A/N: To those who aren't that familiar to Ranma (or just watch the anime), the thing from the chapter is from the manga, just in case someone's lost on it... enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 14: Aged to Perfection
It was a low-key day, no searching for the Journal, just a somewhat lazy day at the mystery shack. Stan had got some nice (and cheap mushrooms) and decided to make some mushroom burgers.
"I call the big one!" called out Mabel looking at a particularly big one.
"Oh come on…" said Dipper.
"Sorry she called it." Laughed Stan.
He put the newly grilled mushrooms on the hamburgers and they all sat down and started eating.
However something strange happened as they did.
Something very strange that would make them scream.
The next day as Wendy was getting ready for work, her cellphone rang.
"Who's calling me at this time?" she muttered.
She saw it was Mabel.
"Mabel is something wrong?" asked Wendy.
"Hey… this is going to sound weird, but can I barrow some sweat pants or yoga pants… or something?" asked Mabel's voice form the other end.
Wendy blinked, Mabel's voice sounded a little deeper than usual.
"Hey Mabel are you sick?" asked Wendy.
"No… I'll explain everything when you get here." Said Mabel, "Also you have little brothers don't you?"
"What about them?" asked Wendy.
"Do you have any of their old clothes lying around?" asked Mabel on the other end, "We might need them…"
"Stop that!" she heard a little boy on the other end.
"Come on your need clothes." She heard Mabel say to the kid.
"But don't ask her!" said the other boy.
"She's only person I could think of asking!" she heard Mabel say.
She heard a different kid laughing on the other end as suddenly the line went dead.
Wendy blinked when she got a text from Mabel.
"Please remember the pants."
"That was weird." Said Wendy.
But figured that she would get answers when got to the work.
When she got to work, she wasn't expecting what she got. Both she and Soos starred at the Pines family in front of them. All of them weren't there ages.
Mabel looked around 16 or 17. She was wearing her unicorn sweater (as in her sweater that wore if she knew she was going to turn into a unicorn as it was much larger than her others).
Dipper looked to be 5 or 6, he was wearing a t-shirt that much too big for him and looking extremely embarrassed.
However the biggest surprise was Stan, he looked to be the twins usual age. He was currently wearing some of Dipper's clothes, which looked a little too tight on him, he also wasn't wearing his glasses.
"How did this happen?" asked Wendy.
"We don't know." Sighed Dipper.
"We were just eating dinner and boom this happened." Said Mabel.
"On the bright side our minds weren't effected." Said Stan with a shrug.
"Did you figure it out yet?" asked Wendy.
"Not yet." Said Stan, "These two knuckle heads were freaking out all night over this."
(Flashback)
Mabel was screaming and crying "Why am I so old!"
"What happened! What happened!" cried Dipper.
Stan just sighed and face palmed.
(End of Flashback)
"Did you bring the pants?" asked Mabel.
"Yeah, I did." Said Wendy.
She handed Mabel the pants she brought, they were a little tight, but it was only temporary.
"What are we going to do?" asked Dipper.
"I don't know…" sighed Stan, "This better not be permanent."
Stan handed Dipper Journal 1.
"The shack is on Mister Mystery is sick mode." Said Stan.
"Mr. Mystery is Sick Mode?" asked Dipper.
"It means I'm sick so no tours, but the gift shop remains open." Explained Stan.
"Of course…" said Dipper.
"Now if you excuse me, I have some errands to run." Said Stan.
"What! You can't run errands now!" said Dipper, "What if someone sees you!"
Stan went into the kitchen and pulled out some eggs, then headed to the bathroom and took out some toilet paper.
"What I'm very particular on buying eggs and toilet paper, I have opt show them what I use!" said Stan.
He grabbed a backpack and put the eggs and toilet paper while laughing.
"Stan we don't know if this is permanent or not!" said Dipper, "What if you turn back?"
However Wendy and Mabel were giggling.
"Don't encourage him." said Dipper.
"What! This is my one chance to prank my enemies… and maybe the cops." Said Stan.
"Grunkle tan! Don't!" said Dipper.
However Stan was already gone.
"What a strange way to go shopping." Said Soos.
They all looked at Soos.
Sometime later Dipper and Mabel were looking through the Journals.
"Great, I really hope that this isn't another thing that's in number 2." Said Dipper.
