Weirder Things

by Cowboy Alchemist

Patrick Pines and his cousins, twin siblings Dipper and Mabel, are sent to spend the summer with their Great-Uncle Stan in Gravity Falls, Oregon. A town that was anything but normal. Follow Patrick and the twins as they investigate the mysteries of Gravity Falls, a place where paranormal forces, supernatural creatures, and the unexplained have called home.

31. Not What They Seem

Janus: The two-faced Roman God of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, and ending

---

In the early hours, just past midnight, all of the residents of Gravity Falls were tucked in bed, fast asleep. The Northwest Fest had ended only 2 hours ago, and with it came the return of peace and quiet in the town as the stars shined in the night. In the early hours, just past midnight, all of the residents of Gravity Falls were tucked in bed, fast asleep. However, there was no rest for two certain individuals. Inside the Mystery Shack, the gift shop's vending machine was periodically backlit by a pulsing blue light that glowed brightly in the darkroom. Down in the basement, in the underground laboratory beneath the Shack, Stan and Veronica were hard at work trying to turn on the machine.

Stan was standing in front of the machine's controls as the secret agent was wearing a hazmat suit while pouring in another barrel of radioactive liquid in the machine's tank. Once it was emptied, she placed the barrel down and closed the tank's lid before taking off the mask. "Alright! Do it!" She called her cousin.

Stan pulled a lever, and green hazardous fluid pumped into large, glass tanks. "Come on, come on…" he muttered, watching the tank filling itself. This was supposed to be the last time they steal from Veronica's work, so this had to work.

"Don't worry. It should be just enough to finish the job," Veronica said, stripping off her hazmat suit to reveal her black suit underneath.

"I hope so," Stan said, briefly removing his fez and, without knowing, wipes some toxic waste that remained on his glove on his forehead. The material sizzled and briefly glowed green, sinking into his skin. "Whew. Can't be too careful with this stuff."

The two waited for a moment before red lights above the tanks started to flash and a buzzer went off. Smiling, Stan and Veronica turned to look at the screen right above their heads. The screen read "EVENT INITIALIZED" in red and an eighteen-hour countdown began. This was it. After years of waiting and preparing for what had seemed to be impossible to achieve, they were finally going to pull off their plan. The end of a long and arduous journey.

However, as close as they were to that end, Veronica still took the time to be cautious. Opening the first journal, she looked over the instructions and what the author said about the machine's operations. "We're almost to home base, but we still have to be careful. The last time we used the machine at full power, it resulted in minor gravity anomalies all over town. We'll never be able to hide that from the town," she said.

"Aw, can it, cuz!" Stan grabbed the journal from her and slammed it on the table. "We've come this far to worry about...whatever you just said, we're not givin' up now!"

Veronica sighed and turned her attention back to the machine. He wasn't lying. She's worked tirelessly in the shadows, behind her agency's back on this project with her cousins for 30 years now. Veronica and Stan have worked together to keep the machine hidden from the eyes of the world. From the town, from their friends and family, including their own niece, nephew, and Veronica's own grandson. But now, the silence they both shared was going to end at the same time the countdown above them did. Truth be told, they didn't know how they were going to explain all of this. Luckily they had time to mentally prepare themselves for unveiling everything to them. Everything they've been hiding and everything they had hoped for, all at once.

With his resolve as hard as the day he powered back on the machine, Stan pushed a button. This activated the machine as it roared to life. The darkest of the basement was illuminated completely as the rainbow-colored ring with strange symbols started spinning rapidly. Within the ring, the energy field started to form a black, amorphous shape that resembled a water ripple. Within it was what appeared to be stars.

"Yes, this is it!" Stan cheered excitedly when he saw the ripple forming. He and Veronica hardly noticed that the conman's fez floats off of his head.

The anomalous energy wasn't just felt from down inside the basement. Outside of the Shack, rocks started to float off the ground, along with Gompers the goat, walking him up. At the lake, several boats lifted out of the water, including the Gobblewonker much to the beast's confusion. The anomaly spread all over town, including the scrapyard. Broken-down cars and junk were lifted off the ground. However, inside McGucket's makeshift shack were blinks of glowing blue light. These lights illuminated the sleeping and floating McGucket, who was completely unaware that the lights were coming from the functioning laptop. As the laptop floated inches off the table, it flashed red and now read "ACTIVE" under an image of the machine.

Back in the attic of the Mystery Shack, Dipper and Mabel, as well as Waddles, floated off their beds but slept undisturbed. Including Patrick, who was down in the secret bedroom, was unaware of the unearthly blue glowing shining up from the floorboards. It would all come to an end when, with a resounding "thunk", everything in town touches back down to the ground.

Gompers came rushing into the room from the window, startling Patrick who sat up straight. When he saw the goat looking at him, he sighed and patted on the bed. Gomper jumped up and spun around like a dog, before laying down next to Patrick's legs. The young man smiled and petted him before going back to bed. Completely unaware that within 18 hours, everything was going to change.

Back down in the basement, the black ripple in the machine disappeared. This hardly deterred the two elderly cousins, knowing that it was to be expected. "Alright, it's stable for now," Veronica said, looking over the readings and seeing that everything was perfect. "It'll be a bumpy ride until it's fully formed."

"But in the end, it'll all be worth it," he assured her, placing a hand on her shoulder. Stan and Veronica both grabbed a large wristwatch and placed them on their wrists. Together, they synchronized the watches with the steadily ticking countdown, which was still displayed on the monitor. They then looked at one another and did something they hadn't done in years and hugged one another.

"We did. We finally did it," Veronica said as tears ran down her cheeks.

"Just eighteen more hours," Stan said as they pulled away from one another. "Finally, everything changes. Today." A draft of air blew Journal #1 shut. In 18 hours, everything that Stan and Veronica have been working towards for 30 years was going to come to an end.

However, in those same 18 hours, the world was going to end.

---

{Play Stranger Things theme by Kyle Dixon Michael Stein}

The intro begins by fading in a scene of the road sign that said: "Welcome to Gravity Falls, Oregon."

We then see a view of the town of Gravity Falls, with the strangely shaped canyons in the background, and the sun going down between the two land formations. As the sun was setting, the day turned to a blue night. However, a sinister red light comes from over the horizon. Shining between the canyon.

The next scene is of a large, dinosaur footprint in the ground. It then changed to show the trees of the forest at night, and a pair of glowing eyes staring at the viewer before the camera switched to a wider shot and showed many more eyes staring at the viewer. The next scene was a far back show of two men dumping a body into the lake, and as that body sank down it was swallowed by a massive creature.

PATRICK

The teenage Pines is shown in a freeze shot of him walking in the woods with a lantern and his crowbar in hand. Behind him, Bill's eye in the sky looked down at him.

DIPPER

The male twin is looking down at the journal with a flashlight. Not noticing that there was a Pteranodon staring down at him, ready to eat him.

MABEL

The female twin is the final one to be seen, and it showed her wearing a sweater that lit up because it was plugged into an outlet. But in another, farther away shot showed Gideon's hand controlling her like she was a marionette.

The finale of the intro shows the Mystery Shack as the sun goes down behind it and the trees of the forest. When the sun went down and the night came, and just like the beginning, the red light appeared, but then a blue light shined from inside the Mystery Shack.

Then the screen went black and the title of the story appeared in a flash of light.

WEIRDER THINGS

It then disappeared, before the chapter title appeared.

Chapter Thirty-One:

Not What They Seem

---

Today was supposed to be a day where Patrick was able to sleep in. After an awesome party and the Northwest Fest and meeting his girlfriend's family, he had every intention of sleeping past 8:00 am. And when he woke up, he was going to spend even more time with his girlfriend and his cousins. However, something felt different about this morning. So different, that it made him open his eyes earlier than he would have, only to be met with the face of his goofy, fun-loving cousin, Mabel.

"Hey, Patrick! You awake?!" She said loudly with a big smile on her face.

While he was surprised to see her, Patrick remained calm and collected. "I am now," he murmured.

"Great! Come on, get up! I found something awesome!" Mabel exclaimed as she jumped up and down on the bed, shaking it along with Patrick. Still groggy from last night's party, Patrick yawned as he sat up. This prompted Mabel to jump off the bed and grab his arm. Pulling him out of the room where Dipper was waiting for them.

As the young girl ran up the stairs, Patrick and Dipper slowly followed after her. Both of them, tired. "Do you have any idea what she's excited about?" Patrick asked.

"No idea," Dipper said with a yawn.

As Mabel cheerfully ran down the hall, they tiredly followed after her. Hardly paying the young girl's energized excitement much mind as they were still exhausted from last night. "Ahh! It's here it's here it's here!" She screamed exclaimed brightly as they arrived at a random door. "Okay, so I was just opening random doors - because I'm a creep - when I found something amazing!"

"If it was worth waking up at seven AM for, that will be amazing," Dipper said, rubbing his eyes.

