Preston and Priscilla were not easily disturbed by heights. They had spent so long looking down their noses at other people that a high vantage point felt fairly ordinary, if not deserving to their psyches.
What they were disturbed by was the scene that unfolded ahead of them, sat in the high winds of the Wentworth Bridge, was the smouldering bulk of Number 4.5, steam still hissing from its limbs, facing towards them. Its funnel was crooked, the entire machine looking tired and dormant.
Dents seemed to pepper it, along with broken windows and the twisted remains of its brake lever.
A stiff breeze flew through its wheels, whistling around its now quiet, cooling pistons. The two somehow felt even further from their daughter with the engine standing between them, the machine still giving the odd follow hiss or puff of cylinder drains, as if it was a sleeping dragon, awaiting its time to once again breathe fire and cause calamity.
Preston adjusted his tie and cleared his throat as he stood between the rails, his alligator leather shoes squared on the bridge's all-too-slight wooden deck. He was already beginning to reconsider his position and was reluctant to continue his uneasy track down the elevated platform. He had only gotten a few feet from the tunnel mouth.
The wind flew through the bridge's girders with a sort of hollow, metallic rumble. He swallowed hard and looked back to the tunnel, where Priscilla remained sheltered, and greatly considered running back as quickly as he could. He knew he shouldn't. He knew he should continue. But every instinct in his greedy mind said to get back on safe, stable Earth.
The rest of him said that this was a big rescue mission that would be entirely public. Great PR. A superb arrangement that even his stubborn, misguided daughter would be unable to ignore.
Even if it was usually something he'd get the butler to do.
At the same time, Lazy Susan was preparing for battle. As was Bud Gleeful, Toby Determined, Tad Strange, Kevin, Marcus and Manly Dan Corduroy. It was fair to say that everybody was pretty heavily invested; not only to provide support for Pacifica Northwest, but to stick one in the eye for her crooked father - the man who tried to make a deal with Bill Cipher.
Tad arrived with his favourite loaf of plain white bread (stale, to ensure its ability as a projectile) Susan arrived armed with a frying pan. Bud arrived with a few flasks of fine Columbian import coffee for the troops. Dan, Marcus and Kevin arrived with very loud determination and very powerful fists. Toby arrived with a shirt on, though that was less for weaponised purposes and more to ensure the townspeople didn't try to throw him off of the structure.
It wasn't much of a plan. Get up to the bridge and do what they could to help. That was the Gravity Falls way - shortsighted, foolhardy, potentially dangerous and absolutely terribly planned, but with every eccentric, every fool and every violent vagabond promising to do something right.
After all, the idea of leaving them up there, waiting for rescue? That just wasn't right. They all loved the Pines family; all owed the Pines family. All wanted to help the Pines family.
Meanwhile, on the footplate, Ford was completely unaware of the ageing entrepreneur only a hundred feet or so from the business end of the locomotive, nor the gaggle of Gravity Falls citizens on their way to lend a hand.
While all of the kids were looking somewhat tired and bruised, it was Dipper and Pacifica who had been aboard the longest - and had faced the heaviest assault from the pompous, toothy beasts. The scientist tutted as he looked over Dipper's arms, covered in bumps, bruises and burns, preparing a few lumps of cotton wool and
"You've all been through the mill a bit, eh?" He smiled. "This might sting."
"I can take it." Dipper replied before breaking into whimpers as Ford applied antiseptic, gripping the locomotive's handrail and breathing through his teeth.
"I'm never going into a train cab ever again." Pacifica groaned, still clutching the manual in her white-knuckled hands. "I still feel sick…"
"I'm surprised you decided to stay aboard at all." The old Scientist said as he dabbed the liquid onto Dipper's cuts.
Pacifica huffed as she tussled soot out of her hair. "We had to do something. What if it crashed?"
"What if, indeed." He nodded. "You made a very heroic decision. The same goes for you girls coming to the rescue."
Dipper promptly gave his sister a sincere sibling hug. With three pats. "You were amazing, Mabel! We could - we could have been halfway to Piedmont if you hadn't have come to the rescue!"
"A fate worse than death." Mabel nodded pensively.
"We are the angels of mercy." Candy agreed, with a certain mysticism.
"You were all great." Dipper smiled, trying to avoid Candy's rather bizarre wording - but it faltered as he looked up sheepishly at the broken glass, dented pipes and crooked gauges that surrounded them. "...Even if we've done a bit of damage."
"Pft. 'snot like McGucket's hurting for cash." Mabel scoffed. "Better a broken train than a blown up one, that's what Wendy said!"
"I'M PRETTY SURE ALL OF THIS WILL BUFF RIGHT OUT!" Grenda said enthusiastically. As if taking the words as their cue, two boards promptly fell out of the cab's side and plummeted towards the ground. Grenda peeked over and blinked as they fell into the roof of the Gravity Falls Gossiper. "TAKE THAT, JOURNALISM!"
"These things are built like houses, Dip." Wendy piped in. "Don't worry about it."
The fact that two planks of wood had just half-demolished a house did little to sway Wendy's confidence.
Ford looked down at one of many crushed smears of Boggle, picked its tongue from the floorboards and held it between his fingers with a raised eyebrow. The kids tried to hide their obvious revulsion. "Certainly an odd beast. We'll have to see what state the fire you dropped is in when we get down."
"If. If we get down." Pacifica sighed, picking soot out of her fingernails.
"Well, let's play a game!" Mabel beamed, the little cat she had modelled out of rope now sitting atop her shoulder. "We're in a perfect spot for it! I spy, with my little eye-"
The entire crew groaned in unison as the game went underway; all except Wendy - who, eagerly keeping watch, narrowed her eyes and twisted her lip. "Oh boy. Paz, don't look now, but-"
Pacifica looked out of the cab's broken window pane and spotted a recognisable, dreaded silhouette. Her blood ran cold.
"...Dad?"