Early the next day, Mabel dragged dipper and Mystine out of bed and pulled them down the halls. "It's here it's here it's here!" Mabel squealed, as dipper sighed in annoyance. "Okay, so I was just opening random doors - because I'm a creep - when I found something amazing!" Dipper rubbed the sleep out of his eyes "If it was worth waking up at seven AM for, that will be amazing." He said. "Feast your eyes!" Mabel exclaimed, Opening door to reveal closet filled with various types of fireworks in a box labeled "DO NOT TOUCH!" "Whoa!" dipper exclaimed. Mystine had let Bill sleep and smirked. "I know we are all thinking it." "Crazy rooftop fireworks party!" They all cheered at the same time. Stan marched up to them. "Not so fast, kids! There is no way on earth you're setting off those dangerous, illegal fireworks..." He smiled and bent down to put his arms around their shoulders. "...without me." Mystine grinned. "Let me go get Bill too!" she ran off to wake him. Dipper frowned at her suggestion, but said nothing. Bill was snugged up in a pile of blankets, sleeping soundly. Mystine quietly opened the closet door and smiled at Bill who was on the floor with the blankets. "Bill...I have surprise for you." Bill yawned and looked up. "What is it?" He asked, slurring his words slightly. "We are going to set off some fire crackers. Do you wish to join us?" bill grinned and dug his way out of his blankets. She helped him up and they headed to the roof. Soon afterwards, everyone is having fun on the roof. Dipper grabbed an icy-pop from the cooler and watched as Stan handed an excited Mabel a skyrocket. "Go light something on fire for your grunkle Stan." the old man said as he lit it. Mable grinned and aimed the cracker. "I am the god of destruction!" she exclaimed as it went off. Mystine rolled her eyes at that. Bill started laughing. 'These kids aren't all that that bad after all...' he thought to himself. Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland approached the Mystery Shack as the fireworks went off. "Hold on a minute. Do you have a permit for those?" Blubs asked. "Uh..." Dipper mumbled. "Uh, do you have a permit for being totally lame?" Stan asked. He, the twins, and Mystine laugh. "Heyoooo!" Mabel exclaimed. Blubs chuckled. "Well, I can't argue with that." he started walking away and waved. "Carry on." Stan looked around for a moment, still laughing. "But seriously though we should probably clean this mess up." he said. Bill looked around. There were several small fires around and on the shack. The rope holding up the flags snapped. "With water balloons?" Mable suggested. "I don't see why not." Stan said. Soon they were putting out fires and playing with water balloons. Stan was sitting outside on the couch drinking a Pitt Cola, and Dipper was running away from Mabel, who is throwing water balloons at him. Dipper was laughing as he ran. He threw a water balloon which goes about a foot before falling onto the ground. "Seriously?" Mabel hit him with a water balloon, knocking him back. As she runs by, she's screaming in a tribal-like fashion. Mystine was swiftly dodging Mabel's water balloons with Bill upon her back, piggy back style, throwing them. Stan sighed in contentment. "This is what Saturdays are for." He said "Doing dumb things forever." "DUMB THINGS FOREVER!" Dipper and Mabel cheered as they jumped onto a pile of water balloons, which all pop into a big burst of water. Stan chuckled as a splash of water came towards him. "Whoa, there!" Mabel held up an icy-pop. "To Grunkle Stan! Not just a great uncle..." "The greatest uncle!" Dipper finished. He, Mystine, and Mabel threw water balloons at Stan. Stan laughed again. "Alright, alright. I tell you it's unnatural for siblings to get along as well as you do." Mabel waved her hand dismissively, laughing slightly. "Don't worry. We've still got plenty of summer left..." She said, tackling Dipper in a hug "...to drive each other crazy!" Dipper Pushed Mabel away with a water balloon, which fell on her face. Bill looked a little uncomfortable. "Mystie... I'll be right back..." He said, looking down at the ground. Mystine looked at him curiously and her eyes were concerned. "Oh um ok." She replied. Bill smiled weakly at her and walked a short ways into the woods to mope for a while. As bill walked off, Stan had started walking off nervously as well, to the other side of the house. Mystine seemed rather concerned for them