On the day that it happened, it happened to rain on top of everything else.
Mabel Pines had gone for a walk that day, driven by a lack of an immediate distraction inside her then current reach back at the Shack. The journey through the town proved to be a lamentation of her failing summer dreams, as she passed by all the places she had planned to visit again with her twin brother Dipper at her side. After the first few times where she stood hesitantly outside the business of fun and then realized she lacked the energy to go in alone, Mabel stopped bothering, simply casting the place a glance while continuing to walk. Her sweater, a bright pink piece with a rainbow wrapping around the whole torso of it, was strangely inappropriate on the dreary lakeside day, despite doing an excellent job insulating her from the chill.
Dipper had been gone, willingly stepped through the portal of his great uncle's design, for several days at this point. Mabel had reached the shore of the town's lake and was gazing across the calm water while seated on a rock when she really began to lament this fresh loss. "After all those years of waiting through high school, trying my hardest until I could see my brother again, and as soon as I get here he's off through a portal, adventuring around the multiverse." She thought to herself with a miserable air, skipping a rock across the water. "I should have stayed in California, we were closer to each other then than we are now."
"Sometimes it seems like he just wants to get away from me. As soon as I'm ready to finally be the best big sister that Dipper always deserved, he just up and vanishes on me! I've been great at making friends all my life... so why can't I be friends with the one person who means the most to me?" She continued to think while getting a slight flash of frustration across her face. "...I hate that portal." Mabel thought to herself, inwardly realizing she was crossing a line but unable to help it. "It took my brother away from me, just like it took Grunkle Stan's away from him."
That was the moment the first rain drop tapped Mabel on the nose. Blinking in surprise, the girl was roused from her thoughts as the gentle hiss of the rain falling began to build up around her and drops sent ripples across the water. It was all very gentle for the moment, but was visibly speeding up over time. "Oh come on! It's gotta rain too!?" Mabel yelled with frustration. "Why am I dealing with this all of sudden!? It never rains on Gravity Falls!"
Distantly, the Pines girl did have a hazy memory of her mother instructing her and her brother to back all their jackets and sweaters, as well as providing Mabel with a pastel pink umbrella she'd ended up never using, citing that Oregon was a very rainy state, unlike California, and the twins needed to be prepared for their trip north. However, her clearer memories contradicted this, being clearer in that it was easier for her to remember all her adventures and clearer in the sense that exploring the supernatural never got rained out in all her experience.
Finding herself muttering angrily in a manner she used to associate exclusively with Dipper, Mabel got to her feet and began to shuffle back up the road away from the lake, looking to get out of the rain once she was back in town. "When did things start getting like this?" She asked aloud, to no one in particular. The weather forecast that predicted this rain had kept the crowds away from the lake today. "Why isn't my bubbly personality and good hearted intentions enough to get ahead in life anymore!?"
So caught up was she in this rage against the heavens was Mabel that she didn't notice the fact she had walked past a delivery van parked into the treeline just near the lake. She'd been similarly too caught up in her newfound taste for free-form brooding that she hadn't noticed the van earlier, when it split off the main road and parked itself there shortly after she had gone down the road to the lake.
As a result of all that adding up, Mabel was completely unprepared for when the men from the van threw a bag over her head and grabbed her by the arms.
"...LET ME GO! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT GRUNKLE STAN WILL DO TO YOU FOR THIS!? STRANGER DANGER!"
Mabel had fought and yelled the entire way, but the abductors had chosen their moment extremely well, and no one was around to hear her shouts. The teenage girl couldn't quite keep track of how long she'd been bagged for or where she'd been dragged to, as the loss of sight was disorientating and she was putting all her efforts into struggling to escape. She was, however, able to effectively realize when she was no longer being held with her hands behind her back, and wasted no time ripping the bag off her head.
As soon as sight returned to her, Mabel knew she was in the back of a van. An exceedingly similar back of the van to the van Dipper had, which Mabel would have found outrageously funny if she wasn't scared for her life. Standing in front of her, between herself and the back doors out, were two adult men dressed up in stereotypical fishing outfits, one of them completely obscured in the face between his low hanging floppy hat, dark sunglasses, and thick mustache, while the other seemed significantly less obscured despite only lacking the mustache. Mabel blinked for a moment, and not just as a result of her eyes adjusting. "Oh no, I know where this is going and I'm not having it!"