"Alright, let's see it," Patrick said with a shrug.

"Feast your eyes!" Mabel boldly proclaimed as she opened the door to reveal the closet was filled with various types of fireworks in a box labeled "DO NOT TOUCH!"

"Whoa!" Patrick and Dipper said in awe as the teenager kneeled down to look at the fireworks.

"No way! I thought I blew up all the fireworks Stan had," he said, seeing fireworks that he didn't even know exist. Cop Callers, Smokey Joker, the Heart Attack, the Lawsuit Maker, everything!

Mabel placed a hand on both Patrick's and Dipper's shoulders. "Bro. Cuz. We're all thinking it," she said.

"Crazy rooftop fireworks party!" The trio cheered daringly. But that's when Stan marched up to them.

"Not so fast, kids!" he exclaimed, giving the pair a stern glare. "There is no way on earth you're setting off those dangerous, illegal fireworks…" he trailed off for a moment before breaking into a wide, mischievous grin as he bent down to put his arms around their shoulders. "...without me and Veronica."

---

And with that, the family decided to take to the roof platform where Wendy and Patrick would hang out, dragging the box of fireworks as well as a cooler filled with ice cream and icy-pops. While Stan sat on the lounge chair with a lit sparkler and Roman candle and Veronica sat on the edge of the roof, the kids had their fun with the fireworks.

"Here you go, sweetie." The conman grinned as he lit Mabel's skyrocket with his sparkler. "Set something on fire for your Grunkle Stan."

"I AM THE GOD OF DESTRUCTION!" Mabel screamed at the top of her lungs while aiming the skyrocket into the air off the deck. The fireworks blasted off and exploded into bright colors as they all cheered loudly, soaking in the excitement. No sooner had the burst of colorful fire went off in the morning sky when Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland approached the Mystery Shack.

"Five-Oh! Here comes the Po-Po!" Patrick said. The five Pines stopped their fun and they turned down to them.

"Hold on a minute. Do you have a permit for those?" Blubs asked the family.

"Uh…" Dipper thought for a moment, looking at Patrick with uncertainty.

"Uh, do you have a permit for being totally lame?" Patrick asked the officer, causing his grandma, Stan, and the twins to laugh.

"Heyoooo!" Mabel cried.

"Burn!" Veronica added.

Blubs didn't get mad. Instead, he chuckled. "Well, I can't argue with that," he said before he and Durland turned and walked away, waving. "Carry on."

"Nice come back, kid," Stan remarked, giving his nephew a playful punch. He had Mabel sitting on his shoulder as the young girl held a popsicle in each hand. "But seriously though we should probably clean this mess up."

They all stared all around the Mystery Shack at the many small fires around on the trees and on the shack, with the rope holding up the flags snapped.

"Should I go get the fire extinguisher?" Patrick asked.

"We could do it with water balloons?" Mabel chimed in.

"...I don't see why not," the conman shrugged.

---

5 minutes later, the fire was out and the kids were playing around like fools with water balloons in hand. Stan and Veronica sat outside on the pouch couch drinking Pitt Cola, watching in amusement as the twins teamed up on Patrick. He laughed as he took on the overwhelming might of two opponents. Well, the might of Mable more than Dipper, whose throwing arms was so bad that he couldn't throw more than a foot before the balloon fell to the ground. Leaving him open for Patrick to pelt him with a water balloon, knocking him back. Patrick laughed as he ran away from Mabel, who chased after, screaming in a tribal-like fashion.

"Ah. This is what Saturdays are for," Veronica said, raising her can of soda up with a content smile.

"Hear, hear." Stan raised his can in agreement as he reclined into his seat. "Doing dumb things forever," he remarked.

"DUMB THINGS FOREVER!" Dipper and Mabel echoed in a triumphant shout as they jumped onto the pile of water balloons together. Landing on the water balloons which all pop into a big burst of water that splashed water everywhere. Almost hitting their Grunkle in the legs before he pulled his legs back.

"Whoa, there!" he laughed as Patrick walked over to him with a big smile.

"Which reminds me, I wanted to give this to you," Patrick said, pulling out a folded envelope signed to Stan from his sweater. He held it out to his Grunkle, he looked at it in confusion before taking it.

"What is it?" Stan asked.

"Remember that money that the Northwests didn't pay us for the firework run? Well, last night we got them to cough it up," Patrick explained.

Stan's eyes widened at that and he quickly started opening the envelope. He pulled out the check that Preston Northwest made and stared at it as if it was a solid gold bar. Which in this case it might as well have been for the old conman.

"A little some for all you've done for us," Patrick said with a smile.

Mabel held up an icy-pop in a toast with a water balloon behind her back. "To Grunkle Stan and Graunt Veronica! Not just a great uncle and aunt …"

"The greatest uncle and aunt!" Dipper finished as he and Mabel threw water balloons at Stan as he quickly hid the check from the water.

"Alright, alright," Stan chuckled as he and Veronica got the watery brunt of the kid's attack. "I tell you it's unnatural for siblings to get along as well as you do."

"Hell, it's crazy to see all three of you getting along with each other," Veronica said with a bright smile of her own.

Mabel waved her hand dismissively. "Ha-ha! Don't worry. We've still got plenty of summer left to drive each other crazy!" Mabel said, pulling her brother into a sudden hug from his spot on the ground. Dipper pushes Mabel away, as Patrick tossed a water balloon into the air and it landed perfectly on her face.

Stan laughed nervously and frowned. "Yeah, plenty of summer left," he paused, glancing between his three grandkids.

Seeing this, Patrick frowned worriedly. "Stan? What's wrong?" he asked as Dipper and Mabel approached the porch.

For a moment, Stan looked at his secret agent cousin. Veronica nodded to him. This morning of fun was a tactic he was using to warm them up enough for what they were going to tell them. It was time to stop beating around the bush. Rubbing the back of his head nervously, Stan started to explain. "Kids, there's something I, uh, something I should tell you. It's um… Well, it's complicated. I…" the conman hesitated as he looked at the curious trio before him. And just like that, his confidence broke. "I'm gonna go refresh my soda."

He quickly walked away over to the far side of the shack, away from the eyes of the kids. Veronica frowned and followed him. When she turned the corner, she found him walking alone behind the bushes. "Stan!" She called out, rushing over to him. "They have to know."

"I know. I know! I just...I'm just not sure if I can," Stan admitted with a sad expression on his face. Veronica placed a hand on his shoulder.

"They'll find out sooner or later. Why don't I explain it to them," she offered, placing a hand on her chest.

Stan stared at her for a moment before glancing down and taking a deep breath before letting it out. "Alright. Today's the day…" However, before he could say anything else, he happened to glance up and notice a glowing red dot appearing on Stan's fez. "What is that, a ladybug?" he frowned and tried to slap it.

However, the dot remained where it was. In fact, more red dots appeared all over Stan and then the Director. Seeing them, Veronica was confused for only a quarter of a second until a horrifying realization dawned on her. "Oh no!"

She and Stan barely had time to react when two were abruptly tackled by masked men in back in tactical gear. They pinned the elder Pines down as Agent Trigger approached out of nowhere and talked into his earpiece. "Both targets are secure! Take the house!"

All of a sudden several helicopters flew above the Shack as agents of the OPI poured out of the woods and stormed the house.

The ground agents rushed towards the kids as Patrick pushed the twins behind him protectively and took an offensive stance, pulling out his crowbar and laser shotgun. "Drop the weapons!" one of the agents ordered as he and some of the others aimed their rifles at Patrick. Seeing no other options, Patrick slowly placed his weapons on the ground while glaring at agents. "Now kiss the ground and put your hands behind your head!"

"What the hell's going on!? Who are you people!?" Patrick yelled.

"Kiss the ground! Hands on your head!" the agent ordered again.

Having no other choice, the trio laid down on the ground with their hands behind their heads. The agents quickly rushed over. One of the agents bent down and took Mabel's icy-pop while holding an evidence bag. "Icy-pop. Clear."

"Hey!" Mabel tried reaching up toward her icy-pop when the agent tying her down pulled her arm back hard. "OW!"

"Mabel!" Patrick yelled, before having his head forced down on the ground.

"Kids are secure! Roof team! Go!" Another agent shouted into his walkie-talkie once all three of them had their arms handcuffed behind their backs.

Several agents repelled out of one of the Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopters buzzing over the shack. The agents crash in the attic and cock their weapons. "Clear!"

A couple of agents rushed through the gift shop's door and crashed through a window, wielding batons and guns as they searched the interior. "Clear!"

Another agent broke in through the window of Dipper and Mabel's bedroom, where Waddles was hanging out. The agent rolled on the ground towards the confused pig, who squealed when the agent tackled him. "Pig secure! We have secured a pig!" Another agent said as his comrades wrapped yellow police tape around the poor little animal.