"Or whatever happens to us wears off." Said Mabel.
"I hope it does…" sighed Dipper who sighed, "I'm just worried that will effect our minds soon."
"Hey wait… does that mean your curse is effected?" asked Mabel, "I don't think we checked."
"What?" asked Dipper.
"Well if you're younger then you might not be cursed anymore." Said Mabel.
"Hey… I haven't checked that yet." Said Dipper.
He went into the kitchen to test it, he splashed cold water on himself. Turns out the curse still effected him.
"Oh come on!" groaned Ursa.
Mabel saw her.
"Oh you're so cute!" said Mabel.
"It's not funny!" said Ursa.
"Sorry…" laughed Mabel.
Meanwhile at Gideon house, Gideon was reading Journal 2 when he heard something out. It was lighter and something smashing into his house.
He looked outside and saw Stan who was laughing.
"Hahahaha! Take that!" laughed Stan.
"Why do you think you're doing?" asked Gideon.
"I'm finally taking my revenge on you little troll!" laughed Stan.
"I have never met you in my life!" yelled Gideon.
"That's what you think!" laughed Stan.
Gideon glared at Stan as he ran away.
"I will find you…" growled out Gideon.
Back at the Gift Shop, Candy, Grenda and Kitsu arrived, all three looked worried. Candy and Kitsu were both holding thermoses and if Wendy had to guess they weren't full of hot water.
"Hey, Wendy are Dipper and Mabel feeling okay?" asked Grenda.
"We heard they weren't feeling well so we decided to check on them." Said Candy.
"Oh yeah they're fine, just another weird thing happened to them." Said Wendy with a shrug.
"Seriously? They're already cursed." Said Kitsu. "What would make them hide from us?"
"You'll have to see…" laughed Wendy.
They entered the house from the employees only entrance.
"Mabel! Stop it!" they heard a little girl call out.
"Oh come on! This is the perfect scrap book picture!" called out Mabel.
They noticed that Mabel's voice was a little deep, but they shrugged it off.
"Mabel, Dipper we brought Soup!" called out Grenda.
In another room, Dipper was trying to run away form Mabel.
"Oh man…" said Ursa.
"Maybe telling them we were sick was a bad idea." Said Mabel.
"Can I have a thermos since it's definitely not time to take a picture of me like this." Said Ursa.
"Fine…" pouted Mabel.
She gave him a thermos of hot water.
Once Dipper was dried off.
"Okay, we're coming in, just don't freak out!" called out Mabel.
"Please, with what we've seen what could make us freak out." Said Kitsu.
Both of them entered the room. The three girls were shocked at the twins (well they were now a decade apart now but the point still stands)
"What happened?" asked Grenda.
"We don't know." Said Dipper, "And yes, I do have my memories."
"That's good." Said Candy.
"So what is it like to be all grown up?" asked Grenda.
"I don't like it…" said Mabel.
"Seriously?" asked Kitsu.
"I don't want to be a teenager yet. Okay…" pouted Mabel.
"And I hate being little again! We have to fix this…" said Dipper.
"So what happened?" asked Candy.
They told the story.
"Where is Stan?" asked Kitsu.
"Playing pranks and vandalizing the town." Said Dipper.
"Makes sense…" said Grenda.
"Did you find anything yet?" asked Candy.
"Not yet." Said Dipper, "Plus Mabel got distracted when…"
He stopped himself.
"When what?" asked Candy.
"Even though Dipper's still young, he still has his curse." Laughed Mabel.
"You have to show us." Said Candy with an evil smile.
"Mabel!" yelled Dipper.
Meanwhile Stan was TP-ing the lodge.
"Hey you kid! Stop TPing this place!" said one of the old men who hung out there.
Stan pulled down his pants and mooned them.
"Why you rapscallions!" yelled one of the old men.
Stan ran away laughing.
Back in the Mystery Shack, they were taking pictures Ursa.
"Are you done yet!" said Ursa, "We have see if in either Journal!"
"But you're so cute!" said Candy.
"Come on we had enough, we have plenty of pictures." Said Kitsu coming in with a thermos and a leaf for some reason.
Ursa poured the hot water on himself, during him back.
"what's the leaf for?" asked Mabel.
