"Oh no, we went the wrong way, Snake!" Otacon suddenly snaps, distraught at some news. Raiden was just coming out of the uncomfortable tiny bathroom, brushing his teeth.
"Did I miss something?" he asks, mouth full of foam.
"A large chunk of people just went missing from Portland's airport, he threw us off somehow. Please tell me you know where we're going?" Otacon tries to steady himself.
"... I'm not Snake," Raiden wipes his face off, Snake was dozing off next to his mug.
"Oh, took a moment to think about that, didn't you. Snake, are you there?" Otacon nudges him.
"Whuh?" he looks up, bleary eyed.
Stan approaches Otacon's table, "so..yer tellin' me, that we wasted a day of driving already?"
Otacon turns the volume up on the TV in the RV, "don't blame it on me."
Stan sighs, "I don't blame anybody in this room."
Snake rubs the sleep from his eyes and eyes the news, "we need to head north, if he's going were I think he's going."
"And where do you think he's heading?" Dipper asks from his top bunk. Mabel objected to it when she was offered it.
"Alaska," Snake says.
Ford flicks through the glovebox and produces a map, looking it over.
Rose enters the RV with Shelly in hand, squeaking in complaint, "had to chase her down, she was bugging the other campers."
Rose puts Shelly down and she flies up to say good morning to Dipper.
"So what's our course of action and why's there a Snake look-alike on the news?" Rose asks, sitting next to Raiden after grabbing a cup of coffee.
"Huh, you're right, that looks a lot like Snake," Mabel muses, looking at the mug shot of him on the news.
"He's grinning smugly and it's creeping me out," Otacon says, shuddering and occupies his attention with something else.
"So where in Alaska are we heading, Snake?" Ford asks, his nose in the map.
"Shadow Moses, maybe, we'll need to find someone crazy enough to fly us there," Otacon informs.
Ford flips to the next map, "we'll still need to drive through Canada?"
Snake and Otacon nod.
Stan looks at Ford blankly, "you're driving."
"Fair enough," he responds, absorbed fully into the map.
"So Bill-Naked Snake will be at Shadow Moses? Why? There's nothing there," Raiden questions with a curious look.
Snake groans and puts his head in his hands, "so that's why he kidnapped all those people…."
"Speak to us, Snake," Dipper says, cuddling Shelly.
"It's possible he has his hands on Metal Gear REX, and he needed that many people to get it running," Snake muses.
Ford mutters a sentence in an alien language as he buries his head in his hands.
Snake looks at the older man with concern, "Ford?"
Ford shakes his head, "I'm fine, this gives us all the more reason to get rid of him."
The Twins shudder as they remember Salehenthropus.
"It's my fault, I should've drowned REX in the ocean," Snake says, rubbing the bridge of his nose in irritation.
"It's alright, well people, let's get moving north. I know how to properly avoid the cops," Ford says with a mischievous grin.
Stan giggles and sits in the passenger seat, also mirroring his brother's grin.
"Alright, show me how it's done, Poindexter."
Dipper hops down from his bed and gets comfortable on a seat, "there is no way am I falling out of bed."
"Literally!" Mabel quips with a giggle as the RV backs out of their site and out of the park. She hops out of her bed, walking over to the playstation they have and putting in a disc.
"Who wants to sing with me?" Mabel offers, holding out the other microphone.
Raiden shrugs and grabs the other mic, "sure why not?"
Dipper chuckles, sitting up, "oh this'll be good."
It took them eight hours to reach Washington state, counting snack and potty runs. Ford parked the RV in the small mall's vacant car park and everybody filed out, stretching their legs.
"Does everybody have warm clothes?" Mabel asks, doing a bit of impromptu yoga.
Dipper clambers up to the top of the RV and folds the roof back to check the luggage. He finds his bag and roots through it, "I packed a sweater, coat, pants and a pair of boots."
"I packed a few sweaters and a fur-lined coat," Stan says.
Ford points to the burgundy sweater and tan trench coat that he hasn't worn in two years, "I'm good."
Mabel narrows her eyes at Ford skeptically, "you have packed more than that, haven't you Gruncle Ford?"
Ford smiles at her, "yes I have, Mabel."
Mabel grins back as Dipper dives and rolls of the RV's roof. This catches Mabel and Ford by surprise as they jump a bit.
Raiden and Otacon come up to the trio from the mall with some scarves.
"Everything alright over here?" Otacon asks as Shelly glides down from the roof and lands on Dipper's face.
"Everything is fine, we should move on soon if we want to get to the border, I'll see if I can't find out Stanley's pug smuggling route for us to use," Ford says, suppressing a giggle.
"There's one we can use that cuts straight to Alaska, though I'll drive," Stan says, coming up behind Raiden and Otacon holding a few packs of soda.
Ford yawns and rubs his eyes, "yeah you can drive, I'll try to take a nap."
"Well have we got what he need?" Rose says as she pokes her head out of the RV door, "let's get back on the road."
The ones standing around file back into the RV, Stan driving out of the parking lot and back onto the highway.
After driving for a few hours Stan drives off the highway onto a worn down road, hitting a bump. Stan winces and glances at Ford, the bump displacing him to the floor, the others holding back laughter as he continues to snore. Stan grins and turns back to face the road.
They're coasting across the old road when Dipper taps Stan's shoulder.
"What's up kiddo?" he asks, not removing his eyes from the pothole ridden road.
Dipper sits down in the passenger seat and clicks in, "what are we going to do when we get there?"
Stan watches the trees go by, "...Not sure to be honest, I'm kinda following Snake at this point."
Dipper nods and looks at the waning sunset, "yeah, i'm just done with his bullshit at this point and I want it to end. Hopefully they'll help us see this through to the end."
Stan nods, slowing down to dodge a large pothole, "ha ha, though it does feel good to be with people that have been in similar piles of crap like you."
Dipper shares a laugh with him, "yeah it is, though as much as I'd like to be standing with the others like two years ago, having war veterans with you to help beat the paranormal is an amazing feeling."
"Bwomp!" Mabel exclaims as she comes up from behind the two men, "what'cha talking about?"
"Ohmygod Mabel, why?!" Dipper rambles as he clutches his chest in fear.
Stan just barely misses another pothole, "Mabel sweetie, don't do that!"
Mabel grins sympathetically, "Sorry! Just wondering what you two were chatting about."
"We're wondering how we're going to beat Cipher and being thankful they agreed to come along," Dipper says, pointing to their other passengers… As they're drawing on Ford's face with marker.
Dipper sees this and sweatdrops, "uuuuh, that's washable right?"
Mabel glances back to the scene, Raiden smugly taking a picture, "they should be."
Stan turns on his headlights and stops on the side of the road, "alright, this road can get dicey of a night, so we'll need to stop here."
Everyone nods in agreement.
Stan gets up from his seat and sees the scene, "ain't even gonna ask."
Dipper gets up from his seat and climbs up into his bed with Shelly already stealing his pillow. Mabel tidys up her bed a bit before getting into it. Soon everyone retires for the night, Ford being moved back onto his bed.