Authors note: Sorry I've been gone so long, I had a lot of stuff to do with family and college, also my computer was acting up lately an had to be fixed so that's what the long delay was about. Now that's out of the way, I had been throwing ideas for this story left and right trying to decide where I want to go with it once the Mystery Shack crew gets out of Gravity Falls, so delays are to be expected to writers block. If you guys have anything you want to add, you can PM me and I'll see if your ideas could work or not, I'll even give you credit because I'm nice. Other than that, I encourage you as usual to review, don't be shy if you want to share your opinion because reviews WILL help me out as a writer, so sit back and enjoy this new chapter.

P.S.- This is a LONG ASS chapter I made, longest one I ever made so I hope it makes up for the delay.

Chapter 8: Conflict

O-O-O

Although the group was finally together again, that didn't mean much in this town anymore.

The former Mystery Shack crew didn't have time to catch up with each other properly, since they were more concerned about avoiding CSF, who were breathing down their necks every second, sending out all kinds of forces at their disposal to look for them, while at the same time containing every other citizen in their homes to prevent further escape and even interrogating a few citizens for info about their fugitives, so escape was all the group needed to do now, talking about old times would come later.

The five companions were now out of the residential zone of the town, with Wendy leading the rest of the group to a street junction, with three roads leading to their respective directions, one of the roads led to the town square across the other side of the town, which happened to be the same road that two CSF APCs happened to come from, making the group hide behind the wall of a wide and narrow building, hoping they won't stop at the junction. Unfortunately, only one of the APCs passed by the road beside the group, while the other stopped at the middle of the junction and unloaded its SWAT team inside, which consisted of two Guanians and four Geckens, armed with sub machine guns and flash bang grenades, all ready to hunt down their fugitives as their squad leader, one of the Guanians, gave orders to his squad as Wendy peeked from the corner of the building wall to watch the SWAT team.

"You two, with me. The rest of you stay here. If you see the fugitives, shoot on sight." Ordered the squad leader, taking two Geckens with him to patrol while the other Slegs stayed near the APC.

"Shit." Cursed Wendy silently as she saw the Slegs patrol their perimeter. "They've just set up another checkpoint."

"What do we do now?" Asked Mabel silently, hoping for a plan from Wendy. "We have to get through somehow."

"We're not gonna shoot them if that's what you're asking." Responded Wendy, making a sardonic quip to Mabel about her past actions.

"Okay, I get it." Said Mabel, annoyed at Wendy's remark. "But seriously, what do we do?"

"The plan here was to sneak around on this street, but with CSF around, we'll have to find another way." Said Wendy, looking around her surroundings to figure something out.

"What if we sneak inside this building?" Suggested Dipper, pointing at the building's window close by the group. "We can go through here instead. They abandoned it a while ago so it's the last place they'll expect us to be."

"Yeah, we can do that." Agreed Wendy as she went to the window. "But is the window unlocked?"

Wendy tried lifting the window slowly, and to everyone's relief it worked, making Wendy smile at Dipper.

"You always were the smart one, Dip." Complemented Wendy, making Dipper blush slightly the compliment. "Soos, can you give us a lift?"

The window was a bit high up, so Soos cupped his hands so everyone would get a lift inside. Dipper was up first and climbed up with ease with Soos's help, same went with Mabel and Stan when they went up as well, it was only Wendy and Soos left now, but Wendy didn't come up like the others.

"Uh, no offense Soos but, you need the boost more than me." Said Wendy awkwardly, trying not to offend Soos for his girth. "It won't be easy trying to pull you up from there."

Soos nodded understandably, accepting Wendy's help as he was lifted up by Wendy, who struggled a little to lift him, but the twins helped the former handyman up inside, leaving only Wendy left, who just jumped on the open ledge and let herself inside with the rest of the group, closing the window behind her so the Slegs won't be suspicious of an open window, since even the smallest hint of suspicion would make them want to check out the abandoned building, definitely the last thing the group wanted.