Outside, things were still in absolute chaos as several black trucks parked outside of the Mystery Shack. Patrick and the twins were grabbed and pulled towards one of the cars. At the same time, an agent led a struggling Stan and Veronica in handcuffs to the government vehicle.

"Ugh! Hey, hands off, you stooge!" Stan cried before the agent planted Stan's face on the trunk of the back car.

"Hey, wait! What are you doing with them!" Patrick exclaimed and struggled to escape. All of a sudden, one of the agents hit him in the stomach with the butt of his gun. Patrick cried out in pain as he spat up saliva.

"Patrick!" The twins cried out as he fell to his knees.

Seeing how her own grandson was being treated made Veronica furious. She wasn't going to let it happen. She needed to stop this. However, doing so would result in her cover being blown, but that didn't matter at the moment. She swiftly kicked the agent holding in the balls, making him cry out in complete agony before she gave him a roundhouse kick to the head. Knocking him to the ground.

In an instant, all guns were aimed towards her. "STOP, ALL OF YOU!" She gave a booming order that made everyone stop what they were doing. The kids were surprised to hear her speak like that. Taking a deep breath, she continued. "I am Director Veronica Pines of the Office of Paranormal Investigations! I'm ordering all of you to cease this operation, immediately!"

Even though he was still in pain from the blow to his stomach, Patrick looked up at his grandmother with a look of confusion and shock. "Wait, what?" He asked, thinking he was hearing things.

"I'm afraid you're in no position to give orders, Director Pines," said the voice of none other than Agent Powers as he stepped forward with Agent Trigger.

"Wait, wait, hold on," Patrick said, standing up. He stared at his grandmother, a woman that he's looked up to and loved as any child would love his grandmother, in disbelief. "You're in charge of these assholes."

Veronica sighed. This wasn't how she wanted for them to know. "I used to be in charge of these assholes," she said, glaring at her two former subordinates.

"Hey, I thought you two got eaten by zombies!" Dipper interjected in confusion. The last time he saw them, they were being dragged off to be zombie food.

"We survived," Trigger remarked. "Barely."

"I used Trigger as a human shield," Powers said in his usual dry tone. "He cried like a baby."

"What? Hey! Not in front of the special-ops guys!" Trigger whined in embarrassment.

"What the hell's going on, Powers?" Veronica demanded as Powers walked up to her and Stan. Two agents ran over and restrained her. "You better have a good explanation for placing me under arrest and blowing my cover."

"We have orders from the higher-ups. We are to place you and your cousin under arrest for theft of government property, conspiracy, possession of illegal weapons, espionage, and treason."

"I beg your pardon! What proof do you have?" Veronica snapped, seemingly offended by those accusations.

Powers provided his proof by pulling out a government digital tablet and turned it towards the former director. "This is security footage of a government waste facility," he said as the footage showed two people in radiation suits stealing barrels of hazardous material. One was of a male build and the other had a feminine figure. As Veronica cursed herself in silence while staring at the video, Powers continued to talk. "At o'four hundred hours last night, two people robbed three hundred gallons of dangerous waste."

"What? You think that's us?" Stan asked, acting appalled by the agent's accusation, especially as the kids all looked at him and his cousin in surprise.

"Don't play dumb with us, Pines." Powers glared.

"But I actually am dumb!" The conman pleaded.

"Stan has a point. All you've got is surveillance of two bozos stealing from our facility. There's no evidence that it was really us!" Veronica exclaimed, acting angered as well. Her cover might have been blown, but she didn't want her grandbabies to know that was really them.

"That remains to be seen," Power said as he nodded to the agents holding the two cousins to take them away.

As he and Veronica were led away by the OPI agents, Stan continued to plead his innocence. "You've got to believe me! Last night I was stocking the gift shop. I swear!"

"Wait! Stop! My grandmother's right!" Patrick protested, trying to pull away from the agent holding him. "You've only got the footage to off of! You can't just arrest them!"

"He's right!" Mabel shouted with desperation in her eyes as she was held back by one of the agents. "You've made a mistake! Our Grunkle Stan might shoplift the occasional tangerine and Graunt Veronica might be a secret government agent, but they're not some evil super villains!"

"Listen, kids," Powers began sternly, bending down to get at eye-level with the twins. "We've been watching your family all summer and we've seen some disturbing things. But nothing as dangerous as what your uncle and grandmother are hiding. Somewhere hidden in this shack is a doomsday device!"

Needless to say, the Pines cousins were in a state of shock at this monumental accusation. It was so large that it was too wild to be true. Even if Patrick's own flesh and blood grandmother was a secret agent for the government, they still couldn't believe it. As they looked at Veronica and Stan, they looked at them with looks that were telling them that they had no idea what Powers was talking about. As the two cousins looked at their grandkids with pleading eyes, Patrick, Dipper, and Mabel knew that they were innocent. How could there be a doomsday device right under the Mystery Shack?

Before they could protest, Powers turned to Trigger and handed him the tablet. "Trigger, you take the children. I'll talk to the Director and the old man." He then turned to Patrick and the twins as he slipped on his sunglasses. "Sorry to break it to you kids but you don't know your uncle or grandmother at all."

Trigger snapped his fingers and pointed at the children. The Pines Cousins were far too stunned by everything that had unraveled that they willingly allowed the agents holding them to lead them away to one of the trucks. Once the trio was placed in the back, the door was shut behind them. Patrick looked out the window and could see Veronica and Stan in the back of another government vehicle.

Seeing her own grandson staring at her from the government truck filled Veronica with distraught and guilt. This wasn't how things were supposed to happen. Her grandson, niece, and nephew were never meant to be dragged into this mess. For thirty years, she's tried to keep this moment from coming. All summer, she promised herself that she'd never allowed the kids to be wrapped up in all of this. But she's obviously gotten sloppy and careless. She and her cousin allowed their near success to blind them from the possibility that they would fuck up and risk getting caught.

As she sighed in distraught for her failures, Stan looked at the kids and started beating on the window with his cuffed hands. "Kids, you gotta believe me! For once I'm actually innocent! Kids!" With that final desperate plea, the car drives off, taking him and Veronica with it.

Patrick looked back at Dipper and Mabel, exchanging bewildered glances before Triggered got into the vehicle and started driving them away. Neither of them had the faintest clue as to what was going to happen to them or if there was anything they could do about it.

---

As part of their intensive investigation, OPI agents had taken over the Gravity Falls police station, turning it into a temporary headquarters until they could take both their findings and their new convicts back to Washington with them. However, even if the agents were eager to lock Veronica and Stan away for a long time, they still had to properly process them first. Both elders got their mug shots taken and their prints were taken, before being led into an interrogation room. Stan and Veronica were sitting together in front of a bulletin board with various pictures attached to strings that all meet up to a picture of him and her.

"Veronica Pines," Agent Powers began authoritatively as he stood before the detained. "You stand accused of theft of government waste, conspiracy, possession of illegal weapons, espionage, and treason. As for you, Stanford Pines. You stand accused of theft of government waste, conspiracy, possession of illegal weapons, and as an accomplice of the other crimes your cousin is accused of. How do you plead to these charges?

"Uh, guilti-cent!" Stan exclaimed nervously. "I mean, inno-guilty!"

Veronica sighed exasperatedly before looking up at her former subordinate. "Alright, Powers, what's this really all about? You put on your little show and now you have us alone. So what are you really after?" She questioned coolly, trying to keep up a confident act.

"There's no use in lying. We know you've got something dangerous under that house. We've been watching your family for quite some time, Director Pines and we've noticed a lot of strange and disturbing activity. Radiation levels and strange lights all started just recently. However, then came the gravitational anomalies. All of these have a rather striking resemblance to Project Janus," Power said and the moment that name left his lips, Veronica's heart sank.

"How do you know that?" She hissed.

"We did a little bit of research after finding out that you knew a man named Fiddleford McGucket," Powers explained, leaning on the table with his fists. "You, him, and your cousin Stanford were involved with a top-secret project codenamed Janus. It was under your orders that the project was to be shut down because of how dangerous it turned out to be. And now, the only reason you could be stealing radioactive material and keeping the government's eyes away from your house is because you intend to reactivate whatever Project Janus is under your house."

Veronica stared at Powers with slightly wide eyes, trying to hide her shock from how the man was able to find out. The agent stood back up while still glaring down at the former director.

"So, anything you have to say for yourself?" He asked the two. Veronica and Stan looked at one another.

"Um, can I have my phone call?" Stan asked.

---

Normally by this time, Soos would have been showing up for work at the shack. However, when word of Stan's arrest had started spreading around town, he started going through a bit of a meltdown. He picked up Wendy and then pulled up into the drive-thru of a Yumberjacks. He composed himself just enough to place his order in a hurry.

"Okay, gimme whatever you got that comes with a free toy," he said to the lumberjack-shaped drive-thru speaker.