Right after saying that, Mabel rushed forward, planning to attack the kidnapper with the more visible face, which was bearing a blank but intense flat-eyebrow expression. After closing the distance between them, Mabel pulled her right leg back and kicked the man straight in the groin. When he didn't even flinch in response to this, the girl looked up at his unchanged face, looked down, then bent her leg back and kicked over and over again, slamming her foot into his crotch at an extremely strong and fast rate, and continuing to get no results from this action.
"Oh no, this is all I learned how to do from that self-defense class, and it's not working!" Mabel inwardly panicked, until she had her arms grabbed behind her back again and was pulled away. "Alright, that's enough. Calm down and we'll explain everything." The other man said while dragging Mabel back to the back of the van. After a long moment, a single tear rolled down the face of the man she'd kicked from beneath his sunglasses, who otherwise released no reaction to the attack.
Now backed up against the wall, Mabel didn't surge forward and attack again, as while her posture was still defensive and aggravated, her face contorted with a sudden look of curiosity. "Wait... do I know you guys?"
"I would hope you still do." The un-kicked man said bluntly, as the two removed their hats and sunglasses, the speaker revealing himself as an older man with mildly wrinkly skin, a large nose and thinning black hair.
"You tried to kill me once." The other one added, his lack of disguise revealing himself to be notably younger than his partner, though still an adult by at least a decade, with a fuller head of light brown hair, a small nose and bright, beady eyes.
Mabel stood still for a moment, eyes squinting and finger on her chin, looking significantly less afraid now. "...Not fully coming back to me, but I'm feeling really close to it..."
"You tried to KILL me once!" The brunette spoke up again, an obviously practiced facade of calm audibly cracking a slight amount, seemingly from indignity.
"Well, even if you don't remember us, we remember you Mabel Pines." The leader of the two responded while retrieving an ID card from inside the pocket of his fishing vest. "Agent Powers and Agent Trigger. Your government wants to have a chat with you."
Realization quickly set in on the Pines Twin as she looked back and forth between the two with wide eyes. "Oooooh, right. You guys. How's... how's it hanging?" She asked nervously, but soon after perked up with a fresh realization. "Hey, wait, this means you guys aren't pedophiles, right?"
"No." Agent Powers answered wearily.
"SILVER LINING! SILVER LINING!" Mabel cheered, while pumping her fists over her head. After a moment though, she asked them, with a more worried expression. "So, what's going on then? Why am I being invited to a party in the CIA?"
"That's classified, but I suspect you'll get a full explanation soon enough." Powers answered with a slightly weary sounding tone, then lifted his watch up and talked into it. "Move out." He stated, and the van started rolling right after. Mabel jostled around in surprise at first, but soon enough she and the agents were standing reasonably steady with their fingers wrapped around roof mounted hand grips.
The van moved through the streets of Gravity Falls with steady, professional speed and handling, an unremarkable drive that would draw no attention. The ride in the back was quiet and awkward between all parties. Mabel looked to the side and finally noticed the bag that had been thrown over her head and was now discarded on the floor was one of those reusable types that supermarkets started selling to cut down on plastic use, but which even the most well-meaning and dedicated shoppers forget to bring with them when they go shopping, resulting in plastic being used anyways. It was labeled with the logo of the local Tons Grocery Store. With nothing else going on, Mabel decided to try and tell a joke
"So, hey, what do you call it when one cow spies on another?" The girl asked the two agents, grinning with that sort of look of anticipating present when a joke teller wants to hear their own answer more than the people they're telling the joke to.
"A sign that DARPA has been taking too much inspiration from the Acoustic Kitty." Powers responded. Casual observers would be forgiven for thinking that was a snarky comeback meant to shoot down Mabel's response, but the teenage girl had remembered enough of his humorless personality to know that those words were a completely genuine and straightforward answer to her rhetorical question that the agent genuinely believed.