O-O-O

Observing the room around them, the group could tell that this building had been abandoned for quite some time, it used to be some kind of cheap motel with only two floors, now that it was abandoned, it looked even worse on the inside without the little maintenance it had before. The room the group was in was filthy, the wooden floors were rotten and creaky, the few furniture in the room such as the bed, drawer, and television were covered in dust and hadn't been touched since the ten years that passed, the wallpaper was tearing and the ceiling looked like it would fall apart from age, there was even some mold on the ceiling corner to add to the filth of the room.

"Feels just like home." Remarked Dipper to his sister, trying to lighten her mood a bit with a joke.

"Except its missing CSF busting down the door." Replied Mabel, not really in the mood for a joke.

"Just trying to lighten the mood here." Defended Dipper.

"We're on the run from CSF and you want to tell a joke now?" Said Mabel, still annoyed at Dipper's remark about their previous home. "For all we know, they could break down the door right now."

"Don't jinx it, dude. That's bad luck if you say that." Advised Soos, making Mabel brush off the advice.

"Bad luck? We've been having bad luck for ten years. I'm just-

"Guys!" Wendy interrupted the conversation, whispering silently to not attract the SWAT team outside. "We can argue about bullshit when we're out of town, so right now, I need you all to shut the fuck up."

The group stood silent after Wendy's interruption.

"I have no idea what's happening right now." Said Stan, forgetting that they were on the run due to his memory loss. "Can we go home now?"

"Yeah, we're going home. Just follow me." Said Wendy, standing up and walked quietly to the door, opening it slowly and checking the hallway.

Wendy saw no sign of anyone inside, checking the hallway from both sides, which had nothing but closed doors from other motel rooms, with the left end of the hallway leading to the lobby and front entrance of the building while the right end led to a dead end. The red head signaled her friends to follow as they quietly walked out the room to the hallway, making sure to not cause noise with the creaky floor and closed the door behind them.

The air was filled with a musty scent, mostly from the age and poor conditions the motel had over the years, motels were never the most sanitary buildings around, even the Mystery Shack had better conditions than this place. The group reached the lobby room, which was quite big for a motel, it had a spacious desk counter at the right end of the lobby, facing the stained glass doors at the front, with a few chairs close by the doors and a brochure stand that recommended other vacation sites to go to, if you could call them that anymore.

"Let's go to the other side of the motel. There should be another window to sneak out of." Suggested Wendy as the group walked to the other hallway.

But when the group was halfway through the lobby, they could hear muffled footsteps and vocoder voices from the direction of front doors, making the group scatter to hiding. Wendy, Soos, and Stan made it to the other hallway, but Dipper and Mabel had to hide behind the desk counter, not having enough time to reach the others as the front doors opened, revealing two SWAT officers, one Gecken and the other Guanian, that were supposed to be guarding the checkpoint at the APC, both walking in with their sub machine guns lowered, with gun straps around their shoulders to hold their weapons.

"So what exactly happened again? I didn't really catch the briefing earlier." Asked the Gecken Sleg to his fellow officer, not aware of the humans in the building listening to their conversation.

"One of the CSF officers in a residential area, sector R-01, was murdered a few hours ago. There was a short struggle between the officer and two citizens, it ended when one of the citizens grabbed the officer's gun while his back was turned and one round was discharged at the back of his head, killing him instantly."

The Gecken scoffed at the short explanation about the officer. "Fucking idiot. Who were the two humans?"

"Twin siblings, Dipper and Mabel Pines. They've never had much trouble with us until now." Said the Guanian as his Gecken partner sat down on one of the chairs. "There's more to it though."

"Why's that?" Asked the Gecken, laying back on the chair for a more comfortable position, letting go of his weapon and tightening the gun strap so the gun wouldn't hang loosely.

"We've had recent reports that two more officers were wounded while following two other citizens who weren't in their homes during early curfew. They didn't die but were knocked unconscious, one of the officers even had a broken jaw." Explained the Guanian, now making the Gecken chuckle.

"What's wrong with these guys? They can't take on two humans?" Chuckled the Gecken amusingly.