Kitsu put the leaf on Dipper's forehead and suddenly he was wearing a t-shirt and shorts that was his size.
"They're illusions and but it's better than having him walk around in a t-shirt that's too big for him." said Kitsu.
"Oh thank you!" said Dipper.
"But if I get too far away turn back human then it will disappear." Said Kitsu, "So it's only temporary."
"Hopefully this will be temporary." Said Dipper.
Dipper grabbed journal 3 and began to look through it.
Candy decided to look through number 1 in Mabel's place.
After a while…
"I think I found something!" said Candy, "But first did you eat mushrooms last night?"
"Yeah, we had mushroom burgers? Why?" asked Mabel.
She showed the page on "Mushrooms of Time"
"Mushrooms of time?" asked Dipper.
"According to this when you eat it, you age changes to it's height in centimeters." Said Candy.
"Seriously? Who even uses centimeters?" asked Dipper.
"I do." Pointed out Candy.
"The way to reverse is to eat another one." Read Candy, "But the same size as your true age."
"Great, we don't even know where Stan even got the mushrooms." Said Dipper.
"We have to wait until he gets home…" said Mabel.
"Or gets arrested for his pranking." Said Dipper.
Back with Stan he found Sheriff Blubs and his deputy Durland.
He began to toss eggs at the car.
"Take that coppers!" laughed Stan.
"What do you think your doing?" asked Blubs.
He tossed an egg at his face.
"Hehe… you got me good." Said Blubs.
"What…" said Stan.
Stan took out some toilet paper and started TPing the car.
"Whooh! TP the whole car!" cheered Durland.
Stan stared at them and decided to moon them.
"Boys will be boys." Laughed Blubs.
"Yeah, this is getting too weird." Said Stan deicing to head back to the Shack.
Back at the Shack they waited for Stan to come back. Candy was fiddling with Dipper's hair.
"Will you please stop it?" asked Dipper.
"I can't help it, you're just so cute!" said Candy, "Little Dipper!"
"Oh come on!" said Dipper.
"You don't think he stole the mushrooms do you?" asked Mabel relating something.
"Oh man… I hope not." Sighed Dipper.
"Well if you don't think you can some more, it says where to find the mushrooms." Said Candy.
"Hopefully we're because to find more." Said Dipper.
Thankfully Stan got back at the moment.
"Have fun?" asked Dipper glaring at his uncle.
"Oh yeah… until I started pranking Blubs and Durland… that… that got weird…" said Stan, "Where did you get those clothes by the way."
"Illusion." Said Dipper.
"By way where did you get the mushrooms for last night's dinner?" asked Mabel.
"From the farmer's market." Said Stan.
"Wait… you shop at the farmer's market?" asked Dipper.
"Hey, it's cheaper than a grocery store and I can haggle!" said Stan.
They all shrugged realizing he had a bit of a point.
"What does that have to with anything?" asked Stan.
They showed him the pages on the Mushrooms of Time.
"Centimeters? Really? How does it even know much it would be in centimeters anyway?" asked Stan.
"It's magic." Said Mabel with a shrug.
"I guess we have to go to the Farmer's Market." Said Dipper.
They all went to the farmer's market with Kitsu laying low by being a fox on Dipper's head.
She was aware that Wendy knew her identity as well, and it was better if word didn't spread about her that much…
"How do we get to that stand?" asked Dipper.
"What if it's one of those stand, you know the ones where if you try to look for it will be mysteriously gone!" said Mabel.
"It's right over there!" said Stan pointing to the stand.
IT was just a normal looking stand that had a lot of mushrooms.
"Oh…" said Mabel.
"That's lucky." Said Dipper.
They went over.
"Welcome to my mushroom stand!" said the man running it.
"Hey what's the big idea!" yelled Stan glaring at him.
"You're going to going opt yell at him from the start?" asked Dipper face palming.
"This can only end well." Sighed Kitsu.
"What?" asked the man running it.
"Do you know what you did to us?" asked Stan.
"My aren't you a grumpy 12 year old…" laughed the man running it then realized something, "Oh crap… not again…"
"What do you mean not again?" asked Dipper.
He looked at the little kid and sighed realizing he was much older.
"Look, I need to get more organized with my mushroom growing all right…" said the man running it, "I keep getting them mixed up."