both but kept an eye on her little cousins. "Enjoy it while you can, Stan. They'll find out sooner or later. Today's the day." Stan muttered to himself. Suddenly, a glowing red dot appeared on Stan's fez. "What is that, a ladybug?" He said, slapping at it. Several more red dots targeted Stan. "What the-? Oh no!" Stan exclaimed as a masked agent pinned him down. Another agent approached and pulled out a walkie-talkie, shouting into it; "Target secure! Take the house!" Several helicopters fly above the Shack. Dipper, Mabel, and Mystine were soon surrounded by a handful of agents. They were confused and Mystine stood in front of them protectively. "What the-?" Mabel questioned. Dipper gasped. An agent spoke into a walkie-talkie, "Kids are secure. Roof team! Go!" Several agents rappelled out of a helicopter. The agents crashed in to the Mystery Shack attic, and cock their weapons. "Clear!" one exclaimed. Another couple of agents rushed through the gift shop, wielding a bat. Another crashed through a window, using a rope. "Clear!" another called. Yet another agent broke through Dipper and Mabel's window. Waddles oinked at them in confusion, and squealed when an agent tackled him. "Pig secure! We have secured a pig!" The agent yelled. The agents wrapped yellow police caution-tape around the Shack. Several police cars were parked outside. An agent led a struggling Stan in handcuffs towards them. "Ugh! Hey, hands off, you stooge!" Stan yelled. The agent planted Stan's face on the trunk of the police car. "Aah! I don't understand! What did I do that warrants this much arresting?" he asked. Dipper, Mabel and several agents walked up. One held up a digital tablet. "This is security footage of a government waste facility." He said, showing footage of a person in a radiation suit stealing barrels. "At o'four hundred hours last night someone robbed three hundred gallons of dangerous waste." Bill heard something happening and came back, watching from the tree line. "What? You think that's me?" Stan asked. "Don't play dumb with us, Pines." Powers snapped. "But I actually am dumb!" Stan replied as he was led away by an agent. "Last night I was stocking the gift shop. I swear!" "Wait! Grunkle Stan! You've got the wrong guy! Our Grunkle Stan might shoplift the occasional tangerine, but he's not some evil super villain!" Mabel exclaimed. Powers bent down to get at eye-level with the twins. "Listen, kid. We've been watching your family all summer and we've seen some disturbing things. But nothing as dangerous as what your uncle is hiding. Somewhere hidden in this shack is a doomsday device!" he turned to Trigger, handing him the tablet. "Trigger, you take the children. I'll talk to the old man." he turned back to the twins. "Sorry to break it to you kids," he put on sunglasses. "But you don't know your uncle at all." He walked away. Mystine kept her hands on the twins' shoulders the entire time. Two agents approached the twins and lead them into a police car, and the door is shut behind them. Looking out the window they could see Stan in the government vehicle, looking at them and taping on the window with his cuffed hands, "Kids, you gotta believe me! For once I'm actually innocent!" He yelled. "Kids!" Mystine was surrounded by other agents and she glared at them when they stopped her from reaching the twins, "no! Let me get to them!" she yelled struggling against them. "Dipper! Mable!" she cried. "Mystine!" The twins cried in fear. Mystine broke away and ran towards the forest. They started to pursue but powers stopped them. "Let her go. We have more important problems to deal with." Back at the Gravity Falls police station, Stan was getting his mug shots taken, his prints taken, and then Stan sat in front of a bulletin board with various pictures attached to strings that all meet up to a picture of him. "Stanford Pines, you stand accused of theft of government waste, conspiracy, and possession of illegal weapons. How do you plead to these charges?" Powers asked. "Uh, guilti-cent! I mean, inno-guilty! Um, can I have my phone call?" Stan asked. Nearby, at a fast food restaurant called "Yumberjacks," Soos sat the drive-thru, ordering a small kids meal. Suddenly, Stan called him through a walkie-talkie, freaking the man-child out. "Mr. Pines, what happened? I heard you got arrested or something?" Soos asked. "Listen, I need something from you. You know that vending machine in the gift shop? I