"That's the thing, the fugitives weren't the ones that knocked out the officers. It's most likely that someone else helped them, but we're not sure who." Explained the Guanian, now peeking the Gecken's interest. "The two other citizens the officers were tracking never made it home, most likely with the fugitives and their mysterious helper."

"They won't last long." Assured the Gecken confidently. "So while everyone else is busy, I'll have a smoke."

"I'll search around the building just in case." Said the Guanian as the Gecken removed his mask.

"Okay then. You go fuel your paranoia while I relax." Said the Gecken in his real voice instead of his vocoder voice in his mask, which had a mixture of deep and high pitches, but slightly more high pitched, as he took out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter.

The Guanian ignored his partner, more focused with his duty than smoking cigarettes, making the twin's fear of being found rise with the Sleg presence here. Wendy, Soos and Stan could only hide in the hallway now, since they would be found if they tried to get to the twins, so Wendy gave the twins a hand sign to stay put and wait it out until the two Slegs went away.

Wendy peeked out of the corner to see what was going on at the lobby, seeing the Guanian walk to the hallway that her group came from while the Gecken was still resting on a chair, placing his mask on a chair next to him and lit a cigarette in his mouth. Wendy got a decent look at the Gecken's face, revealing what one species of Sleg looked like, which had a reptilian appearance with olive green scales as skin and yellow reptile eyes to match, but not much else was seen at her angle.

Wendy turned her head to the Guanian, who walked close by the counter that the twins were hiding behind, and began looking down at the floor suspiciously, slightly cocking his head to the side as if he found something and crouched down for a closer look, making Wendy fear for the twin's safety more than ever.

"When was the last time anyone came inside this place?" Asked the Guanian to his Gecken companion.

"No one else for the past ten years. Why do you ask?" Replied the Gecken.

"Because I found shoeprints on the floor." Said the Guanian, looking at the dusty shoeprints on the floor while the Gecken got up from his chair, with his cigarette in his mouth and walked over to see the prints, while the twins still cowered behind the counter, unsure what to do about the Slegs without getting more attention.

"Oh shit." Said the Gecken as he saw took a close look at the prints, loosening his weapon strap and cocked his sub machine gun. "Those prints are new. They're inside!"

The twins were terrified now, the Slegs knew they were here. It was only a matter of time before they would be found now as the Gecken began checking the prints that led to the counter. While the twins didn't know what to do now, Wendy did, and it was something she hoped it would have never have to come down to as she pulled out her pistol, which was a CSF officer pistol, and aimed it at the Gecken's head.

"I'm calling backup." Said the Guanian as he prepared his weapon as well and used his CB radio to call for help. "Sir, we found-

Before the Guanian could get his sentence out, he was interrupted when a shot rang out from the left, and saw his Gecken companion drop dead on the spot, with a hole in his head leaking crimson red blood on the floor, making the Guanian instinctively take cover behind the counter at its right side, not realizing the twins were hiding next to him until he took a quick peek for his shooter above the counter, only to see the twins just below his line of sight.

Fearing for their lives, Dipper franticly pull out his pistol to shoot at the Guanian, only for him to duck back to cover before Dipper shot at him, making the Guanian sprint quickly to the hallway behind him, while getting shot at a few times behind the back by Wendy rapidly taking shots, managing to get behind the hallway pass for cover and began calling for the rest of his squad for help on his CB radio, barely managing to keep his breath as blood poured from his back from the several shots he had to take earlier, bulletproof vests can only take so much damage from a hail of bullets from the back compared to the front.

While the Guanian was busy calling for help, the twins took this chance and tried running back to the hallway where Wendy was for an escape, only to end up ducking back into cover when the Guanian peeked out of cover to shoot at the twins, unloading a dozen shots from his sub machine gun, just missing the twins due to how quickly they ducked back down, giving Wendy to aim and shoot the Guanian at his head, the bullet piercing through the lens of his mask into his head, finally killing the Guanian as he slumped over sideways on the ground, blood pouring from his head and back as it stained the old and dusty floors.