"Hey! I don't know what's going on, but the mushrooms you sold me are making my husband see things!" yelled a woman.
"No speaky the English!" said the many in a very bad accent of some kind.
The woman huffed and walked away.
"All right!" he said, "How many do you need?"
"3… 2 that are 12 Centimeters and one…" said Dipper.
"How hold are you Grunkle Stan?" asked Mabel.
"I don't know." Said Stan.
"What do you mean?" asked Dipper.
"I stop counting years ago." Said Stan.
"What year were you born?" asked the man running.
"1954." Answered Stan.
"Oh… you're 58." Explained the man.
"What? I am?" asked Stan, "I thought I was closer to 70."
"Man… you really haven't been paying attention to your age." Said the man running the booth.
He took out some mushrooms in pots.
"Look I don't have any in those sizes, especially the 58, because most people like to be manageable age." Said the man running it, "Just keep an eye on it and hope that they get to the right age."
He handed Stan the pots.
Then a coupon, "Sorry for altering your ages… here's a discount next time you come."
"How many times does this happen?" asked Mabel.
"Too many." Said the man running it.
As they were walking away from the booth.
"Well that was easy." Said Mabel.
"It could have been worse." Admitted Dipper.
The others in the group all nodded.
They placed the mushrooms in an area of the shack that would be good the grow them as everyone else went home.
"I was thinking…" said Stan.
"Please don't do that." Said Dipper.
"What…" said Stan, "At least let me finish what I'm trying to say first."
"You want to become younger than you really are." Said Dipper.
"What? Why shouldn't I?" asked Stan.
"Have you told our parents about the curses yet?" asked Dipper.
Stan raised his finger but the grown man turned 12 year old couldn't come up with a response.
"I'm going to play some pranks." Said Stan.
"Seriously?" asked Dipper.
"Hey, the cops are okay with it." Said Stan, "IT's fine as long as I don't prank them…"
"What did you get in trouble?" asked Dipper.
"No… it got really boring." Said Stan, "They took it stride."
The twins blinked and exchanged looks.
"You know how those two are." Said Stan with a shrug.
That night the twins were getting ready for bed.
"Hopefully it will be over tomorrow." Said Dipper.
"Yeah." Said Mabel.
She poked her breast.
"I don't want to be old yet." Muttered Mabel.
"Hey I don't want to be a little again either." Said Dipper.
"I wouldn't have minded." Admitted Mabel.
"And I wouldn't have minded if I was a teenager." Admitted Dipper.
Both of them sighed.
"So should we?" asked Mabel.
"Maybe another time." Said Dipper.
Both of them laughed.
The next day Dipper was staring at the mushrooms, he had to use a yardstick for the one designated for Stan's.
"all right! I'm ready for the day." Said Stan with a backpack of pranking supplies.
He noticed Mabel wasn't around.
"Where's your sister?" asked Stan.
"She went for a forest run." Said Dipper.
Stan knew it meant Mabel would run around the forest as a unicorn.
"I'm back!" called out May Belle.
She entered the Shack, both of them stared at her, mainly because this was the first time they saw in her cursed form after eating the mushrooms. She was nearly the size of a full-grown horse.
"Yeah, I got bigger." Said May Belle, "But Ursa got smaller…"
"Please don't my girl side that…" sighed Dipper.
"It's stuck." Said May Belle.
Dipper just sighed.
"Wish me luck!" said Stan leaving.
Sometime later… Dipper and Mabel look at the mushrooms, they did grow pretty fast.
"How long is going to be!" said Mabel.
"I don't know…" said Dipper.
Mable looked at Dipper.
"What?" asked Dipper.
"Can you just grow it to the right size?" asked Mabel.
"It's a fungus not a plan." Said Dipper.
"What the difference?" asked Mabel.
Dipper sighed not wanting to explain it.
After a while they checked to see.
"All right!" cheered Mabel, "They're at the correct height!"
Dipper went over and picked them before they could grown any more.
"All right! Let's get to eating them." Said Dipper.
Both of them ate the 12 centimeter tall mushrooms, after a bit they help their hearts beat and suddenly Mabel got shorter and Dipper got taller.
Both of them were back to their normal ages.
"All right!" both of them said while high fiving.
Then Dipper relied that that the shirt that he was wearing now didn't him that well while the pants she barrowed from Wendy fell.