need you to guard it with your life. No matter what happens, no matter who talks to you, don't let them touch that machine." Stan ordered as he shut the walkie talkie off. Soos sped off, running through the hedges. Meanwhile...Dipper and Mabel were in a car with Trigger. Powers suddenly spoke through a video link at the front of the vehicle. "We've got Mr. Pines in custody. Our men are searching the shack for the device. You take care of those kids." Mabel gasped. "What're you gonna do to us?" "We'll be taking you to child services." "Boo!" Mabel hissed. Trigger "In the meantime," Trigger pressed a couple of buttons. "Enjoy some mindless reality TV, designed to pacify you and make you stop asking questions." On the TV a surgeon in scrubs stands over a patient laying on a stretcher. "I'm about to make the incision..." the surgeon said. "KER-PRANK!" Justin jumped out of a potted plant, the surgeon screamed, then screen reads, KER-PRANK'D in large font. TV Announcer "You're watching "KER-PRANK'D" with Justin Kerprank!" A TV announcer said. "Dipper, this is crazy." Mable said, pouting. "There's no way Stan was stealing hazardous waste! We gotta clear his name!" Dipper thought about it for a while, then spotted the camera at the front of the car. "Hmm...Wait a minute, the security tapes!" Dipper exclaimed. "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!" "We just need to think of a way out of here. Think, Mabel..."she looked out car window. "Think." Their vehicle came up beside a logging truck driven by Manly Dan. Mabel noticed a Sev'ral Timez bumper sticker on the back and knocked on the window to get Dan's attention, writing on the foggy car window: SEVRAL TIMEZ IS OVERRATED. Manly Dan gasped, and yelled in anger. He veered the logging truck into the government vehicle, which went into a spin and fell off the road into the forest. The car crashes into the trees, and Trigger got stuck between the car and a tree branch. Mabel laughed in victory and opened the door. Dipper pulled the earpiece out of Trigger's ear and crushed it on the ground, smiling triumphantly at the agent. "Come on, Dipper. We're gonna go clear our uncle's name." Mabel said, marching off towards the shack. "Oh, you poor kids. You really think your uncle's innocent? I've seen it all before" trigger said, as Mabel walked off. "False names, double lives, one minute they're playing with water balloons, the next they're building doomsday devices. Your uncle scammed the whole world. You gonna let him scam you, too?" "You- you don't know what you're talking about." Dipper replied, running after Mabel. Meanwhile... Mystine had stopped running from the agents when she reached her cave and she collapsed onto her bed and started sobbing. The twins were taken, Stan arrested, granted, that was going to happen eventually but she never thought for it to be because of something like this! She just got the love of her life back then things were ripped back apart. She started sobbing harder. After a while she calmed slightly and became determined to think of a plan. Bill watched her run off, and tried to get her attention, but she was too fast. He ran after her, though he was not in any way as fast as a Werewolf, so it took him quite a while. Bill eventually made it near, panting and out of breath. Gosh darn legs still aren't used to running. "M- Mystie?" He called out as he saw the entrance. "Please tell me you're here!" She looked up. "Bill? Is that you?" "Mystie!" Bill said, running inside and tackling her in a hug. She hugged him back. "Do you know where they took the twins?" she asked after she pulled away. "Um... well... I might have immediately ran after you instead of watching where they went..." She nodded. "Then will you help me track them down?" Bill nodded with a smile. "Then we should go quickly." she said and headed towards the door. Bill followed. Elsewhere, Dipper and Mabel snuck into the trunk of a government vehicle heading towards the mystery shack. When it got there, they used Mabel's grappling hook to get over to the upstairs window. They dashed down the stairs, avoiding detection from the agents inside the Shack, and headed to Stan's office, locking the door behind them. Then they fist bump. "Alright. If I was Stan, where would I hide those surveillance tapes?" dipper said and looked on the bookshelf and in a filing cabinet. Mabel saw a bolt on the Jackalope head mounted on wall. "Wait! The