their conversation. The boy sighed and made his way over to the helm, where the current problematic Grunkle was navigating.
"Er, Great Uncle Ford? Don't you think going to uh, well, the Bermuda Triangle is a bit of a bad idea?"
"It's just a name, Dipper!" Ford waved dismissively. "Just because it happens to have the word 'Triangle' in it doesn't mean it's linked to Bill. …Trust me, I've looked into it. There's nothing tying it to Bill, but it's still a point of interest for anomalies; just think of it as the marine version of Gravity Falls."
"Isn't that-?"
All of a sudden the boat lurched to the side, Dipper nearly flying off the boat but was grabbed by Ford.
"What the heck?!"
Before he had even finished his thought a torrent of rain bombarded them.
"Where the heck did this come from?!" he heard Stan yell. "Kids, get below deck!"
Dipper tried to protest but he and Mabel were shoved below deck, the door slammed closed.
"Hey! I'm not staying down here!"
Dipper grabbed the doorhandle then the boat lurched again and he and Mabel slammed into the wall, both twins slumping down to the floor, unconscious.
"Dipper? Dipper! Wake up!"
He grimaced, slowly opening his eyes to his sister's concerned expression.
"Dipper! You're awake! How do you feel? Are you hurt?"
"Aside from some minor head trauma, he doesn't have any serious injuries," Ford said from the side.
Dipper groaned and sat up with some help from his sister, looking around.
"Where- where are we?"
"We're not uh…sure, exactly," Stan frowned, scratching his head.
"We're in a Time Penitentiary," Ford said.
"…What?!"
Dipper got to his feet, taking in their surroundings in a panic. It was a solid white room, much like the one he had been in with Mabel during the whole Globnar incident. The only difference was that one wall had a rim of blue metal, translucent yellow energy sealing them off from the outside hall.
"How did we end up in a time prison?!" Dipper shouted, gripping his hat.
"No idea," Mabel said with a shrug. "Apparently we all passed out and when we woke up…here we are."
"It's likely that we passed through a rift in space-time," Ford mused, a hand to his chin. "And ended up in a space-time where traversing space-time is illegal without proper certifications so we were put in a space-time prison-"
"If you say 'space-time' one more 'time' I'll knock you out, Ford." Stan glared.
Ford ignored him and scrutinized the wall of energy that kept them contained, muttering to himself.
"There has to be some way out!" Dipper paced, chewing a pen he had in his vest.
"Grunkle Stan's busted out of prison before right?" Mabel frowned.
"Well- yeah, but those were prisons in our time. That didn't have weird energy walls," Stan shrugged. "This is a little out of my element."
"I might know a way to bypass the wall but outside of it we're stuck in a time-lock…" Ford grumbled. "I can think of a few ways but none of them will be easy."
"Hey- do you hear that?" Mabel frowned.
The guards were yelling something, coming up the corridor to their cell.
"All of you up against the wall!"one yelled in at them. "Backs to it!"
"Maybe I should put YOU up against-" Stan began.
"Shh, Stanley, do what they say. For now." Ford frowned, grabbing his brother's arm.
The old crook wasn't happy with the idea but did as his twin said, the Pines twins all getting up against the wall.
"I wonder what's going on?" Mabel frowned.
They could hear various noises from down the hall, getting louder as the speaker drew closer.
"Execute. Execute. Execute. Free. Execute. Execute. Free. Execute-….actually no, leave him alive. Put him in the pain void. Execute, execute, free…."
"It sounds like someone is giving out sentences…" Dipper whispered.
"Without a trial? Geez don't we get lawyer?" Stan grumbled.
The woman's voice continued to render her judgment as she strolled down the hall, and they didn't see it but they could hear the sentences being carried out. One man ran down the hall, apparently one of the freed prisoners.
The kids began to tense up and Stan and Ford both looked calculative, trying to devise a plan of escape- or at least to protect the kids.
"Execute, execute, execute, free, execute, thirty years, execute…."
Mabel fidgeted, sending a fearful glance at her brother. Dipper grabbed her hand, trying to reassure her that they would be okay.
"And- oh my…my my my!"
The woman had stopped in front of their cell, her head tilted in amusement as she examined them. She was a beautiful woman at first glance and an oddly chilling one at a second. True she did have the appearance of a pretty brunette lady, but her eyes glowed blue and the dark pupils were very obviously slitted. She wore an odd, blue suit and hat combination that was adorned with ribbons and bows, along with a couple star symbols here and there. The Pines family except for Stanley tensed up, having seen such eyes before.