A worried sick Wendy punched Soos's dashboard in frustration. "Damnit Soos, we don't have time for this! Patrick and the others could be in jail for all we know!" She shouted at him. Ever since she heard about Stan's arrest, the redhead tried calling her boyfriend to see what was going on but has gotten no response. Wendy couldn't help freaking out, worrying what would happen to him or the twins or if she'd ever see them again.

"I know that! Why do you think I'm getting some panic food?" Soos asked.

"Soos!" Stan's voice shouted from the walkie-talkie, startling the two in the truck.

"Mr. Pines?!" Soos exclaimed, thinking that his voice was coming from the drive-thru lumberjack-speaker. He leaned out of his truck and patted it down. "Is this some sort of... possession situation?"

Wendy quickly picked up the walkie-talkie from his dashboard. "Mr. Pines? Is that you?"

"Wendy? Where's Soos?"

"He's right here with me. Mr. Pines, what is going on?" Wendy asked, deeply concerned. "I heard you got arrested."

"Nevermind that! Listen, I need something from you and Soos," Stan said quickly, knowing that he only had a few seconds to talk before the agents right outside overheard him. "You know that vending machine in the gift shop? I need the two of you to guard it with your life. No matter what happens, no matter who talks to you, don't let them touch that machine!"

"Wait! What are you talking about? Where's Patrick and the twins?" Wendy asked, but the walkie-talkie cut out, leaving only the odd direct order from her boss. She slammed the walkie-talkie on the dashboard, almost breaking it. "Fuck! What the hell are we gonna do now?"

Soos on the other hand was obligated to carry out Stan's order, regardless of how odd it was. "Time for a repair guy…" he began firmly, adjusting his hat. "...to become a repair man."

"Sir, your Junior Yum-Yum Baby-Time Kiddo Meal?" the drive-thru employee asked, sticking his arm out to hand Soos his kid's meal as he pulled up to the window.

"Just put one in my mouth," he commanded resolutely, gripping the steering wheel tightly as the employee pulled a fry out of the box and placed it into his mouth.

"Oh my God!" Wendy grabbed the box and pulled it in before pointing ahead. "GO, SOOS!" She yelled, scaring the handyman into slamming his foot down on the accelerator. The truck tires screeched before Soos drove wildly through a hedge as he sped off towards the Mystery Shack.

---

Patrick grunted as he twisted and turned the bobby pin in the keyhole of his handcuffs until there was an audible click and his handcuffs loosened around his wrists. He pulled his arms out from behind his back, having freed himself and worked to unlock the other side. "Wow! Who knew that Stan's lessons would pay off," he said, taking off the other cuff as Dipper and Mabel freed themselves. His remark was a small attempt to lighten the mood. But he and the twins are all too happy about being abruptly taken away in the wake of Stan and Veronica's supposedly uncalled-for arrest. Many questions were going through their heads as Trigger drove them away from the shack.

"Take them off all you want, but they're going back on once we stop," Trigger said, stoic as always before his partner called him through the vehicle's video screen.

"We've got the Director and Mr. Pines in custody. Our men are searching the shack for the device. You take care of those kids," he ordered Trigger before the transmission cut off.

"What're you gonna do to us?" Patrick demanded as he, Mabel, and Dipper sent the agent rebellious frowns.

"We'll be taking you to child services." Trigger remarked.

"Boo!" Mabel goaded.

"In the meantime," Trigger pressed some buttons up in the front, "enjoy some mindless reality TV, designed to pacify you and make you stop asking questions."

The television in the back of the passenger side seat turned on, showing a surgeon in scrubs standing over a patient lying on a stretcher. "I'm about to make the incision…"

"KER-PRANK!" A flamboyantly dressed young man suddenly jumped out of a potted plant, causing the surgeon to scream.

"You're watching "KER-PRANK'D" with Justin Kerprank!" the tv announcer exclaimed as the logo popped up in large fonts.

Of course, the kids were quick to lose interest in the silly show. Patrick leaned back in his seat, staring up at the ceiling of the car as he let out a breath. "You know, it all starts to make sense when you think about it. How grandma knew so much about the weirdness, why she had and did many of the things she did. I just didn't think that my own grandmother was a secret agent for the government," he said somberly.

"Isn't that the point of being a secret agent?" Mabel asked, not wanting for her cousin to lose hope. "Even if she was, there's no way she and Stan were stealing hazardous waste! We gotta clear their names!"

Dipper agreed with his sister. "Mabel's right. I don't really know what we can do to prove Graunt Veronica's innocence, but as for Grunkle Stan…" He trailed off as he glanced around the vehicle for any kind of inspiration. However, he did notice a security camera at the front of the car, positioned near the driver's seat. "Hmm...wait a minute, the security tapes! Didn't Stan say he was restocking the gift shop last night? If we could get the Mystery Shack surveillance tapes, we could prove he's innocent!"

"Then we just need to think of a way out of here," Patrick said, looking around for a way out of the car. They couldn't just jump out. At the speeds they were going, doing that would likely kill them. Patrick looked out the window and saw their vehicle coming up beside a logging truck driven by Manly Dan. That's when he noticed a Sev'ral Timez bumper sticker on the back and a plan hacked in his head.

Seeing Trigger was still focused on the road, Patrick put on his seatbelt. "Both of you, seatbelt, now," he said in a low voice so that the agent didn't hear them. Once Dipper and Mabel placed their seatbelts on, Patrick pointed to the bumper sticker for Mabel. "See that sticker? You know what to do."

Just as the humvee pulled up alongside the 18-wheeler, Mabel knocked on the window to get Dan's attention. Once he looked at her, the young girl breathed on the window and started writing on the foggy car window. SEV'RAL TIMEZ IS OVERRATED.

Manly Dan gasped in shock and then furiously yelled. "NOOOOO!" Patrick grabbed the kids just as the crazy dad of his girlfriend veered the logging truck into the government vehicle, causing it to spin off its path and fall off the road into the forest.

"Mayday! Mayday! Agent down!" Trigger exclaimed into the radio. They all screamed as the car rolled down the hill before it came to an abrupt stop when it crashed into a cluster of trees. Patrick groaned, but fortunately, no one was harmed in the accident. Though Trigger was quick to realize his door got stuck between the car and a tree branch, jamming it shut and locking him inside. He struggled to get free, but the door wouldn't budge. "Damn branch!"

"Let that be a lesson to you two: if you're taken against your will, cause a car accident," said Patrick as Mabel opened the door easily. The trio jumped out of the truck and went to the back trunk. Patrick opened the trunk and smiled before pulling out his crowbar and laser shotgun. "Hello, my darlings. Let's never be apart again."

"Backup! Requesting backup! Ah!" Patrick ripped the earpiece from Trigger's ear and crushed it in his fist, before letting the circuits fall to the ground. He then stormed up to the agent and punched him square in the face, nearly knocking him out.

"That's for hurting my cousins," he said, glaring at the man before turning to Dipper and Mabel. "Come on. We're gonna go clear our uncle and grandma's names."

"Yeah!" Mabel exclaimed before the trio started walking away. However, that's when Trigger started talking.

"Oh, you poor kids. You really think your uncle and grandmother are innocent?" Trigger asked sympathetically with a bruise on his face. By now, Mabel had already moved on ahead, but Patrick and Dipper paused to listen. "She supplied him with false names and covered up his illegal activities, while he lived double lives. I've seen it all before. One minute they're playing with water balloons, the next they're building doomsday devices. Your uncle scammed the whole world and your grandmother was right there to make sure the world stayed fooled. You're gonna let them scam you, too?"

Patrick paused when he heard this. Veronica and Stan had to be innocent. Nothing Powers and Trigger said about them being masterminds of a villainous plot to create a world-ending device made sense. And yet...he didn't know that Veronica was the director of OPI. Stan was a lying conman who made a business off of lying, and he lied to him and the twins about knowing the weird things about Gravity Falls. How could he or any of them really know for sure what they were hiding? But ever since the zombie incident, Stan and Veronica had promised they wouldn't harbor any other secrets concerning Gravity Falls. Patrick wanted to believe that. His grandmother's job required her to keep her real job a secret, but she must have done it to protect herself and them. Right?

While Patrick was more conflicted by his choice, Dipper seemed to have his answer. "You...you don't know what you're talking about," he hesitantly said as he briefly glanced back at Trigger before walking away. Patrick took a deep breath and followed him.

"You're gonna regret this!" Trigger shouted after them before his airbag inflated and trapped him inside the car as the horn beeped.

---

Back in the police station interrogation room, Stan and Veronica were still had their hands cuffed to their chairs while Powers and his men were off somewhere handling the proper paperwork to formally put them away. This gave the two cousins much-needed time to try and come up with a way to escape.

Stan checked his wristwatch device and saw the machine would be fully operational in five hours. "Only five more hours till it happens. We gotta be there!" He said.