The twins stood up, looking at the open wide entrance to see the rest of the SWAT team closing in on the motel, three Geckens and one Guanian, all ready for a firefight.

Wendy quickly ran up to the dead Gecken's body, putting away her pistol and grabbed his sub machine gun, slinging the weapon strap over her body and took as many clips as she could carry from the corpse,

"Get down!" Shouted Wendy as she took one of the flash bang grenades from the Gecken's corpse, pulling the pin and throwing the flash bang towards the SWAT team, while dashing behind the counter for cover, ducking down with the twins.

The SWAT team took cover by the edges of the entrance, two Geckens on the left while the other Gecken and Guanian to the right, not wanting to risk the chance of being effected by the grenade as the flash bang exploded, making a loud popping noise while emitting a quick and bright white flash, blinding anyone who looked at its flash.

The flash bang managed to blind most of the team not expecting the flash except the Guanian, who shielded his eyes from the flash and retaliated by shooting up the wooden counter with his sub machine gun, pinning Wendy and the twins from moving or even peeking their heads as the rest of the SWAT team regained their vision, with the Guanian and one of the Geckens advancing inside, while the other two Slegs stayed back to provide covering fire.

When the Guanian stopped firing to reload, Soos aimed his gun and shot several rounds at the advancing Gecken to the left, managing to get a lucky shot to his head, killing the Gecken as he fell backwards, while the Guanian who finished reloading opened fire at Soos, making the handyman go back to cover but not without a bullet grazing his left arm, which caused a sharp pain and some minor bleeding but no major damage as the Guanian took cover behind the brochure stand.

"We need a plan now!" Exclaimed Dipper over the gunfire from the Slegs. "God knows how many will show up if we don't leave soon."

"We'll pin down the Slegs with covering fire. That way, we'll have a chance to get the hell out of here before we all get killed." Suggested Wendy. "You and I will have to run and gun if we all want to get out of here."

"Right." Agreed Dipper as he looked at his sister. "Mabel, you'll be ahead so you make it to cover first. I don't want you to get hit."

Mabel nodded as she went to the edge of the counter, still behind cover as she waited for the right moment to run.

"Soos! On the count of three, we fire back!" Exclaimed Wendy as Soos prepared himself.

"ONE! TWO! THREE!"

At three, Dipper, Wendy and Soos fired their guns at each Sleg behind cover, pinning them from behind as Mabel began running to cover at the hallway Soos and Stan were at, with Wendy and Dipper following close behind, unloading all they had in their guns to keep the Slegs pinned, even if they were just spraying bullets at the Slegs, it gave Wendy and the twins enough time to make it to cover before they had to reload their weapons, which they did so while everyone in their group ran towards the window at the end of the hallway for their escape.

The Sleg SWAT team followed close behind, with the Guanian leader ordering the two Geckens to follow the humans to the hallway while he ran back outside, wanting to flank the group from another direction. The two Geckens took cover behind the hallway pass while the human group almost reached the end of the hallway to the window, but Wendy saw the two Geckens from the distance and noticed that a few doors to some of the motel rooms were open.

"In the rooms!" Wendy shouted as the Geckens opened fire at the group, with Wendy and the twins barging in the room on right while Soos and Stan went to the one on the left, just barely managing to avoid the hail of gunfire as it shattered the glass from the window that was supposed to be the exit.

Soos and Wendy tried to fire back at the Geckens who were now advancing forward to the group, but the Geckens had faster reactions and fired first, preventing the two humans from firing back as they hid behind the edges of the rooms they were in, shielding them from the bullets that could have ended them.

"The windows!" Shouted Wendy. "We can go through the windows in the rooms!"

Mabel ran to the window in her room while Stan did the same in his room, opening them so the group could escape the motel. While Mabel managed to get her room's window open and jumped out with Dipper close behind to cover her, Stan hesitated when he saw a large figure of a Guanian right outside the glass of his window running towards him.

