"So Dip, what do you think we'll find at the end of this thing? "Mabel asked.
Dipper shook his head, lost in his thoughts. How long had they been crawling down this shaft? "What? "
Mabel stopped and sighed. "I said, what do you think we'll find at the end of this thing? "
"Sorry, I was just thinking. "
Mabel looked over her shoulder at him and smiled. "So what else is new? "
Dipper smiled back, and then suddenly his smile disappeared. "Hey, do you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"Shh."
The twins were silent a moment. Ahead of them, from down a side shaft, they both heard a shuffling noise.
"Oh, no—" Mabel squeaked.
Dipper crawled forward, squeezed past his sister and made ready to protect her. He hoped it was from nothing too big…
"Doctor McGucket ?"
The older man poked his head around the corner. "Kids! Well ain't you a sight for sore eyes! "
He crawled further into the shaft. "I'd hug you both if'n it weren't s' darn cramped in here!"
"McGucket, where have you been—and where are the Guardians? "
"Well, Mabel," the older man said, "That Collector fella put me an' th' Guardians in a cell down below somewheres. We discovered a hatch in the ceilin', an' Groot lifted me up so's I could open it, so I climbed inside. "
"Weird." Dipper said. "There was a hatch above our cell, too. "
"The room—cell thingy was really weird, too." Mabel added. "It was like some kind of five-year-old's room. Also, that Collector guy really needs to rethink his cell design - doesn't he get that putting a hatch in the ceiling will make people think of getting out? "
McGucket chuckled. "I have to agree with you there, honey." Looking at Dipper, he pointed over the boy's shoulder. "So you two came from that aways?"
Both of the twins nodded.
With some difficulty even for his small frame, the older man turned himself around. "All righty then. Let's keep goin' this away and see what we can find. This shaft has to end somewheres. "
"Yes, sir." Dipper answered with a touch of relief in his voice. He still didn't know what they might be facing, but he felt better knowing that he and Mabel now had someone else along with them.
"Doctor McGucket, have you heard any alarms or anything? "
"No, son. I'm with your sister—awfully odd that there'd be hatches in the tops of the cells like that – though if'n it hadn't been for Groot I couldn't have reached it. "
Dipper thought a second. "Groot—oh, that's the tree guy."
"Yep. Turns out he can stretch or grow his arms out, too. He had't do that t' get me up t' the hatch at the top of our cell."
"I guess the Collector thought that having those hatches really high up would keep people from trying." Mabel said as she continued crawling. "—but he didn't count on my grappling hook!"
"Yer—?" McGucket started, looking back at her. He then chuckled. "You kids've always been resourceful, that's fer sure. "
Dipper was looking ahead of them. "Hey, what's that? "
His two companions looked ahead of them. Further down the shaft, a faint light shone in from the left side.
"Hm. Be careful, kids—let's go take a gander."
The twins both nodded and followed behind—though Mabel wondered what their situation had to do with a male goose.
When they reached the light, they saw that it came from a kind of grate in the side of the shaft. Looking through, Dipper saw what appeared to be a bank of control panels.
"Hm. Looks like some sort of control center." McGucket said aloud.
Dipper studied the grate. It appeared to be made of something akin to a screen on a window at home. "I got this. "
Pulling out his pocket knife, he poked it through the screen-like material and started cutting.
When he was done, the screen fell into the room below them and clattered a bit on the floor, making all three escapees tense up. When no alarms went off, all three exhaled at once. Mabel latched her grappling hook onto the edge of the hole Dipper had made and repelled down the wall. Dipper and McGucket followed.
Once all three of them were on the floor, Mabel retracted her grappling hook while Dipper and Dr. McGucket looked around.
"Looks like some sort of surveillance room." Dipper said in a low voice, as if he were afraid someone would hear them.
McGucket looked at what appeared to be individual control units, each with a screen above them. "Hm. Looks like this is th' way that Collector fella keeps an eye on everybody in th' little livin' quarters he's got 'em in."
Dipper looked at the screens. He saw the gnomes all sleeping on the floor where they were, the Manotaurs punching each other (probably for something to do), and…
He gasped. "Oh, my gosh, guys! Is that—is that the-? "
Mabel looked up at the monitor and gasped.
McGucket followed her gaze. "Well I'll be a June Bug at th' bottom of a slop jar…"
The twins couldn't help but both glance at the older man confusedly, but returned their gaze to the monitor.
In some sort of large tank in who-knew-what part of the ship, was the actual, real-life Gobblewonker.