"Alright, let me think. Let me think…" Veronica muttered in frustration, trying to find something to inspire an idea for escaping.

Suddenly their wristwatches started blinking and beeping a warning that reads "ANOMALY IN PROGRESS." They looked across the table and saw the coffee a few feet in front of them floating out of its cup, along with the cup itself and various items. A second later, everything came crashing back down as gravity returned to normal.

"They're getting stronger," Veronica noted. "Next thing you know the whole town will be lifted off the ground."

The moment she said that Stan let out a gasp of realization as to how they could get out there. "Wait, of course, that's it!"

---

It wasn't just Stan that was witnessing the effects of the machine. The entire town took notice when, in the middle of their usual daily activities, they were suddenly lifted off the ground along with many cars and objects. They all floated off the ground and then came falling back just as suddenly. Everyone in the town's center was rippled with confusion as they picked themselves up.

"Is it just me, or did the entire world just hiccup?" Tyler Cutebiker asked Lazy Susan.

"I'm sure it's just a baby-sized earthquake," the waitress said as she waved it off.

"Aww, baby-sized!"

However, not everyone brushed off the gravitational anomaly so lightly. Over in the junkyard, McGucket was in an absolute frenzy as the laptop blared red with the steadily decreasing countdown that Stan initiated. As it continued ticking down, McGucket was running around his shack to pack his bag.

"It's happening! The End Times! When that machine activates... I gotta get outta town!" He shouted, before grabbing a raccoon and shoving it into the bag. "Get in there, raccoon wife! Git!" Once the animal was inside the bag, he rushed out of his hut as helicopters flew past overhead. The hillbilly made his fearful exit out of the junkyard, desperate to get away from the town before the world-ending event came.

---

The Mystery Shack was absolutely surrounded by agents from the Office of Paranormal Investigations. It was a miracle that Patrick, Dipper, and Mabel were able to get as close to it as they could without being seen. The trio was hiding in a bush near the Shack, which was swarming with field agents standing guard and investigating every inch of the property. All of them looking for any clues of the supposed doomsday device hidden somewhere inside.

"There are too many guards. We can't get in through the main entrance," Patrick said.

"Alright, here's the plan. I'll take out those two guard guys, Patrick, you karate chop the other dude in the neck, and Dipper can beat up any other guys who try to stop us, and then we'll backflip through the front door!" Mabel explained to them.

"Mabel, aren't you forgetting the simpler solution?" Dipper asked.

She looked confused at him. Patrick shook his head and searched into her sweater before pulling out her grappling hook. He lightly shook it in front of her so that she could get the hit.

"Oh, right."

The three cousins started climbing up a tree, hoping that no one would see them. Luckily for them, however, the two agents that were standing guard were too busy looking at the Rock that looks like a face rock.

"So is it a rock, or is it a face?" One agent asked.

"I think...it's a metaphor," said the other agent. As they pondered, Patrick and the twins reached a branch directly across from the Shack's now broken window. With a well-aimed shot, Mabel fired her grappling hook overhead and latched onto the side of the bedroom window. Together, Patrick, Dipper, and Mabel slid along the rope into the Shack. Once they were inside, the three dashed down the stairs, narrowly avoiding detection from the agents, and headed towards Stan's office.

When they reached the door, Patrick halted the kids and reached for the doorknob. He slowly turned it and opened the door and looked inside. There was no one inside and it appeared as though OPI hadn't even bothered to check the office. That was good. Patrick hurried the twins inside and locked the door tightly behind them. Then they fist-bumped.

"Alright. If I was Stan, where would I hide those surveillance tapes?" Dipper thought aloud. He looked on the bookshelf while Mabel opened one of Stan's filing cabinet

"If I were Stan, I'd hide it…" Patrick whispered to himself before turning around and noticing a Jackalope head mounted on the wall. Seeing something reflecting off one of the antlers, he saw that there was a bolt drilled it.

"In plain sight," he said, forming a grin on his face.

Walking up to it, Patrick fixed the jackalope's bent antler. This triggered a hidden switch and the wall turned over to reveal two old-looking TV monitors and a tape player, along with an extensive collection of security tapes.

"Yes!" The trio cheered.

"It's this week, this is it!" Mabel exclaimed, pointing to a tape halfway in the player and pushed it in.

The first clip on the tape was of Wendy, Soos, and Mabel in the Mystery Shack's gift shop. Music was playing while Soos was doing the worm dance. "Go! Go! Go! Go!" the girls chanted.

Mabel looked at the boys, who were giving her curious looks. "Someone yelled 'Wormy Dance.' We had to! Fast-forward."

Patrick took the remote and fast-forward to a couple of hours and it showed something that Patrick made smirk. It was of him and Wendy in the gift shop, alone. Patrick was standing while Wendy sat on the counter and the two were having an intense makeout session. They were wrestling their tongues together, pressing their bodies against one another, and moaning loudly as they grabbed every inch of each other, including tangling their hands in each other's hair.

Patrick smiled at the footage, but when he looked to see that the twins were staring at him, his face turned completely red and quickly taped fast-forwards through several hours. Stopping to see Stan restocking the gift shop as Veronica walked over with some more knick-knacks.

"Ha! There it is! Stan is restocking, just like he said! And Veronica's with him!" Dipper said with a smile. "And the date shows it was last night! It's proof! They're both innocent!"

Patrick sighed in relief, then he frowned when he looked back at the footage. "Wait, what are they doing?"

On the tape, Stan and Veronica stopped stocking at around 7 PM. They looked around the shop before sneaking outside. Patrick fast forwards through till 8 PM, but the conman and secret agent still hadn't returned. This quickly made the trio concerned as to what they were up to.

"...Uh-oh," Dipper muttered.

"Uh, maybe they're just going to the bathroom outdoors," Mabel suggested, trying to stay positive.

"Together?"

"Yeah! The way nature intended!"

"No, no something's not right," Patrick said, fast-forwarding the surveillance tape.

When he reached 5 AM, they gasped in shock and horror. Two figures in hazmat suits opened the door to the gift shop and came wheeling in large barrels of radioactive waste. One was a male and the other was a female, and both had the same build as their elder relatives.

"Oh no, no. Stan, Veronica, you didn't…" Patrick mumbled, as his hopes of the two being innocent were shrinking away.

"Don't panic," Mabel quickly said, trying to reassure him. "There could be anyone in those suits!"

On the tape, the male figure accidentally dropped a barrel on his foot, making him cry out in pain as he grabbed his injured foot. "Gah! Hot Belgian waffles!" the male cried in Stan's all too familiar voice.

"Oh, Stan?" Veronica's voice spoke from the other figure. "You know we're alone, right?"

Stan looked around while still holding his foot. "Oh, you're right. I can swear for real!" He then sucked in a deep breath. "MOTHERFU-"

Patrick immediately shut off the tape as Mabel covered her ears. "That's them, alright," Dipper said.

"This is bad. This is really bad," Patrick said as he shook his head incredulously and leaned his hand against the wall. Staring at the static screen. "Shop lifting's one thing, stealing from the government's another. Stan practical does that whenever he commits tax fraud. But radioactive material?!"

"Okay, okay." Mabel turned away anxiously from the screen as she tried to contain her panic. "So maybe Grunkle Stan and Graunt Veronica stole some toxic waste. That doesn't mean they're leading a nefarious double life!"

"Uh, Mabel?" Dipper spoke up as he pulled out a box from under the TV screen. "I'm not so sure about that…"

He placed it on the office desk as Mabel and Patrick gathered around the box. The teenager aimed the desk lamp towards the box and turned it on. The first thing they noticed was an open envelope that was signed to Stan 'From Veronica'. Standing on the other side of the desk, across from the twins, Patrick picked up the envelope and moved it aside, only to be stunned along with the twins by what they found. The cardboard box was filled to the brim with passports, IDs, documents, newspaper clippings, and everything in between. All of them connected to Stan.

"What? What is all this?" Mabel asked as she and Dipper looked through the box and read from one of the IDs. "'Stetson Pinefield?'"

"'Hal Forrester?" Dipper read off another ID before looking at another. "'Andrew '8-Ball' Alcatraz?' Where did these even come from?"

Patrick looked at the envelope in his hand and his eyes widened in realization. "This is what Agent Trigger was talking about. Veronica's been providing Stan with fake IDs, you two! You wouldn't need these unless you were trying to hide your real identity!"

"But why would Stan do that?" Mabel wondered, shaking her head incredulously. She then noticed a newspaper clipping inside the box and pulled it out. She opened it and looked at the headline.

STAN PINES DEAD.

Mabel's eyes widened in shock and horror as her face went pale. She handed it off to her cousin, and Patrick froze up in equal shock at the headline. His eyes went completely bug-eyed as he regained his bearings just enough to shakily read it aloud. "S-Stan Pines Dead?!"

"What?!" Dipper exclaimed in surprise as Patrick placed the newspaper clipping on the table for all of them to see.

