The Twins sat in their room, calmly listening to some music. It has been a week since they found themselves on Mother Base and made themselves useful. Mabel is fitting pictures into her scrapbook, her hair up in a bun again. She asked Quiet to teach her how to make a bun herself. The plan didn't really work out, but Dipper observed well enough to try his hands at it. They were still shaky, but that is easing with time.
"So, Dipper," Mabel says, breaking the silence, "what mission do you think they're going to send us on today?"
Dipper thinks a bit, "I'm not sure, we'll find out eventually."
They sit in the music silence a while longer when Ford knocks on their door frame, "how's my little fighters?"
"We're doing good, just waiting around," Mabel says, closing her photo book.
"Well waiting is over, you two have a scouting mission to Serak Power Plant, is your stuff ready?" Ford says.
The Twins hop up and grab their earpieces, putting them in, walking up to Ford.
"Let's head up to the helipad!" Mabel says as she somehow manages to skip in gumboots.
Ford and Dipper chuckle as they follow her. The Pines family are not aware of what will happen this day…
The twins sat outside the plant with Boss, their own pair of binoculars facing towards the plant.
"The workers here have been complaining about 'mooing' noises coming from behind the plant, why don't you three go in to check it out," Miller says over their codecs.
"Right," Mabel says, putting away her binoculars and sliding down the hill.
Dipper and Boss put theirs away, following her down and across the clearing.
They start ducking around and dodging the men while making progress, the Twins moving quickly and quietly. Boss ended up getting a lesson on being quick and sneaky from them on one mission. He had to remind them that sometimes they can take it slowly, since these are humans they're dodging, not eldritch horrors. They duck behind a rocky outcropping and peek around to the back of the plant. Dipper kept watch while Mabel and Boss look ahead.
"So the are noises come from behind there?" Mabel asks one of the men on the other side of her earpiece.
"It appears that way," Ocelot answers.
"Stop dilly-dallying and move!" Miller orders and the trio remove themselves from the outcropping and move to the canyon. They get in pretty deeply, knuckle dusters in hand for the Twins, tranq gun in Boss' as they scan the canyon. A deep mooing noise rumbles the cliff faces, loose dirt on the ground bouncing.
Boss takes a step back as an enormous Metal Gear stumbles from the gate ahead, screaming it's terrible noise. He grips the Twins shoulders and tries to pull them with him, "It hasn't noticed us yet we need to go!"
It's not working, they're frozen to the spot. Stan's voice yells at him from his codec, "GET THEM OUT OF THERE NOW!"
Boss wasted no time in grabbing the Twins around the waist and bolting away from the Metal Gear.
"Boss, remember it can smell fear. We got what we came here for, don't touch it," Miller says calmly.
"I'm not the one afraid here!" Boss remarks.
Over the codecs, the Gruncles are trying to calm down the Twins the best they can. Boss thinks quickly, "Pequod, I need you to come in hot!"
"Right'o, run down the road a bit if you can," Pequod responds.
Boss looks at the luggage in his arms and notices that they're a bit more coherent, but still shaking their heads, trying to clear something.
"Stanford, if you don't mind I could use a little insight to precious cargo in my arms," Boss asks as he powers down the road, dodging gunfire spraying from behind.
"The noise made them think they were home, I got startled a bit as well. Keep running, get them back here, we've done all we could across the radio," Ford says, panic lacing his voice.
Boss grunts and looks at the Twins, shivering and muttering. He pushes his legs a bit more as he sees Pequod come into view.
As Pequod gets close to a overhill, Boss runs up it and leaps into the chopper, depositing the twins on the floor and slamming the door shut.
"Go! Go! Go!" he says as Pequod quickly gets them out of there. Boss watches the Metal Gear carefully before he breathes a sigh of relief. He turns to the twins, cowering in the corner.
Boss kneels in front of them, "It's...OK, it didn't see us….we'll get you back to your Gruncles in no time."
Dipper looks at him with panic in his eyes, "a-are you sure?"
Boss nods, "we would've known by now if it did."
That seemed to have settled him a bit.
When they got back to Mother Base, Ford leapt to the helicopter and flung open the door, sliding to the Twins and hugging them. The heli lands and Boss hops out as Stan hops in, a very worried look on his face as he goes over to the twins.
"It's OK you two, you're not there, you're safe," Stan says slowly, removing their knuckle dusters and putting them into their pouches.
Ford hugs both of them firmly, rubbing their backs, "deeeep breaths you two, calm down, deeep breaths."
The comfort of their Gruncles seemed to have calmed them as their breathing steadied and Ford wiped their tears clean. They help the Twins off the heli to a sea of concerned faces.
Ocelot steps forward, "we had no idea."
Ford shakes his head, "it's alright, not your fault. If anything, you should blame it on Bill."
"This 'Bill Cipher' seems to be the source of all of your problems," Miller says.
"I could write a 50 page essay on everything he's done!" Stan remarks.
"Try living with him for ten or so years," Ford bickers back.
The Twins giggle a bit at their Gruncles bickering.
"Count me out on that offer!" Stan remarks.
"Yeah, it wasn't fun, I wouldn't recommend being tortured by him either."
"Poindexter, please!" Stan points to the twins.
It clicks, "Oh, right. Sorry kids."
They hug him, "it's OK Gruncle Ford," Mabel says, trying to comfort him.
"Boss, you okay?" Ocelot gives his hand.