"Yesh, tough crowd. I'm glad I didn't ask them what an FBI agent uses for birth control." The girl thought to herself.
"Despite my partner's inability to understand humor, it's clear to me you're using it as a copping mechanism for the stressful situation you are in." Agent Trigger spoke up, maintaining a neutral tone. "I can assure you we simply want to ask a few questions, that's all."
"Well... THANKS! I guess." Mabel responded, before looking uncertain briefly. "Um, look, I'm not sure if this is an awkward question or not, but could, well, remind me... when did I try and kill you again?"
Agent Trigger had the same expression that was always on his face, but blinked a few times before responding to the question. "I was trying to take you and your brother into child protective services in order to keep you away from your criminal great uncle." He explained flatly. "While we were traveling you instigated a truck driving redneck into ramming me off the road and caused the vehicle to roll over multiable times."
"Oooooh right, that time!" Mabel spoke, mostly to herself, as the memory came back to her. Putting on a strained smile and looking at the two agents, she tried to explain herself. "Well, actually I wasn't TRYING to kill you in that spot, me and Dipper just needed to get away was all. So... no hard feelings?"
"Over 37,000 people are killed in car accidents a year." Trigger stated bluntly.
"Uh... sorry?" Mabel asked, but abruptly felt her breath catch in her throat as the numbers added up in her head. "How do you remember that happening?"
At that moment however, the van came to a stop, causing all conversation inside it to die as well. Mabel stepped forward, a little nervousness returning, but covering it by remarking "Alright, let's see your guys' secret lair/man cave." but Powers stopped her with an upheld hand.
"The base itself is still top secret. Agent Trigger, bag her up again." Powers ordered, and despite rolling her eyes at this Mabel didn't resist as the shopping bag was put back over her head. She could hear the back doors of the van open before being carefully led out of the vehicle, forward a few steps, and into what was probably an elevator based on the sensation she felt after standing in place for a moment. Then, to Mabel's surprise, the bag came off. With an annoyed expression, she asked "Are you kidding me?" to no reply.
A very short moment later, the elevator door opened, into what was almost certainly a basement given the complete lack of light and the fact that the elevator had been traveling downwards. The basement seemed to consist of a single dark computer room, about the size of the table room over at the Mystery Shack's basement and illuminated only by the blues and yellows radiating off the wall to wall collection of computer servers installed down here. Across the room from the elevator door was a singular desk, fairly modest looking. It had two chair pulled up to it, one on either side, and the further one from Mabel was turned around, back to the visitors, when the three arrived.
Mabel crossed the room in short order, one agent on each side of her. After a quiet, uncomfortable moment sitting in the empty chair with Powers and Trigger standing with stoic professionalism to either side of her, the third man behind the desk turned around at a soft pace to look Mabel face to face.
He was older than Trigger but younger looking than Powers, though it was distinctly possible this new operative had simply aged more gracefully. He was clean cut, not a pluck of his rusty red hair inhabiting his face, though despite the hair on his head being well combed back he still had a few lose strands that curled and popped out of hair cut in seemingly random places. He was wearing the same sort of generic but distinctive black suit the agents use when not in disguise, but in contrast to their perpetually stiff and professional expressions had a softer face, even smiling a little as he turned around and locked eyes with his visitor, along with a pair of conspicuous black gloves. "Mabel Pines, so good to see you!" He said in a charming tone, extending a hand to her, his other hand holding a lit cigar in it. "It's always a pleasure to meet a member of the Pines family face to face, I'm a big fan of the work you all do. Care for a smoke?" He explained, offering the cigar to her after withdrawing from the handshake.
"Um, not a smoker, thank you though." Mabel responded, a little confused by his friendly attitude. Without hesitation or comment, the new agent placed the cigar on an ashtray then placed the ashtray in a drawer. "So, what's going on, exactly? Why have you brought me here?"
"Ah, a direct attitude, I appreciate that!" The man complemented before leaning in a little and beginning to explain. "Well, to start with, how about an introduction? My name is Ferris, no last names for now, not sure if I still have one if I'm being honest you... They tell you that one day you'll be able to go back and use your real name again but one thing after another comes up and soon enough you're dreaming of being a butterfly named Ferris instead of a man..."