"'Foul play suspected in Pines' death,'" Mabel read from the article. "Fiery car crash, brakes cut...by who?!"

Dipper quickly rifled through the box and picked out another clipping that showed a picture of Stan. "'Unnamed grifter at large?' Why would they call him unnamed? Unless Stan…"

Mabel looked at him. "Isn't…"

As the horrible possibly came to light, Patrick looked up. "...Stan?" He questioned nervously as he stared up at the portrait of Stan on the wall behind the twins. His wide, pride grin that they've all seen before now had a sinister feel to it that sent a chill up the spins of the trio.

Walking away from, desk, Patrick started pacing around the room, trying to calm his nerves. In their quest for evidence of Stan and Veronica's innocence, he and the twins stumbled across proof that their uncle isn't who he said he is. Now he was starting to question everything he knew about not just his own grandmother, but his uncle as well.

"This...This can't be real!" Patrick exclaimed, trying and failing to calm down. He turned to Dipper and Mabel. The boy was pacing around angrily as Mabel spread out the IDs and passports. "None of this makes any sense! If Stan is really dead, then who have we been living with all summer? Why would Veronica be helping the man that killed him?!"

"There has to be some explanation," Mabel said in denial, adamant that Stan was innocent. "Maybe we're getting Ker-Prank'd! Justin Kerprank is gonna jump up from behind one of these plants…any minute now!" She quipped and turned to look at a potted plant, desperately hoping that it was true. However, after a brief pause, she scooted forward and looked into the pot. "...Any minute, Justin."

"I can't believe it. This whole summer I've been looking for answers and the biggest mystery was right under our nose," Dipper said in confusion

Patrick sighed in frustration before walking back to the kids. "Alright, Alright, look. I really wish this was all some kind of elaborate plank. But let's face it, this is real. So far, everything Veronica's agents told us was true. The fake IDs, stealing radioactive waste, living double lives. However, we still haven't found the doomsday device. Whether or not Stan really is Stan, whatever's going on here, we've got to get to the bottom of it," he told the twins with a determined scowl.

Mabel started digging through clippings in the box again, before turning it over and dumping everything onto the floor. "Ugh, there's gotta be some kind of explanation in here somewhere. What the…" She picked up a note. "'Secret code to hideout?'"

"Let me see that." Dipper knelt down next to her with a frown. He took out Journal 3 and his portable black light. He turned on the light and shined it on the page labeled codes. "'A1, B, C3'... I've never seen a code like this."

"Wait! I have!" Mabel exclaimed in realization. "Guys, it's the vending machine!"

"Then that's where we're going to find our answers," Patrick said in a serious tone. He didn't know what they were going to find if anything at all. But one thing was for sure; they were going to find the truth and when they do, they'll know what his grandmother and uncle really are trying to hide.

---

13 minutes. That was the remaining amount of time Stan and Veronica had left before everything finally came together. If things had gone their way, they'd be at home with the kids, showing them the machine and explaining everything. But things didn't go their way and now they were trapped in the police station on the other side of town.

However, they were going to make it on time. Their daring escape came into sight when Powers entered the interrogation room with two other agents. "Alright, Pines. Playtime is over," Powers remarked as stoic as ever. "Chopper's ready to dust off to Washington. I'll enjoy putting you two away. Especially you, Director."

"Let me guess; just so you can take my position after I'm gone," Veronica said with a roll of her eyes. She was actually trying to stall for when the right time presented itself, but she always had a hunch that Powers was after her position as Director for a long time.

"Um, can't we stick around for maybe one minute?" Stan asked, also trying to stall. "Uh, one minute thirty seconds?

"We're not falling for your games, Pines," Powers said as he walked around to unlock the two from the chair. "You've been running your whole life. Your time is finally up."

Stan anxiously looked at a clock on the wall. "Bathroom break? Just give me... fifteen seconds!"

"Sorry, but you've got a flight to catch," Power said as he pulled out the key to unlock their cuffs.

Veronica was about to fake having a heart attack when hers and Stan's watches happened to begin beeping. Perfect timing.

"Funny you say that, Powers," Veronica said with a smirk, pleased to see something finally going her way for today. "Because so do you."

"Huh?" Power only had time to ask before the gravitational anomaly started up again. This time, it was even stronger as everything floated up from the floor, including the agents and the Pines. Finally having the advantage, Veronica and Stan's chairs rose up into the air and kicked the table at the agents.

"Stan, the keys!" Veronica shouted. As Power tried to anchor himself to something, Stan acted quickly and rammed the new head agent with the back of his chair into the wall. He then turned over and thrusted away from the wall, breaking the chair into pieces. He flipped over and caught the cuff key in his hands and uncuffed himself. He then grabbed Veronica by her chair and freed her from her restraints before the two started making their escape.

"Hey! Damn it, get back here!" Powered shouted as he tried floating towards them. "Men, get them!"

Grabbing her chair, Veronica threw it at Powers, knocking him back. As the one agent tried to catch the two Pines, the former Director and conman ended up using him as a boost. Jumping off his chest as Stan caught his wallet. They then hop off the other agent towards the door. Stan was the first to go through, while Veronica held onto the door handle and looked back at Powers.

"Well, I just want to say, it's been a pleasure working with you, Powers," she said, giving him a two-figure salute.

"No! You won't get away with this!" He yelled and launched himself off the wall after the Director. Veronica waited for him with a grin before slamming the door squarely in Powers' face and locking it behind her. Her watch beeps and gravity started working again, allowing her to watch the agent in the interrogation room slide to the floor with a squeaking sound.

"I've always wanted to do that," she said before running out the door with Stan following her.

While the rest of the town was still in a state of confusion over what had caused gravity to suddenly be turned off for a moment, Veronica and Stan rushed out of the station to a taxi sitting right outside.

"Do you know where the Mystery Shack is?" Stan asked the driver.

"Uh, yeah?" The driver said, confused.

Stan quickly pulled out the check his nephew gave him and handed it to him. "Okay. Here's a check for about 40 thousand dollars. Drive as far away from the Shack as possible, and don't stop when the cops start chasing you!"

The driver looked at the conman for a moment before shrugging his shoulders in acceptance. Putting the check in a safe place, he sped away as Stan watched.

"What have I done, Veronica," Stan said as he shed a tear.

"What you had to do, Stan. What you had to do," Veronica said reassuringly before pulling him behind a wrecked car as the agents came out of the station.

"They're getting away!" Powers shouted before spotting the fleeing taxi. "Obviously, follow that cab!"

---

Back at the Shack, Agent Trigger pulled up to the Shack after being rescued from the crash. He stepped out of the truck to address the other agents. "Stanford and Veronica have escaped! They're at large! We need to sweep the town! Move! Move! Move!"

The agents quickly filed out at the command, piling into their vehicles and chipper as they dispersed from the Mystery Shack. And fortunately, the field agents leaving the gift shop couldn't have come at a better time for Wendy and Soos. The two had just arrived at the window to the gift shop after sneaking around the guards. Wendy opened the window and jumped on through as Soos slipped in behind her, determined to find her boyfriend and the twins.

"Alright, Soos. Let's…" Wendy turned and saw Soos guard in front of the vending machine. "Soos, what are you doing?"

"This is the plan, Wendy," explained the handyman. "Protect the machine, earn Stan's trust, legally get adopted by Stan, change name to Stan Junior."

"Soos, we don't have time for this!" Wendy said.

"Soos? Wendy?" Patrick asked, making Soos and Wendy jump as he and the twins walked over to them.

Upon seeing him, Wendy's lip spread out into a grin as she hugged him tightly. "Patrick! Where've you been? I've been worried sick!"

"Wendy, I'm fine. What are you two doing here?" Patrick asked, confused to see her and Soos at the Shack.

"Stan gave us a mission to protect this machine!" Soos told him with a proud smile. "Ha! And I thought I loved snacks." This made Patrick and the twins glance at one another.

"Guys, what's going on? Why is all of this happening?" Wendy asked worriedly.

"I wish we had time to tell you everything, but right now, something huge is going on here," Patrick said earnestly.

"If Stan and Veronica are hiding some dangerous secret, we need to find out what it is! We need you to step aside," Dipper ordered sternly.

"Yeah, just let us through so we can prove this is all just a big misunderstanding," Mabel added kindly.

"Guys, I know this seems crazy, but I promised Stan I would guard this with my life," Soos said with a frown.

Patrick glared at his best friend sternly. "Soos, I'm serious. Get out of the way," he said.

"Ah...No!" Soos squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head.

Patrick and Dipper looked at Mabel and nodded at her. With a heavy heart, she walked up to the handyman. "I'm sorry, Soos," she said in advance. The young girl then blew a handful of glitter directly into Soos' face, getting it in his eyes.

"Aah! Attack glitter! It's pretty, but it hurts!" Soos cried.