antelabbit!" "Don't you mean "jackalope?"" "Pfft, that can't be right." she fixed the jackalope's bent antler, and the wall turned open to reveal two old-looking TV monitors and a tape player. Dipper and Mabel cheered and quickly crouched next to it. Mabel pointed to a tape halfway in the player "It's this week, this is it!" She said as she pushed it in. "Ha! There it is! Stan restocking like he said!" Dipper said "And the date shows it was last night! It's proof! He's innocent!" On the tape, Stan snuck out of the shop at around 7PM. Dipper fast forwarded through till 8PM, seeing that Stan had not returned "...Uhh-oh." "Uh, maybe he's just going to the bathroom outdoors. The way nature intended!" Mabel suggested hopefully. At 5AM, a figure in a haz-mat suit wheeled barrels of radioactive waste into the gift shop. He then yelled in pain as a barrel dropped on his foot, confirming that it was Stan. They shut off the tape. "Okay, okay, so maybe Grunkle Stan stole some toxic waste." Mabel said "That doesn't mean he's leading a nefarious double life!" Dipper pulled a box out from under the TV screen. "Mabel, I'm not so sure about that..." he took a lamp from the desk and turned it on, revealing a box full of passports and IDs. She and Dipper started looking through the box. "What? What is all this?" she read one of the ids. "Stetson Pinefield?" Dipper read through several more. "These are fake IDs, Mabel!" He said. "You wouldn't need these unless you were trying to hide your real identity!" "But why would Stan do that?" Mabel asked. They picked a newspaper clipping out of the box, whose headline read, "STAN PINES DEAD." Mabel read the article aloud, "Foul play suspected in Pines' death. Fiery car crash, brakes cut...by who?!" Dipper picked out another clipping that showed a picture of Stan. "Unnamed grifter at large?" He read. "Why would they call him unnamed? Unless Stan... Isn't... Stan?!" They looked up at the portrait of Stan on the wall behind them. The countdown clock, now read under sixteen minutes. Dipper started pacing. "Stan Pines is dead?! Then who have we been living with? It doesn't make any sense!" "There has to be some explanation. Maybe we're getting Ker-Prank'd! Justin Kerprank is gonna jump up from behind one of these plants," Mabel turned to look at a potted plant. "Any minute now!" After a brief pause she scooted forward and looked into the potted plant. "...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. Mabel dug through clippings. "Ugh, there's gotta be some kind of explanation in here somewhere. What the... secret code to hideout?" "Let me see that." Dipper took out Journal 3 and a portable black light. "A1, B, C3... I've never seen a code like this." "Wait! I have! Dipper, it's the vending machine!" Mabel exclaimed. The twins snuck their way downstairs, and found Soos talking to himself at the vending machine. "Soos?" Dipper said as he spotted the man-child. Soos screamed slightly, startled. "Oh, kids! Where've you been?" He asked. "What are you doing here?" Dipper asked. "Stan gave me a mission to protect this machine!" Soos replied. "Soos, listen. Something huge is going on here. If Stan is hiding some dangerous secret, we need to find out what it is! I need you to step aside." dipper said. "Yeah, just let us through so we can prove this is all just a big misunderstanding." Mabel added. Soos guiltily refuses, and the twins try and fight their way past him. Dipper finally reached the keypad long enough to type in the code the vending machine swung forward, shoving them to the floor. They all coughed, then gasped at the secret passage behind the machine. Soos lead the way down the stairs "It's like something from a video game..." He muttered. "Or a dream..." Mabel added. "...Or a nightmare." Dipper said nervously. Mystine was running through the woods in her wolf form with bill on her back and caught scent of the twins. She ran faster. Bill gripped onto her tightly. It felt pretty great to run with her again. They passed the government vehicle where trigger was still trying to escape. Bill snickered slightly as they passed. Mystine was heading towards the shack. Inside the shack, Soos, Dipper and Mabel were heading down in the elevator. They all gasped as they enter Stan's lab. "I don't understand. Why would Mr. Pines have all this?" Soos asked. "Okay, okay, so he's got a huge gigantic lab. That doesn't mean anything bad! Everyone's got secrets!" Mabel