"Uh, excuse me?" Mabel spoke up. "Still waiting to know why you had me kidnapped."
"Oh, of course, I apologize." Ferris answered, seemingly genuinely distracted by his little tangent. "Well, first off, sorry about the kidnapping. You know how it is, secrets and protocols and all that other nonsense. If everything goes well you and your whole family will be able to use the front door from here on out!" He continued, before more clearly explaining that "I want to propose a partnership between the Pines Family and Project TWILIGHT!"
At the announcement, Agent Powers seemed to shift uncomfortably in his place. Even though he didn't saw anything, Ferris seemed to pick up on this movement and abruptly snapped at him "Oh spare me the protocol concerns, she already knows about the secret president, no harm in letting her in on a black project or two."
This seemed to generate a look of concern on Mabel's face though. "Wait, how do you know that I know that?" A bit of dread climbing up her spine.
"Oh, that's easy. We've been spying on you!" Ferris stated nonchalantly, causing Mabel to shiver visibly. If he noticed this, the agent didn't make mention of it. "We've been spying on your whole family for quite awhile actually, among others. Truth be told, we're actually all quite fond of you Pines. You all are basically an asset to us, unlike most of the creepy crawlers we keep bugged."
Getting deeply weirded out now, Mabel sank into her chair a little. "How long is quite awhile, really?"
"Quite awhile means quite awhile in this situation. Going all the way back to you Great Uncle Stanford, back when he was just Stanford." Ferris explained, getting out of his chair and striding towards a wall as if to look out a window, only to remember they were in a basement and sat down again. "It all started when Stanford decided he wanted to research... 'weirdness.' And went about asking for grant money to do so." The red head stated with a scoff. "Honestly, your great uncle is a brilliant man but has no idea how anything money related works. What kind of credible institution is going to give someone money to run around forests and look for gnomes? Back in that time period the space race was going on and there was no cure for erectile dysfunction! No one was going to fund gnome chasing!"
Despite her attempts to remain on guard, Ferris' crude, off hand remark did get a little giggle out of Mabel. "No one... except us, that is. Project TWILIGHT is the United States' top secret supernatural security organization, and we saw potential in your great uncle's work. We had some fronts in place, of course, but we always had a vague suspicion he knew more was going on. Particularly after we asked him to make that mind control necktie."
Abruptly remembering that object, Mabel let out a nervous laugh. "Right, that old thing..."
"By the way, on a personal note? You rigged that election like a champ!" Ferris complemented while leaning over the desk a little. When Mabel looked guilty in response rather than receptive, he leaned back and added "Now, don't go getting all guilt stricken on me here! What you and your brother did there was completely justified! Gideon had actively threatened you and Stanley wasn't making a serious effort to defeat him! Your actions on that day were unclouded, they were all those of justice!"
No longer feeling guilty, instead being severely creeped out by how much Ferris seemed to know, Mabel asked him to continue. "So, if you know all that much, you know what happened to Grunkle Ford, don't you?"
"Well, we thought we knew, but it turns out we didn't, but we know now that we didn't know and that we now know, so yes." Ferris explained, causing Mabel to blink a few times. "Basically, when Stanford fell through the portal, we were under the impression Stanley had murdered him in order to escape his life of crime, live somewhere more stable, get revenge on his estranged family, etc etc. At least, that was what all our psychological profiling led us to believe." While just the thought of one of the older twins killing the other visibly disgusted Mabel, Ferris just went on talking. "It was a few days after the actual switch when we realized what had happened. We knew Stanford had a brother thanks to background checks, and to be frank, Stanley's impression of him is flat out terrible. He got really luck most of the Pines Family was either out of touch or dead when he did that. With our asset gone, Operation TWILIGHT withdrew from Gravity Falls. I'm sure all his blue-sky research was intriguing and all, but we needed gadgets and weaponry, and it was clear Stanley wouldn't be able to pick up where his brother left off."
"So, when these two showed up to arrest Grunkle Stan..." Mabel wondered, only to cut off by Ferris.