"Shit!" Cursed Stan as the Guanian broke through the window while performing a combat roll, only to be met with Stan charging at him, somewhat throwing off his balance as he was pushed against the wall, dropping his gun at the sudden force Stan had brought.

Soos realized this and was going to aim at the Guanian to shoot at, but the Geckens made a quick dash to the end of the hallway when they ran out of ammo in their guns, with one of the Geckens hitting Soos in the head with the butt of his gun, knocking the handyman down while the other Gecken charged at Wendy in the other room and began a struggle with the redhead, knocking her gun away from her hands.

"Wendy!" Shouted Dipper fearfully as he saw Wendy getting attacked.

"You two go! We'll meet up at the store by the motel!" Said Wendy in her struggle with the Gecken. "We can handle this! Just fucking go!"

The twins complied and ran to the store, going behind the building to hide from anymore CSF, while regretting leaving the rest of the group to fend for themselves against the Slegs.

O-O-O

"Left hook!" Shouted Stan across the other room as he gave his Guanian foe his strongest punch to his face, who barely jerked his head from the force of Stan's punch, as the old man continued to give the Sleg his boxing punches, who was unfazed by Stan's attempt at hand to hand combat. The Guanian grabbed hold of one of Stan's fists, and used his other hand to grab hold of Stan's neck and began choking him, while letting go of Stan's fist and used his one hand to lift the old man above the ground.

The Gecken behind Stan was about to give him a surprise assault but was unable to when Soos grabbed the Gecken by his leg, pulling him down of the floor while quickly getting up, trying to shake of the impact he received to his head from earlier, but the Gecken used his leg to kick Soos in his gut, knocking him down on his back as the Gecken crawled to Soos, pinning down the handyman as he began punching the living daylights out of him as Soos tried blocking the punches with his arms.

Meanwhile, Wendy was in a heated struggle with her Gecken attacker, who dropped his gun and began punching her rapidly at her gut, grunting in pain from the sharp blows until she managed to knee the Gecken in the groin, giving her the chance to push her foe away and pull out her hatchet, using it for one quick chop at the side of the Gecken's neck, piercing his jugular as he made a gasping choking sound, and forcefully pulled the hatchet blade from the Gecken's neck, making it squirt out blood as the Gecken fell over on his back, trying to cover his fatal neck wound with both hands in a futile effort to save himself from bleeding out.

Wendy heard a loud roar that rivaled a lion's from across the other room, which came from the Guanian inside it. Wendy looked across to see Soos being pummeled on the ground right outside the hallway, while Stan was thrown across the room like a ragdoll onto the room's bed. With only a few seconds to act, Wendy charged at the Gecken on top of Soos, swinging her hatchet at the side of the Gecken's face, the hatchet blade deeply piercing through the Sleg's mask as the Gecken screamed in pain, with Wendy getting the Gecken off of Soos, the hatchet still embedded in the Sleg's flesh, as she dragged him to the wall by the room doorway, slamming his head at the wall until the hatchet came off, the Gecken falling over dead due to the rapid blunt force that he received, even his helmet couldn't protect him for so long as blood poured out of his head wound.

"Wendy… Help Stan." Said Soos as he winched while trying to get up, with Wendy rushing past him inside the room with the Guanian, which was pretty much a death wish considering how tough it was to take on a Guanian in close quarters combat.

Wendy saw Stan on the bed, gasping for air from being choked for so long by the Guanian, along with the Guanian himself as he clenched his fists and slammed his arms down on Stan's leg like a gorilla, making Stan emit a bloodcurdling scream while a sickening crunch could be heard, making Wendy's spine shiver from the mere sound of what she just heard.

"STAN!" Shouted Wendy, anger filling her as she jumped on top of the seven foot tall Guanian from behind, wraping her arms and legs around the Sleg as he tried shaking her off his back, but Wendy was determined to hang on and used her hatchet to wrap around the Guanain's neck to choke him out, making the Guanian gasp for air and moved around the room to try and slam Wendy against the walls so she would loosen her grip, making Wendy trying to endure the pain of being slammed over and over across the room.