"I'll return these to Wendy." Said Mabel.
"And I'll go put on some new pants." Said Dipper.
That night Stan came back.
"I had a productive day!" laughed Stan.
"You know you still have to go back to your real age again." Pointed out Dipper.
"Whatever…" said Stan with a shrug.
The next day, at the Gift Shop.
"Is Mr. Mystery coming back soon?" asked one of the patrons.
"I don't know… it depends on if the medicine works." Answered Wendy not even looking up from her magazine.
Meanwhile, Stan was once again egging Gideon's house.
However all of the eggs suddenly came back at him.
"What the!" yelled Stan.
He got pelted by the eggs.
"It's only the begging!" laughed Gideon showing up with all sorts garbage floating around.
Stan's eye twitched.
"Uh-oh…" he said.
He began to run away.
"You can but you can't hide…" said Gideon with an evil smile.
Not too long later.
"KIDS!" yelled Stan.
The twins went outside and found the messy Stan.
"What did you do?" asked Dipper.
"Look crazy things is going with Gideon, okay…" said Stan.
"What do you mean crazy?" asked Mabel.
"Uh-oh…" said Dipper knowing what Stan meant.
That was when Gideon showed up, this time holding the eggs and other things while laughing.
"I'm your cousin, got it…" said Stan.
The twins sighed.
"Oh… hello Mabel…" said Gideon blushing, "So…"
"What did you do to our cousin?" asked Mabel.
"He started it." Said Gideon.
"I know but that doesn't mean you can stoop to his level." Said Dipper.
But Gideon paid no attention to Dipper.
"Stan, have you been pranking his house?" asked Mabel.
"Maybe…" sighed Stan.
"You should really apologize." Said Dipper.
Stan grumbled.
"Fine!" muttered Stan, "Sorry…"
Gideon sighed, knowing he would have to take it in front of Mabel.
"Fine, I forgive you, just don't do it again." Said Gideon.
Stan grumpily nodded.
"By the way, what was with the floating things?" asked Stan.
"Nothing! You were just seeing things!" said Gideon.
Mabel looked at him due to the fact he hadn't told her but told "Ursa" made him nervous.
"I have to go…" said Gideon, "Tell Ursa I said hi."
Gideon ran off.
"I think I should stop pranking him." said Stan.
"You better." Said Dipper.
They went to check the mushrooms (as the one that meant for Stan had started to reproduce).
"All right! It's 58 Centimeters!" said Dipper.
The still tween aged Stan sighed.
He looked the mushroom (which had little mushrooms near it)
"Does it work if I don't eat it all?" asked Stan.
"I don't know…" said Dipper.
"Can I just grow one of the little mushrooms to like 20 something and I just claim to be my long lost son or something, I swear I'll tell your parents the truth." Said Stan.
The twins both gave him a look.
"We just saved you from Gideon." Pointed out Dipper.
"Fine…" muttered Stan.
He gulped.
"If I vomit it's going to be your fault." Said Stan.
Now for a bit of an explanation for those who don't use the metric system: 58 centimeters is somewhere between 22 and 23 inches.
Meaning that Stan had to eat a nearly 2 foot tall mushroom.
And thankfully he was able to keep it down.
He felt the heartbeats and suddenly grew, and started screaming.
Why began he forgot to take off the clothes he barrowed from Dipper.
"Can one of you get the scissors?" asked Stan in a high-pitched voice.
Mabel did so while Dipper headed to Stan room to get him his bathrobe.
Once they were able to cut Stan out of his pants (and got the bathrobe on) they all looked at the remaining mushrooms.
"So should we get rid of them?" asked Dipper.
"I'm keeping them down in the basement, just in case." Said Stan.
"In caser of what?" asked Dipper.
"Don't ask." Said Stan.
The twins blinked and shrugged.
At lease it was all over, although it was doubtful they were going to eat mushrooms again anytime soon.
Especially Stan, after all he had to eat a nearly 2 foot long one, and that's someone who like mushrooms saying that…
At lease they were back to normal… well normal for the twins since after they are cursed to transform.
Next Time: They officially meet the girl they met in the future. Who is she? How does she become their friend? Who is the man she is with? And just how did she walk to Japan? Yes... she walked all the way from Japan... Find out the answer to all these and more, next time!