"Yeah just, bringing back some bad memories. Is Huey still around?" He's visibly worried, almost as if he was trying to cover something.
Miller comes over, listening in.
"I wouldn't let him go anywhere and you know that," Miller clears his throat, "I've never seen you move so fast, I guess it had you spooked huh?"
Boss gives Miller a look, wiping his brow.
"It's hard to say, but I really don't recommend keeping these guests around. If there's another one of those 'dinosaurs' around, Mother Base itself could be at risk," Ocelot says, trying not to let them hear.
"He's right, we need to get them back home. The only question is how, they aren't even from this year," Miller tries to go over it in his head, clearly missing the solution.
"Wasn't your pet scientist toying with some wormholes in the shed?" Ocelot turns to tend to their guests again, having nothing else to say.
"Huey's working on some upgrade to the Fulton, yes. You're not thinking it might be able to… ?"
"You won't know, Boss, until you ask him."
Boss looks at the Pines family being fussed over by the men. He should bring them to meet Huey, explain their problem.
He calms his nerves and approaches their guests, "gather your stuff and follow me, I want you to meet someone that might be able to get you back to your year."
The Pines family look at him with joy replacing their worry. Quiet disappears for a few minutes and reappears with their belongings, Dipper's hat and Mabel's sweater cleaned. They follow Boss to RnD Platform One and into the building.
Boss reaches a room and opens the door to Huey fixing something. He looks up from his work as they come in, "ah, hello Boss, and Pines."
Ford looks around, "you knew we were here?"
Huey waves his hand, "the men sometimes come in here and talk to me about happenings on the Base."
Stan picks up something, "so you know about our time problem?"
Huey takes the thing from Stan's hands, "don't touch anything, and yes. Luckily this isn't time travel just a bit of time misplacement. Technically, we're the ones in the wrong year here!"
"Possibly from the Gravity Falls Natural Law of Weirdness Magnetism," Ford muses.
Huey blinks a few times, "OK, firstly, that is a terrible name and secondly, yes."
Dipper looks at the thing Huey was working on, "so you can send us home?"
"Well now I can, with this, the Fulton Wormhole Generator!" he says picking it up.
"I've been working it for some time now, I've been putting the finishing touches on it for a week."
Stan stops and turns to him, "are you tellin me, we could have left, whenever we wanted?"
"Eeeh, not exactly, not earlier anyways. I got the idea from the amazing power source I worked out for the Walker Gears and the Salahenthropus, the batteries have enough power to tear a small hole through space just through brute-force electromagnetism" Huey says, not really questioning why Boss seems so eager to send them back, "it's originally so he could send things back to us through ceilings, but I could configure it to send you back to wherever you came from. As soon as you leave, the timelines should un-bind and everything goes back to normal. That is, except what you've already done."
"So this entire base would remember us?" Mabel asks.
"What's a Salahenthropus?" Ford asks.
Boss speaks up from behind them, "that Metal Gear we were running from earlier."
Huey sets the generator on the floor and turns to the Pines family, "I'm only going to do this once, Time travel already gives me a headache, I really don't want to mess with it any more than I need to."
"We can agree with that," Mabel says, remembering the trouble they put Blendin through with their meddling.
Huey gives them some balloons, "you might want to pass on any last messages before you put these things on."
Mabel takes out her photobook, "Mister Nerd, can I get your picture for my scrapbook?"
Huey nods, "my name's Huey."
She takes a picture with him, "thank you!"
Ford turns to the doorway and notices Miller, "hey, Miller, thanks for housing us."
Miller nods, "not at all, it was good break from what we're normally used to. The men kind of needed it."
Dipper spots Quiet and runs up to her, "hey Miss Quiet, thanks for doing Mabel's hair."
She nods and gives him something, a rough diamond cut. She smiles and disappears.
"Right kids, Poindexter, wrapped it all up? I'd very much like to get home and kick a triangle's butt," Stan says, figuring out how to put on his fulton balloon.
"Well I'm ready Stanley," Ford confirms.
"We're ready!" the Twins say.
"If you're ready, put on the balloons. I've already reconfigured the generator to send you back," Huey says.
"Wait, we shouldn't kick them out so hastily without some goodbyes." Miller interrupts, having followed them slowly.
"I'm not one for sappy goodbyes but," Boss readjusts himself, "I'm actually impressed with their ability, and as much as I taught them they taught me a great deal."
"What, about having a little optimism for once?" Ocelot also appears, D-Dog in tow.
"I'm sure whatever they're facing, you're going to be okay, Remember, panicking clouds decisions. Don't do anything too hasty, you hear me?" Miller explains, offering his nugget of advice.
"Yes sir, Uncle Grumpy Bum!" Mabel salutes, looking to Dipper.
"I'll be sure to keep that in mind. Really, thanks for having us at all." Dipper replies.
"You'd be surprised. The men loved having you around but, guests can't stay forever. Especially in times of danger like this." Ocelot says, waiting for them to be sucked through at any second.
"Yeah well, you look pretty good in your old age." Stan jokes, looking for the release.
"You too. Remember, you aren't done yet." Ocelot remarks, waving them goodbye.
"Go ahead, I'll be sure to keep records of them. Especially on that poisonous concoction of Mabel's." Huey gives a thumbs up.
The Pines pause for a moment, realising just how well liked they were on a strange military base. It's an odd feeling, but they have to let go. With the flick of a switch, the balloons release and the holes open, returning them home in a brilliant flash of light.