The Nomad thundered across blindingly bright skies, gliding effortlessly over the vast Pacific Ocean. The air was refreshingly light inside, Snake sitting on his usual bench, resisting the urge to have a smoke. There was a lot of room afforded by clearing out the military equipment, and by sprucing up the decor more akin to a mobile home. Otacon is in a somewhat tense call, trying to coax Raiden into something.
"Raiden, I know you are excited to start working again, but I can already see you need a break. Bring the family along, they'll appreciate seeing you before you disappear, right?" Otacon pushes his glasses back on to his face. The room felt surprisingly empty without Sunny… or Naomi.
"I'll have to talk with Rose, maybe the pressure is getting to me a bit. Isn't exactly easy fitting in with a jaw like this, y'know."
"I wouldn't be too eager to change to a battle-ready body, you'll miss home soon enough," Snake croaks up, stretching from his seat.
"You aren't far from there, at least consider it Raiden. Take Snake's advice, he's looking a little better already," Otacon says, leaning forward in his seat a little.
"Heh, alright. I'll look into it, and let Maverick know. I'm sure Boris can take over for a little bit. If anyone asks, it's a mental break," Raiden promptly disconnects, smiling.
"Great excuse you had there, a holiday?" Snake comes over, questioning Otacon.
"Well, what was I meant to say. 'Hey, we dug up files on some kids that may have time traveled', I'd just hang up on myself if I said that."
"You've got a point, I just hope he doesn't take it too badly," Snake turns to go upstairs..
"I'm sure he wouldn't, if you explain it properly. There's some truth to it too, a break really wouldn't be such a bad idea," Otacon shrugs, Snake shakes his head and starts climbing.
Otacon re-adjusts himself and sighs, "not long now, ooh, weather looks nice…"
Back at Gravity Falls, Oregon, Mabel is in town with the girls. It's been a couple of days since Ford showed the Twins the statue and so far nothing interesting has happened. Dipper is currently hanging out with the boys, probably blowing something up.
"Are you sure you want to hang with us?" Pacifica asks. They brought her along to get some breathing room from her parents.
"Yeah! I brought it up with Dipper and he agreed that we could a little time apart," Mabel says, "but if the need arises we can call the other." She holds up her phone.
"Don't you guys have that encrypted messaging app that Dr. Pines made for you?" Candy asks.
"Yeah it's called...called, Mabel I have forgotten what the Doc called it," Wendy says turning to Mabel.
"Uuuuuuuuuh, lemme check," Mabel checks her phone, "yeah it's called Zodiacodec."
"Oh yeah, why do I keep forgetting that?" Wendy asks herself.
"It has a nice ring, I wonder where he got the idea? Apart from us being the Zodiac," Pacifica wonders.
Mabel laughs, "remember that story we told two years ago?"
"That one where you guys time travelled?" Grenda asks.
"Oh yeah I remember that story, you think they're still alive?" Wendy asks.
"Unlikely with the lifestyle they have," Pacifica says.
Mabel shrugs, "Dipper has the same reasoning and I kind of agree with him."
"Awww, and I wanted to meet them," Candy whines as the girls come up to the mini golf course.
"I am still surprised that they're allowing you two back in here," Wendy says, pointing to Pacifica and Mabel.
Pacifica grins, "I may have threatened that I was going to bulldoze this course if they continued to keep us out."
"You've been hanging around Gruncle Stan too much," Mabel says with a giggle.
Wendy laughs, "nice man!"
"Why thank you," Pacifica says, bowing jokingly.
The girls enter the golf course to have some fun.
Back at the shack in the basement a loud bang thunders from behind the vending machine.
"Uuuuh, science experiment," Soos says to the tourists in the gift shop.
Down in the renovated basement Robbie coughs some smoke out of his lungs, "what did we just combine?"
"I think we failed to make water," Gideon says from his seat, taking his earmuffs off.
Dipper scrunches his face up in pain, "can we continue as soon as my ears stop ringing?"
Ford opens his jaw and blinks a few times, "sure."
Stan reaches up and puts out a small fire on Ford's hair while he turns his hearing aid back on, "let's blow something else up."
Robbie grins, "wanna blow up a fan and see if it kills us?"
Stan mirrors his grin and pulls out a large floor fan, "now, how are we going to blow this thing up?"
Ford gives a sinister grin and lifts up a car battery charger box, "this is how."
"I am beginning to think we made a grave mistake," Dipper says to Gideon.
"Well we have nothing better to do," he says as they watch Ford eagerly - a little too eagerly - plug the pack in.
Dipper shrugs and runs up, "after this we're taking the counterweight out of a dryer, putting a brick in it and watch it disassemble itself!"
Robbie highfives him, "yes!"
Stan plugs the fan into the battery pack and excitedly jumps a bit, "turn it on, turn it on, turn it on!"