"A coincidence, actually. Powers and Trigger here are legitimate FBI agents, or at least, they were until their recent transfer. Your great uncle has a laundry list of legitimate crimes you know. Everything from pug smuggling to counterfeiting to marijuana dealing." He explained with a slightly teasing tone of voice, causing Mabel to look surprised.
"Wait, marijuana dealing?" She asked with confusion. "I don't remember him ever doing that."
With a sardonic, condescending expression, Ferris remarked that "Mabel, your great uncle Stanley is a self-professed criminal who will do anything for money, lives in an isolated section of wilderness and is strangely tolerant of a bunch of lazy teenagers hanging around his place of business. Where do you think all those dear heads he has came from, and why do you think he always wanted you and Dipper to stay out of the woods?"
"He told me those were paper mache..." Mabel reeled with a hurt tone of voice.
"Nope! He shot those deer himself for trying to eat the pot plants he grows all over the forest, with his collection of varyingly legal guns." Ferris explained. "Why do you think the whole town was still on speaking terms with him even when they hated him for being a shifty con artist?"
"Huh." Mabel muttered with a tone of comprehension. "That explains a lot honestly. He has always been pretty spritely for someone so old."
"Anyways, when the FBI moved to arrest Stanley we were made aware of it due to having him flagged as a person of interest, but the sudden failure of the operation is when we actually got involved." Ferris resumed explaining. Behind his professional expression, the operative took a distinct sense of satisfaction at the look of unease his next words put on Mabel's face. "Surely you didn't think that memory trick would leave you completely in the clear? All the paperwork back at the HQ reminded those agents right away that they were there to arrest Stanford Pines. They could have swept back into town and arrested all of you at any time, but after losing their memories on a raid the team decided to fall into observation mode to plan a new attack. Luckily for you, that gave me time to get involved."
Reaching into the desk, Ferris produced a photograph and slid it across to Mabel, whose eyes widened as she looked at it. The image was blurry and oddly angled, but the content was unmistakable: It was a photo of the Pines Family, Ford included, sitting down to watch television. "My lost asset had returned, seemingly back from death! The FBI investigation was called off, and these two, the most senior agents on the investigation, were transferred to Project TWILIGHT. A regime of hypnotherapy was gradually returning all their valuable memories of your family, but before we could decide on a move, well..." The agent struggled for words for a moment before simply remarking "End of the world."
"Weirdmageddon." Mabel breathes guiltily.
"That's what you called it!" Ferris shouted with realization. "Thank goodness that news broadcast of yours was so local, we only had to track down and memory wipe about a dozen people to cover the whole thing up." He mused with a tone of remembrance. "And, of course, congratulations on stopping it! Every one of you deserves a medal if you ask me, I was this close to calling in a scorched earth USAF bombing on the whole thing when you put a stop to it. Unfortunately they don't give medals in this line of work."
While Ferris continued to wistfully recount this chain of events, Mabel felt more abject horror crawling up her back. "The whole town... they were going to bomb the whole town to stop Bill..."
"Anyways, from there, it's rather simple. Stanford is back and even has an apprentice, so both of them get marked as assets, and we simply observe them for a few years. Your brother's long chats with the Northwest girl make for excellent listening material. Very informative." By now, Ferris was leaning over his desk in a casual fashion. "Agent Trigger over there even ships them, cheeky boy."
"Negatory." Agent Trigger suddenly spoke up, keeping his expression completely frozen the whole time. "I ship the two we have under observation in California."
"Of course, my mistake." Ferris answered dismissively, but then went off on a bold, stirring speech. "And that's why we've decided now is the time to contact you Mabel! It seems like in the last decade the supernatural has started coming out of the woodwork: Strange monsters stalk the streets of LA, UFOs are flying over Delaware, a pyramid demon invaded Earth right here in Oregon, vampires are having street wars over sarcophagi and haunted houses full of ghost skeletons... They're emerging faster than our current resources can contain them, and as a result, it's time to harvest the fruits of Stanford's labor bolster our forces."
"What do you want me to do exactly?" Mabel asked, tensing up at this part. "Here comes the part where I can't refuse..."