At that moment, the twins pounced on the handyman, trying to pull him away from the machine as Patrick rushed in to get the button. However, he was stopped by Wendy. "Patrick, what the hell has gotten into you!?" Wendy yelled as she tried to push her boyfriend back by his hands.

"We have to!" Patrick yelled, struggling to push past her.

"Aww, c'mon, I don't wanna fight you guys! This hurts me more than it hurts you!" Soos exclaimed, struggling to pull the kids off of him. Only to get kicked in the face by Mabel as she twisted his stomach. "Ah! Seriously, it hurts me way more than it hurts you!"

"Enough, guys! Just tell us what's going on!" Wendy exclaimed

"Stan and Veronica might be making a weapon that could send us all to kingdom come and that vending machine!" Patrick yelled. Wendy stared at him for a moment, shocked and confused, but then she moved aside. The Pines teenager quickly ran up to the number pad and entered the code.

All of a sudden the vending machine swings forward, shoving Patrick, Wendy, Soos, and the kids to the floor. They all coughed from the smoke that emitted from the vending machine before they glanced up at what lay behind the machine. When the dust cleared, the Mystery Team gasped in shock.

The vending machine inside was a door that opened to a secret passage. Leading down a flight of stairs. Patrick stood up and walked over to the machine.

"Come on," he simply said, grabbing the lamp hanging on the wall and handing it to Soos.

Taking the lamp, the handyman started leading the way down the dark staircase towards an elevator. "It's like something from a video game…" he muttered.

"Or a dream…" Mabel said.

"...Or a nightmare," Dipper added as they reached the elevator at the bottom of the stairs. They stood in front of the elevator. Reading from the book, they put the code into the panel and the elevator opened up before them.

"Where does this elevator go?" Wendy asked. Patrick looked over at his girlfriend and saw she was looking fearful into the elevator. He grabbed her hand and she glanced over at him. The young man gave her a reassuring smile, which she returned. His expression soon turned to a determined expression as he looked into the elevator.

"Only one way to find out," he said.

The five of them packed into the elevator and began heading down. Passing level 2 before stopping at level 3. When the doors opened, they all gasped in shock when they saw what lay before them.

They entered a technological lab that was just like the bunker in the woods. It was filled with complex, retro-futuristic-looking machines, computers, gadgets, and sensors lining the walls on either side of the long, narrow room, with dials, gauges, and lights illuminating the room. And at the end of it, on the other side of a large glass window was a radiant glowing blue light. One that was coming from a large, upside-down triangular machine.

"What...What is all of this?" Patrick wondered as he approached the light before them.

"Guys, are we dreaming? Somebody wake me up," Mabel said apprehensively.

"This can't be real…" Dipper said in disbelief. "It's just like that bunker in the woods…"

Wendy looked at one of the machines and noticed that it had the same symbol as the Office of Paranormal Investigation. "Guys, this is all government equipment!" She said, absolutely baffled.

"I don't understand. Why would Mr. Pines have all this?" Soos asked."What is it doing underneath the Mystery Shack?"

The ground walked up to the glass and stared at the giant machine that was behind it. More particularly, they were looking directly at the large circular hole in the center that seemed to be growing brighter and more blighting by the second. "Well, I guess we found our doomsday device," Patrick said.

However, Mabel wasn't ready to believe it. "Okay, okay," she cut in with a very forced smile. "L-Let's not jump to conclusions here. So Stan's got a huge gigantic lab. That doesn't mean anything bad! Everyone's got secrets! Just look at Veronica, she was the Director of the Office of Paranormal Investigations!" She turned around to look at the desk and saw the picture of her, Dipper, and Patrick Stan kept. Still believing that the conman and agent's intentions were good, despite all the evidence pointing otherwise, she picked it up. "It's still Veronica and Stan, and they love us. And we love them. Right?"

Patrick was about to say something when he noticed something that made his eyes widened. Walking past her, he looked down at the desk in utter disbelief.

"No. No, it can't be…" he whispered, completely shocked as he picked up two unquestionably family books lying on the desk right in front of them.

They were Journal #1 and Journal #2.

When Dipper saw the other journals, he gasped in surprise and pulled out Journal #3, completing the set. "The other two journals?" He whispered in complete shock.

Patrick's hands trembled as he held the books tighter with his rapidly rising anger. "All this time... all this time…THAT SON OF A BITCH!?" He yelled in absolute fury and slammed both journals on the desk.

"Patrick, calm down!" Wendy exclaimed and held his shoulder before Patrick swiftly turned around towards her.

"How!? How am I supposed to calm down?!" He cried back at her. "They told us not to go looking into the supernatural when they had the journals all along and this machine! Was anything Stan and Veronica said even real!? Why would they have those journals?!"

"I don't know! But there has to be an explanation for all of this," Wendy said, trying to sound calmer than she really was. The truth was, she was just as angry as her boyfriend.

"Yeah, like maybe they both are the authors," Soos suggested.

"Or maybe they stole them from the author!" Dipper yelled at him, equally outraged over this revelation. "Maybe the reason he has all those fake IDs and she's been covering this up is because he is a master criminal, and this machine is his master plan!"

"But what does it even do?" Wendy asked.

Patrick thought for a moment before an idea popped into his head. Taking the third journal from Dipper, he opened it to the center page that had the blueprints to the very machine in front of them. Then he opened the other two journals to their blueprint pages and placed them together and laid them accordingly. Completing the blueprint to the machine. Dipper then brought out his blacklight flashlight and shone on the page. What the five saw made them gasp.

Together, the journals created a message that was more horrifying than anything they imagined.

"I was wrong the whole time." Dipper read from all three books. "The machine was meant to create knowledge but it is too powerful. I was deceived, and now it is too late. The device, if fully operational, could tear our universe apart!" Under that was an image of the world splitting in half, with chunks of the planet drifting apart. People falling into the cracks of the earth to a fiery death. The more Dipper read, the more urgent the situation felt by the second."It must not fall into the wrong hands. If the clock ever reaches zero, our universe is doomed!"

They all looked up at the countdown clock and gasped when they saw it now reading one minute, thirty seconds. And it was still going. "It's the final countdown!" Soos cried in terror. "Just like they always sang about!"

"Patrick, we have to stop this!" Wendy exclaimed in fear.

Patrick quickly flipped to another page of Journal #1 that read 'MANUAL OVERRIDE'. "Here it is! Come on!"

They all ran and entered the machine's room. The power emitting from the machine was strong enough to make the ground shake all around them. The machine was picking up power and the rainbow ring was spinning much faster at intense speeds. Patrick looked around and noticed the override switches on the far side of the room. "There! Quick!" He exclaimed before he, Dipper, and Mabel ran over the controls. There were a set of three keys inserted in the override panel and each of the cousins grabbed one. "Three, two, one, TURN!"

The three turned the three keys in exact unison, resulting in the leaver near the center of the room popping open, revealing a large red button resting on top of it.

"That's it! The shutdown switch!" Dipper shouted as everyone rushed over to it. Patrick glared down at the button and held his palm over it. This was it. This was going to stop everything.

"Let's end this," he said, bringing his hand down to shut down the machine when...

"DON'T TOUCH THAT BUTTON!"

The five of them turned towards the doorway to see Stan and Veronica standing in the doorway, panting. Staring at Patrick in alarm as he still had his hand over the button that would ruin everything. For a moment, the room was filled with tense moments of silence as the Mystery Team looked at the two elders. Patrick scowled at his grandmother and great uncle as Mabel looked sad and hurt, Soos looked betrayed, Wendy looked upset, and Dipper looked angry.

Stan started to advance cautiously towards the group. "Patrick, just-"

Patrick drew his shotgun. "Get! Back!" He growled, aiming the laser gun at his "uncle's" head, while his hand remained suspended just inches over the button. "We know everything, 'Great Uncle Stanford', and I'm putting a stop to it all."

"No! Don't!" Veronica pleaded as she cautiously walked towards him. She didn't care if her grandson killed her then and there, but she couldn't let him shut down the machine. "Please, whatever you do, don't press that shutdown button, you gotta trust us."

"Trust you?! Why should I trust you, Director Veronica Pines!?" Patrick yelled in a mixture of anger, hurt, and betrayal, as he moved his hand away from the button for a moment while still aiming his gun at them. "After you stole radioactive waste?! After you lied to us all summer?! I don't even know who any of you are anymore!"

"Look, I know this all seems nuts, but I need that machine to stay on! If you'd just let me explain-" Stan was abruptly cut off when his and Veronica's wristwatch devices started beeping and the ground began to shake again.

"Oh no. Brace yourselves, everyone!" Veronica yelled before another gravity anomaly began.

This one was more powerful than all that had come before it. The power of the anomaly lifted everyone in the lab off the ground and floated toward the machine. All over town, the surge caused people, cars, the roofs of buildings, and everything in between to be lifted high off the ground and into the sky, which had darkened as the setting sun appeared to turn red over the town of Gravity Falls.