Dipper hesitantly turns the fan on and the four of them duck behind the counter. Gideon slowly closes the elevator door and looks through the glass. The fan's blades speed up significantly and it starts to shake.
"One of two things will happen, either the blades will fly into the ceiling, it'll kill us, or the magic smoke coming out will kill it," Ford says.
"That's three Poindexter," Stan says as it shakes more, a fierce whining noise coming from the fan. Thick black smoke pours out of the fan and it stops working.
The men giggle like a bunch of school girls.
Dipper starts coughing, "magic smoke does not smell nice, ugh."
Ford gets up, brushing the dirt off his pants and sweater, "Why don't we try something bigger, like a washing machine or a…?" he waves his hand in a circle, waiting for an idea to come to him.
Gideon opens the elevator, "my parents recently got a new dryer, I can ask if we can use the old one?"
"Perfect! Come along you four, Gideon can't drag it here on his own!" Ford says, walking to the elevator.
The other follow him up to the basement and outside.
They dragged the dryer back to the basement and Ford finishes plugging it, a shit eating grin accompanying him. Dipper puts the brick in and shuts the door. Stan flicks the outlet switch on and the dryer turns on.
"Remind me again why we're doing this?" Gideon asks, mildly amused as it starts to shake.
"Because we've lost control of our lives and we have nothing better to do," Robbie answers.
Gideon shrugs, "fair enough."
The dryer starts hopping along the ground, tearing itself apart as the brick thunders in it. Ford starts giggling as it chases Stan around the basement, Stan briskly walking away from the dryer.
"Can it Poindexter!"
"Then, hahahahaha, get away, pffft hahahaha, from it!" Robbie says, wiping away tears.
Dipper is rolling around on the floor, holding his sides as he laughs, tears streaming down his face.
Stan is frantically trying to get away from the machine as it follows him and takes itself apart, "seriously is this thing possessed or something?! Why is it following me?!"
He looks over the other four, rolling around the floor and crying with laughter, "help me dammit!"
The machine bounces around harmlessly before stopping, grinding away on the exposed motor. Stan looks back and howls with laughter.
"Anything, snerk, anything else we can destroy?" Dipper asks, recovering slightly.
Ford shakes his head, "no, we should probably go back up stairs."
"Good call, I should get back home," Gideon says walking to the elevator with the others.
Ford presses the button and they ascend, "Dipper, Stanley, you guys up for a simple walk around town? With Mabel of course."
"Sure thing Poindexter!" Stan says with a grin.
Dipper nods, "sounds good to me."
The boys exit into the gift shop after making sure no one was too close to the vending machine.
Mabel walks up to them from the 'employees only' area, "hi guys did you have fu - Dipper what happened to your eyebrows?"
Dipper glares at Robbie, "someone wasn't paying attention when he lit that!"
Robbie brings his hands up in defense, "sorry dude, it was still hilarious."
Mabel gets this evil gleam in her eyes and she pulls out a black marker, stepping close to Dipper.
Dipper slowly backs away, "wait uh Mabel, wait is that sharpie?"
He breaks into a run and Mabel sprints after him through the museum.
Robbie and Gideon walk towards the door, "see ya later!"
"See you later Robbie, Gideon," Ford says as they leave.
A loud thud is heard upstairs.
"Well they got upstairs quickly," Stan remarks.
"MABEL NO!"
That is pretty much all they hear until the Twins walk down stairs, Mabel grinning and Dipper with some temporary eyebrows.
Stan snorts and Dipper glares at him.
"Mabel, do you want to join us when we walk around town?" Ford asks.
Mabel sways in place, "any reason?"
Dipper shakes his head, "no reason."
"Sure!"
Later that evening, the Pines family are casually walking through the quiet town enjoying the calm air and nice sunset. The streets are quiet, until a dinky little hatchback pulls up behind them and the driver rolls down his window.
"Um excuse me, but do you know if there is a hotel around here? We've been driving in circles and haven't found one," he says.
Mabel takes a look at him, "hmmmm you look like Huey."
Otacon swallows, "I'm his grandson, Otacon, nice to meet you."
"Can we get to the whole time biz tomorrow morning? I'm really tired," Snake croaks from beside him.
"See that mansion on the hill?" Ford asks, pointing to the now McGucket Mansion.
"Yes?"
Ford grins, "our friend, Fiddleford McGucket lives there, tell him Stanford Pines sent you and he won't charge you."
"He turned the mansion into a hotel for tourists, oh and a zoo," Dipper says off-handedly.
"Oh and another thing, this town is weird, you might want to roll with it," Stan advises as Otacon drives off.
"Weird? We're used to weird," Otacon deadpans.
"Then you'll be fine," Stan says with a shaky smile.
Snake watches the Pines Family wave and turn away. He looks at the picture in his lap, the Pines Family and an impassive Big Boss with Kaz and Ocelot in it.
"So Snake, is it them?" Otacon asks, keeping an eye on the road.
Snake holds up the photo, "it's them."