"We want you to go to the Shack and retrieve two objects of value. After that, nothing at all, until we need something else. The psych profiles indicate your family will labor better under a delusion of independence." Ferris explained. "The objects in question are the body swapping carpet and the magic photocopier."
Mabel's memories automatically went back to her experiences with the two objects. With a sinking feeling in her stomach, she asked "And what happens if I refuse?"
"Oh, nothing."
Mabel blinked in surprise a few times before responding "Wait, nothing? Hey wait, is this one of those ironic setups where you stuff me in a jail cell and 'nothing' happens to me for decades and decades of..."
"No, I mean literally nothing will be done to you if you refuse." Ferris responded. "I'm still a government employee Mabel. Do you have any idea how much red tape comes from imprisoning people indefinitely? I mean, sure we do it, but it takes more paperwork than I have time for." He explained dismissively, with a mild hint of annoyance, before adding "Well, we will erase your memory of this meeting, but you'll be put back right where we go your from. From your perspective, nothing will have happened."
The teenage girl seemed visibly but pleasantly surprised by this. "Well, that's... relieving? I think?"
"Believe me, we only have one supermax black ops prison, and I'd much rather lock up another vampire than put you in there." Ferris added dismissively.
"Well, in that case, I refuse your offer." Mabel stated firmly. "Go ahead, bring out the flashy light on a stick and wipe my brain of the last hour."
Ferris, however, simply gave her a small smile, like he'd expected to hear her say that. "Now Mabel, don't be so rash. You haven't even heard about all the wonderful carrots I'm offering you."
"Nope." The teenage girl responded firmly. "I'm not going to betray my family like this."
"Hmm." Ferris muttered, looking troubled for a moment. "You didn't offer this much resistance last time. Did I forget the aftershave today?"
That casual line, delivered as softly as it was, still caused something in Mabel to break into a panic. The outer layer of refusal she'd tried to put on broke into a visible need to know. "What do you mean, last time!?" She demanded, despite having a pretty good idea what he meant.
"You agreed to this before, with one of the conditions being that we erase your memory of the mission and not discuss it at all with you beyond the fact you performed one for us." Ferris said, casually confirming Mabel's seconds old but intensely strong fears.
"No, that's not possible! I'd never work for a creep like this to steal something from Dipper!" She thought in a panic, but the longer she had to think about it, the more her thoughts on this changed. "But I already did that once, didn't I? When Blendin asked me to steal The Rift..." Looking down at her hands, Mabel couldn't help but wonder "Did I really do it again? And did I erase my memory to hide from the shame of it?"
"What are you offering me to do this?"
"For one, the offer of a memory wipe after the mission still stands." Ferris explained up front.
"No, I'm not doing that again. Whatever I do here, I'm keeping with me!"
"Yes, well, the last Mabel I talked to said that as well. If you change your mind, the option is always open." Ferris replied, causing a cold pit to sink into Mabel's stomach. "Well, as for a reward, well, what would you say if I offered you a little reunion?"
As her spoke, Ferris was pulling a laptop computer out of a drawer. After turning it on and finding what he was looking for on it, the agent turned it around so Mabel could see the screen, resulting in the girl letting out a surprised gasp.
"MERMANDO!"
Although he was older and even swarthier now, the merman was still recognizable as Mabel's most successful summer crush. The screen showed him floating sedate in a floor to ceiling glass tube that was barely wide enough to fit him and was full of water. His eyes were closed as he gently bobbed up and down a small amount, tubes fed into the glass container entering his body at the bare arms.
"Don't mind the whole setup, just a precaution you see." Ferris explained in an understanding voice. "This just ensures that if you opt to erase your memory at the end of the mission, we can arrange a happy little coincidence for you two to reunite with minimal fuss."
Mabel's eyes had gone wide and were even blurring a little at the sight. "Mermando... I never thought I'd see you again..." She breathed wistfully at the screen, before looking up at Ferris. "Where are you keeping him?"
"Now now, that would ruin the surprise." The government agent said back. "The only pertinent location for... Mermando (not the most creative parents, that one) is that he'll be right by your side... should you complete the mission we are offering you." Ferris then gave Mabel the most electric smile he could muster. "So, what do you say Mabel? Can you do ol' Uncle Sam a solid here?"