"T minus thirty-five seconds." the computer announced as the machine sped up.

Patrick was hurled into the rock wall on the side of the room, hitting against it hard. He rubbed the back of his head from the impact and turned himself around to see where everyone was. Dipper had landed on one of the wooden supports and held onto it. Stan, Veronica, Soos, and Wendy were all pushed towards the far wall of the room.

"Dipper! Patrick!" Mabel cried out. Her ankle was hooked onto a wire over the stand the button was on.

"Mabel! Hurry!" Dipper shouted back.

"Shut it down, now!" Patrick ordered. With a nod, Mabel started crawling along the wire toward the button.

"Huh?" Veronica glanced up from where she was on the wall and gasped when she saw her niece going for the button. "W-Wait! Mabel, don't do it!" she said, launching herself off the wall and flew towards the young girl.

"Mabel, Mabel, wait! Stop!" Stan yelled, panic-stricken as he followed his cousin. "Please, Mabel, you've gotta-Aah!" Soos suddenly barreled into him, knocking him away from the button's reach. "Soos, what're you doing?!" Stan shouted, furiously hitting Soos on the head. "I gave you an order!"

"Sorry, Mr. Pines - if that is your real name - but I have a new mission now! Protecting these kids!" Soos exclaimed.

"Soos, you idiot, let me go!" Stan yelled before Dipper pushed off from the support beam and hit Stan and Soos. Joining the handyman in keeping the conman restrained.

Mabel had made it to the button and held onto the lever when she saw Veronica was just about to reach her. "Mabel! Please don't do it," she said, looking at the young girl desperately.

"Stay away from her!" Wendy, missing her lumberjack hat, flew over and tackled Veronica. Pushing her away from Mabel.

"Wendy, let me go!" Veronica cried in anger as the two girls struggled against one another.

"I'm not letting you destroy the universe!" Wendy exclaimed, putting her in a headlock. Patrick quickly flew over to help her in the scuffle.

"You're all clear, Mabel! Press the red button and shut it down!" Patrick yelled at his cousin.

"No, you can't!" Stan protested, shoving Dipper away. "You gotta trust me!"

The young girl clung to the rod the button was attached to as she started to cry. "Grunkle Stan, Graunt Veronica. I don't even know if you're my grunkle and graunt!" Mabel lightly sobbed. Lost, confused, and filled with heartache, the emotional conflict that's been going on inside of her for hours was treating the little girl apart. Her tears floated up into the air, making everyone start their fighting. "I wanna believe you, but-"

"Then listen to me," Stan said with a firm and remorseful voice. He hated himself for what he put the kids through all day. For putting them in this horrible situation. "Remember this morning when I said I wanted to tell you guys something?"

"T-minus twenty seconds."

All of them screamed as the portal flashed and pushed Dipper, Stan, Veronica, Wendy, and Soos against the opposite wall. The only lucky one was Patrick, whose hand quickly grabbed onto the wire Mabel was tangled in seconds ago. He held on as hard as he could before pulling himself forward.

"Mabel, do it!"

Still hanging onto the rod, Mabel prepared to push the button. But she stopped when Veronica spoke up.

"Mabel, please!" Veronica begged. "You've got to listen to me and Stan on this! I know that I've lied about a lot of things, but believe me when I say that it was all for you and our family!" She turned to her cousin with pleading eyes. "Stan, tell her!"

Stan nodded and looked back at Mabel pleadingly. "Veronica's right! This morning, I wanted to say that you're gonna hear some bad things about me, and some of them are true, but trust me. Everything I've worked for, everything I care about, it's all for this family!"

"Mabel, what if he's lying?" Wendy yelled.

"This thing could destroy the universe! Listen to your head!" Dipper yelled, angrily.

"Look into my eyes, Mabel!" Stan yelled, showing his eyes filled with sadness. "You really think I'm a bad guy?"

"They're lying!" Dipper shouted.

10.

"We're not! Mabel, please don't!" Veronica implored as tears started falling from her eyes. 30 eyes of tireless work could be lost in a single, sorrowful instance.

9.

"Mabel, what are you waiting for?!" Wendy shouted.

8.

"Do it, Mabel!" Patrick implored his cousin, as he slowly crawled towards the button. "SHUT IT DOWN, NOW!"

7.

Sucking in a tearful breath, Mabel shut her eyes and turned her head away as she lowered her hand to the button. The fate of the world rested on her shoulders now. But when she looked back at Stan and Veronica, she hesitated. The two elders looked at her with distraught and with begging eyes. She knew why she had to shut down the machine. She felt betrayed just like everyone in the room. But at that moment she remembered all the good things they've done this summer.

Deep, deep in her heart, Mabel knew without a shadow of a doubt they were still her family. They were still the aunt and uncle that loved her, her brother, and her cousin.

6.

"Grunkle Stan... Graunt Veronica…" she began with tearful eyes.

5.

Mabel lifted her hands away from the button, letting go of the stand as she floated up. Her long brown hair drifted up and over her head as she brought her hands up in a surrendering manner. But she wasn't admitting defeat. She was doing it in complete acceptance and placing faith in her uncle and aunt.

"I trust you."

4.

All seemed lost, until Patrick, in disbelief at what Mabel was doing, used all his strength to pull along the wire towards the stand and grabbed it.

3.

"Well! I! DON'T!" Patrick yelled, raising his fist into the air.

2.

"PATRICK, NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Stan and Veronica screamed in horror.

1.

Patrick swung his hand down on the button. However, just when his fist lightly touched the button, the countdown finally hit zero. And that's when the explosion came.

A sudden and incredibly powerful blinding light exploded from the machine and filled the entire room. Patrick, Dipper, Stan, Soos, Wendy, and Mabel all let out fearful screams as they were engulfed by the light and disappeared. However, it didn't just stop down in the lab. The light engulfed not just the shack, but all of Gravity Falls. Somewhere amidst the light, the picture of Patrick, Mabel and Dipper cracked as the unconscious bodies of Patrick Pines, Dipper Pines, Mabel Pines, Stan Pines, Veronica Pines, Soos Ramirez, and Wendy Corduroy float freely along with the rubble. Helpless to do anything for what was about to happen.

This is the way the world ends.

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

...

Or was it? For as quickly as the light erupted from the machine, it died away just as quickly. Gravity resumes its place, causing everything to come back down to earth.

Down in the basement, Patrick opened his eyes and groaned. Now laying on the ground like everyone else, he sat up after regaining consciousness and rubbed his head with his free hand. Noticing that he was holding onto something with his other hand, he looked and saw he was still holding the stand with the button. Instinctively, Patrick quickly slammed his palm on it, but then he saw that the lever had broken off. He looked up and his eyes widened.

The machine was now a mess of tangled wires and battered metal, with the only thing somehow still operational was its center which was glowing bright blue. However, things would go from weird to weirder when, within the blue light, the silhouette of a single figure appeared and steadily approached.

The figure emerged from the light and stood on the angel platform of the destroyed machine as the blue light fades behind him. It was a tall man that was dressed in a large black coat with multiple pockets on the inside and a futuristic rifle resting on his back. Underneath his coat, he wore a black shirt and pants. He also donned bulky black boots, a brown belt that slings from his shoulder, a tattered cape, and a gray scarf that concealed his face, along with a pair of goggles and hood.

The entire room went completely silent as everyone stared at the mysterious stranger. Then the man started walking towards them.

"Hold it right there!" Patrick exclaimed, getting to his feet and aiming his shotgun at the stranger. This made the stranger stop and stare at him. "You're a dead man if you don't tell us who…"

"Patrick! Stop, don't shoot!" Veronica pleaded, quickly rushed over, and pushed the shotgun down and away from the stranger.

"What? What are you talking about?" Patrick asked, letting go of his gun and stepping away from grandmother, pulling out his crowbar.

"Patrick, we can explain," Veronica told him, trying to get him to calm down as the other walked over to them.

Patrick looked back at the stranger when he noticed him walking towards them again. However, the man stopped in front of Journal #1. When he reached down to pick it up, he placed a six-fingered hand on the cover of the first journal, then claimed it and placed it into the inside pocket of his long, dark coat.

"What...?" Dipper asked in disbelief. "Who is that?"

"The author of the journals…" Stan said, just as shocked.

If it was possible for everyone's eyes to get any wider, it was made possible when the man pulled off his goggles and hood, revealing his face. The Author looked nearly identical to Stan, but with notable differences, like his hair was dark gray with a horizontal silver streak along the sides of it and he possessed unusually long sideburns. His chin had a cleft and slight five o'clock shadow. His nose was visually smoother than Stan's, lacking bumps.

The conman would give an explanation for the author having a likeness to himself. Revealing the long-awaited answer as to who the mysterious author of the journals really was.

"...My brother..."

To be continued...