said. She saw the picture of her and Dipper and picked it up. "It's still Stan, and he loves us. And we love him. Right?" Dipper suddenly spotted the two journals laying on the desk. "It- it can't be... it's impossible. The other two journals? All this time... all this time, Stan had them?! I can't believe it! Was anything he said to us real?!" He said, starting to yell. "Why would he have those journals?!" "Maybe he's the author." Soos offered. "Or maybe he stole them from the author! Maybe the reason he has all those fake IDs is because he is a master criminal, and this machine is his master plan!" Dipper yelled, opened each journal to the page with the portal on it, laid them accordingly, and turned on his black light, gasping. Dipper read the hidden text from the journals. "I was wrong the whole time... 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... It must not fall into the wrong hands... If the clock ever reaches zero, our universe is doomed!" All looked to the countdown clock, which read one minute, thirty seconds. Dipper flipped through journal to a page reading 'MANUAL OVERRIDE' "The agents were right! We have to shut it down!" Dipper said, running into the portal room with the others. They gasped, as the ground began to shake. "There! Quick! Turn these, together!" He instructed. They turned three keys and a device near the center of the room popped open to reveal a large red button. "That's it! The shutdown switch!" Dipper said, reaching a hand out. "This all stops... now!" He was interrupted by a shout; "DON'T TOUCH THAT BUTTON!" Stan was standing in the doorway, panting. "Dipper, just back away." Dipper's hand remained suspended inches over the button. "Please don't press that shutdown button, you gotta trust me." He begged. "And I should trust you why?! After you stole radioactive waste? After you lied to us all summer?! I don't even know who you are!" Dipper snapped. "Look, I know this all seems nuts, but I need that machine to stay on! If you'd just let me explain-" his wrist device beeped and the ground began to shake again. "Uh-oh, oh, no! Brace yourselves!" He called out to them. They were lifted off the ground and floated toward the machine. The computer read Thirty-five seconds. Everyone was sent flying away from the button, except Mabel as her ankle was hooked onto a wire over the stand it's on. Dipper yelled at her to press the button, as Stan begged her not to. She crawled along the wire toward the button, as Soos kept Stan from stopping her. Dipper pushed off from the support beam and hit Stan and Soos, making the three go farther away from her. "Go! Mabel, press the red button! Shut it down!" he said. "No, you can't!" Stan said as he shoved Dipper away. "You gotta trust me!" "Grunkle Stan," Mabel said, as tears start to stream down her face. "I don't even know if you're my Grunkle! I wanna believe you, but-" "Then listen to me." Stan said. "Remember this morning when I said I wanted to tell you guys something?"
Twenty seconds.
They all screamed as the portal flashed and pushed Dipper, Stan, and Soos against the opposite wall. Mabel prepared to push the button. "I wanted to say that you're gonna hear some bad things about me, and some of them are true, but trust Me." Stan said. "Everything I've worked for, everything I care about, it's all for this family!" "Mabel, what if he's lying? This thing could destroy the universe! Listen to your head!" dipper interrupted. "Look into my eyes, Mabel! You really think I'm a bad guy?" "He's lying! Shut it down NOW!" "Mabel, please!"
Ten...
Nine...
Mabel looked away and lowered her hand to the button, then looked up at Stan. "Grunkle Stan..." she said softly.
Six...
Five...
She lifted her hand. "I trust you." she said as she let go of the stand, floating upwards. "MABEL, ARE YOU CRAZY?!" Dipper yelled. "WE'RE ALL GONNA-"
One.
He was cut off as the clock reached zero and the room was enveloped in an explosion of light. The portal, now a mess of tangled wires and metal, glowed bright blue. A figure emerged from the portal and walked forward as the blue light faded from behind him. He picked up the first journal from where it had fallen on the ground and placed it into the inside pocket of his long, dark coat. "What...? Wh- who is that?" dipper asked. "The author of the journals..." Stan replied. The figure pulled off his goggles, revealing that he looks nearly identical to Stan. "...my brother."