The computer room was quiet for a long moment. Even the stoic faces of Powers and Triggers seemed to falter for brief seconds as Mabel contemplated everything, first giving the girl a short look of sympathy before glancing at each other with worried expressions. When Mabel finally brought her expression up to look back at Ferris, she stated "Well then... just call me Secret Agent Mabel. I'm in." with much less goofy enthusiasm than you'd expect from her.
"Well then, we are in agreement! Wonderful!" Ferris announced, letting his chair roll backwards as he stood up. "Agents, stay here and mind the base. I'll show Miss... or, should I say... Agent Pines out!" He addressed to Powers and Trigger while using his gloved fingers to delicately shut the lid of his laptop and slid it into a desk drawer. "This way Mabel..." Ferris said, while gesturing to the elevator doors.
Mabel was on autopilot as stepped across the room and into the vertical travel box. "I can't do this again, I can't steal from Dipper and Ford again... can I?" She mused as the elevator began to climb. "But this time is different! I'm not doing it for me, I'm doing it to save Mermando from these guys! They rub me the wrong way, getting maximum 'not friends' vibes off the whole group. I can't just let them erase my memory, I have to try and learn from this! I can't let them just spy on my family for any longer, but I'm sure they'll be watching me as I run this mission. Ding dong dang it Dipper, why do you have to be gone through the magic portal NOW of all times? ...I wonder though, did I do their first mission while he was gone? It could have happened yesterday for all I know. What did they ask me to steal, and how have they not noticed anything missing? Wait, they mentioned they cleared out a bunch of stuff while doing the autopsy, could that be when..."
"...Agents Pines? We're here."
The voice of Ferris abruptly broke through Mabel's mental fog, as mildly condescending as it was, and the girl shook her head and returned to reality. "Ah, right. Sorry about that, just got a lot rattling around in the old noodle noggin right now, you know?"
"All too well!" Ferris responded with a chuckle. "First operation always goes like that. Never the less, the doors have been politely holding themselves open for almost a minute now, so..."
"Ah, right! Into the breach, and all that then!" Mabel responded, putting on a fake British accent to cover up how nervous she was. The two stepped out of the elevator, revealing that the room the girl had been dragged through with a bag on her head earlier was an incredibly nondescript garage that didn't even have windows. "Wow, much secret, must use bag." She remarked dryly.
"You get used to it." Ferris remarked, while pressing a discreetly hidden button that caused the drywall to slid in place over the elevator. He then swiftly crossed the room to retrieve an umbrella that was inside an umbrella holder next to a door that presumably led deeper into the building. "And here!" He said charitably as the umbrella passed from his hands to Mabel's, their mutually bare fingers almost touching. The close miss was still enough to send an almost electrical chill down the girl's spine. "That's not standard issue, but I think you'll need it today."
"Thanks." Mabel replied unenthusiastically, before Ferris pointed to a different door, the one that would lead her back to the streets of Gravity Falls. Opening it up revealed the agent was right about one thing, as the town had gotten significantly rainier and wind swept over the course of the kidnapping/job interview.
Taking one last look back the encouraging face of Agent Ferris, Mabel stepped onto the streets and popped open her umbrella, feeling like its wide cover and the insulating, thick layer of her green, pot of gold decorated sweater were the only things she could count on to shield her from the wind and the rain, and the cold both brought with them.
AUTHORS NOTES
So, whose up for a little time back on Earth?
It was always my intention when I had the trio of Dipper, Ford and Pacifica step through the portal to Mewni to write a Mabel-starring adventure or two happening on Earth concurrently with the journey those three are going through, and now that some time has passed in "Three More Can Keep A Secret" I figured it was time to make it happen. The root of this story was a nagging feeling that the trick Ford pulled at the end of "A Tale of Two Stans" shouldn't have realistically got the government off their case permanently, but apparently it did. So now, Mabel must try to survive alone against the shadowy government conspiracy looking to exploit the power hidden in Gravity Falls, an opportunity for her to grow as a person and gain some experince. Also, I got to bring the Agents back into the story here. I always found them surprisingly endearing considering the archetype they play to.