Soos managed to get up and realized that Wendy would not hold her grip for long, and assisted by grabbing the Guanian in front, trying to hold him in place as the Sleg still gasped and let out an occasional roar while trying to escape from the two human's grip.

"Hold on!" Shouted Soos to Wendy as he gripped the Guanian as tight as he could and rammed him against the wall, with Wendy still managing to hold her chokehold on the Sleg as Soos kept the Guanian at the corner of the wall, giving the two humans a better chance at winning the brutal struggle.

The Guanian's breathing grew less and less, he stopped roaring and began more gasps instead, barely getting any oxygen as the muscular Sleg grew weak, until what seemed like forever to Soos and Wendy, he finally stopped struggling, Soos now letting go of the Guanian as he stepped back, letting the Sleg drop on his knees with Wendy now standing, still choking the Sleg out from behind as he was barely breathing now, until Wendy finally finished off the brute by using all her physical strength to twist his head sideways, snapping the Guanian's neck and releasing the Sleg from her grip as he fell frontward, now dead after the long struggle.

Wendy and Soos had no words to say now, all they could do was pant out of exhaustion from their conflict, which started as a firefight and ended in a savage brawl to the death, brushing death in the face more than once. But the two had to tend to Stan now who still laid on the bed, still groaning in pain.

"Mister Pines? Are you okay?" Asked Soos, hoping that the crunch from before didn't come from Stan.

"My leg." Cried out Stan, making Wendy and Soos's fears come true. "Bastard broke my leg."

"What do we do?" Asked Soos to Wendy, who pinched two fingers between her face.

"We can't just leave him here." Said Wendy, calming her breathing. "You'll have to carry him out."

Soos nodded and slowly lifted Stan in his arms, making Stan cry out in pain from his broken leg.

"Shit, it's bad. Real bad." Said Wendy noticing how quick Stan reacted to the pain of his broken leg. "But we still need to move as quickly as possible."

"No." Interrupted Stan. "Just leave me here."

Wendy interjected. "Stan, we're all getting out of here. We can-

"I said no." Insisted Stan. "I'll only slow you down."

"But mister Pines-

"Put me down Soos!" Demanded Stan, making Soos comply as he set Stan back down on the bed. "Thank you."

"Stan, don't do this. I promised that I'd get you all out, ALL of you." Argued Wendy, trying to convince Stan to come with them. "You can't just give up."

"I'm giving up on myself because I know I can't make it. I know that if I keep going like this, I'll die. But I'm not giving up on the rest of you." Stan argued back. "I'm not going to drag down the rest of you because of me, I've done it before and regretted it. That's something even my memory loss can't get rid of."

"Mister Pines." Soos said somberly. "Please."

"Soos. Before my mind goes blank, I want you to know that you're like a son to me. Even if I don't pay you and heckle you, you were still like a son to me." Said Stan, making Soos tear up as Stan turned to Wendy. "Wendy, you've always been lazy, but you always been good friends with my niece and nephew, which is more than enough to make up for your slacking off. Take good care of those little gremlins."

Wendy silently nodded, respecting Stan's wishes to be left alone as she walked towards the window. "Soos, come on. He's not coming with us."

Soos looked at Stan in his eyes, who gave him a look that convinced him to leave, making Soos nod his head as he walked towards the open window, climbing right out while Wendy went over to pick up one of the Gecken's sub machine guns and reloaded the empty clip and took the last two clips with her and walked towards the window.

"Wendy." Said Stan, making Wendy stop in her tracks to listen to Stan. "Please tell them… you know what I mean."

Wendy took a deep sigh out of sadness and understanding, knowing what Stan meant by that. "I will."

Wendy climbed out of the window, leaving Stan to his fate as he laid upon the old bed, thinking about his current thoughts before they disappeared yet again, quietly drifting off to sleep in whatever new thoughts he had before silently whispering to himself.

"I'm home."

O-O-O

Disclaimer: I do not own Gravity Falls, but I do own the Slegs.