The wall disappeared.
"Well this is a surprise, you're definitely a few years out of your comfort zones, aren't you?" the woman smiled, humming to herself as she walked up to them. "Well we can't have that."
The ribbons attached to her waist moved about like snakes, swaying around as if looking for something to strike at.
"Now how to deal with you?" she hummed chipperly.
"Stan don't do anything rash-" Ford muttered to his brother.
"DEAL WITH THIS, LADY!"
"STANLEY! NO!"
The woman rose a brow in surprise as Mr. Mystery attempted to jab her in the face. She backstepped and her ribbons lashed out and wrapped around Stan, holding his arms to his sides.
"Grunkle Stan!" Dipper and Mabel shouted.
"Stanley-!" Ford began.
"That's rude of you," the woman pouted.
With a leisurely flick of her ribbony tendrils she tossed Stan back against the wall, resulting in a loud smacking sound. Stan let out a sharp cry of pain and bit down to resist swearing.
"Grunkle Stan! Are you okay?!" Mabel dashed over to him.
"Oh, whoopsiedoodle, sorry about that! I forget how fragile humans are sometimes!"
Ford and the children found themselves frozen in place, watching helplessly as the woman skipped over to Stan, her ribbons wrapping around his torso.
"Hey-! Leggo of me, lady!" Stan snapped.
"Shhh, calm down, just relax a moment!" the woman wagged a finger in his face. "Just…there!"
Stan yelped, then stared at her, blinking.
"What the…?"
"There you go! Better?" she said, the ribbons releasing him.
Stan frowned, rolling his shoulders and found that, yes, in fact he did feel better. The pain was gone, heck he even felt better than usual.
"Good! Well, sorry about all this!" she chirped, clapping her hands together. "For hurting you and for you all getting locked up in here. After all! In your time they didn't have laws like that, right? So, you're free to go! I'll even throw a little something in for your trouble!"
From her clasped hand she produced a blue and pink card, slipping it into Stan's hand.
"Go ahead and show that around if you need anything. Really, have fun! Think of it as a….prepaid card," she winked. "With no limit."
"Really?" Stan eyed it, intrigued.
"Stanley!" Ford scoffed.
"Oh! Right!" she snapped her fingers. "You all can move again, sorry about that! I'm a little scatterbrained! But really, go ahead and have some fun, I insist! Then just step by any of the Time Enforcement offices, they should be able to get you home!"
She sashayed back through the entrance, humming loudly as her ribbons swayed in time with her melody. She looked over her shoulder at them and winked, staring them down with one glowing blue eye.
"Be careful though, okay?"
The Pines family stared at her. The woman went to leave and Mabel piped up.
"Your outfit is really cute by the way. I like all the glittery stuff."
She beamed at her.
"Aw, thank you! Aren't you a sweet little starling! I really should be off now though, take care of Dipper, would you? Ta-ta!"
She turned her back and the Pines' found themselves abruptly standing outside of some kind of station, skyscrapers of unknown material towering all around. Dipper and Mabel recognized at as being similar to the year 20-Sneyvnty-12, except a lot brighter, and cleaner. Also decorated in posters of the woman they had just met, proclaiming various things such as 'Starite's our Star!', 'Starite is Watching Out for You!' and 'It's Okay to be Starstruck by Starite!'.
"I guess her name is 'Starite'," Mabel shrugged.
"I guess she's also some kind of dictator, from all the propaganda," Dipper muttered, glancing around.
"Aw but she seemed nice!" Mabel pouted.
Ford examined their surroundings intently, attempting to get their bearings. Stanley instead decided to examine the card he'd been given. Some weird symbol of a crescent-moon with a rainbow. Weird, he thought it would've been a star or something, given the woman's clothing, and her name.
In fact, that rainbow kind of looked like the one on Mabel's Shooting Star symbol...
In a very colorful and sparkly room, the woman dubbed 'Starite' mimicked a phone with her hand, pressing it to the side of her face.
"Bro-bro? Hey! Just letting you know, we have some uh…special guests. Just giving you a heads up, m'kay?"
She paused a moment.
"What do you mean who? Who else would I bother telling you about?" she pouted.
Another moment.
"Oh my g-" she sighed, rubbing her face. "Two sets of twins, bro-bro."
Another moment of silence.
"Yup, so uh…be careful, okay? We don't want them finding out about you just yet."
Elsewhere a yellow-eyed man cursed loudly, tossing his phone over his shoulder where it erupted into blue flame.