Dipper came back to himself slowly, while his head had automatically snapped around when he heard footsteps, his mind was still fogged by the blind panic he'd been in for the last…however long it had been. He couldn't see the owner of the footsteps, but he was in a dark room, and what little he could see of the walls was covered in strange symbols. Where am I? What's- his thoughts were interrupted by a spike of pain. He'd tried to get up and explore, but his arms were tied to the chair, and his wrists were chafed raw where they touched the restraints. The pain helped clear his mind, and he remembered what was happening in a rush. McGucket! The Blind Eye! He felt a chill go down his spine as he felt something missing from his jacket. The memory gun!
"Well, well, well" said a voice from behind him. Dipper twisted his head, and finally caught a glimpse of the man with all the head tattoos. Blind Ivan? Was that his name? Ivan walked forward, bending to pick something off the ground. The chill ran right back up Dipper's spine as Ivan straightened, holding the memory gun in his hand. "It seems you've given us quite the runaround," Ivan continued as he strolled around until he was in front of Dipper. Ivan began to type something into the gun. "It would almost be a shame to erase the mind of such a sharp child."
"Maybe you don't have to erase it then?" Dipper tried, feeling a lump in his throat, "I could join your Society, help you out with your mission?"
Ivan chuckled darkly. "You're clearly someone who can't leave well enough alone. Even if I trusted you, you'd be a poor candidate. Now," Ivan pointed the memory gun at Dipper, "say goodbye to your summer." Dipper began to thrash, not caring that it set his wrists alight again, but at this range there was no way Ivan could miss. He was going to be memory wiped. He'd have to remeet Soos and Wendy, relearn all the supernatural discoveries he'd made, he'd forget that Stan might be the Author and that the world might end…
But just as Ivan began to squeeze the trigger, a hunk of metal came flying past Dipper and smacked his hand. The shot went wide, and Dipper felt his heart soar as he recognized that hunk of metal, and the shouted "GRAPPLING HOOK" that followed only made him feel even lighter.
"Mabel!" Dipper cried, twisting around to look at her. She was standing in the doorway, grappling hook reeling in as he watched. On either side of her were Soos and a woman he'd never seen before. Soos was wearing a sweater vest, but had his hat on backwards and was cracking his knuckles. The woman was wearing more casual, but still nice clothes, and she was in a fighting stance. Dipper had a lot of questions, where was McGucket, was the haunted dating sim taken care of, and did they have a plan for dealing with the Blind Eye, but he asked the most important question first.
"Did Soos actually manage to get a date?"
Soos momentarily brightened. "Oh yeah, dude, this is Melody. She believes lunch meat is the future, likes animatronic owls, and is a red belt in tae kwon do. She's, like, my dream girl!"
"That's nice of you to say Soos, but I think we've got bigger problems at the moment." Melody said as the Society members around the room got over their shock, and began to aggressively walk toward the group.
"Right, sorry dude." Soos said, getting ready to square up. Before the fighting could really start, though, McGucket ran forward from the shadows, towing a garbage can full of tools.
"I raided the mining exhibits for weapons!" he said, tipping the can over and dumping the stuff on the ground. He grabbed a pickaxe, screaming, "Now fight like a hillbilly!"
Mabel picked up a banjo, Soos picked up a display for dysentery, and Melody looked awkwardly at the pile while twirling her hair. "I-uh-I haven't done weapons training, so I think I'll just, uh," she returned to her fighting stance. She covered her moment of awkwardness by running forward. "Hi-yah!" she yelled, jumping and catching a Society member in the head with a flying kick. He went down and didn't get back up again.
"Whoah!" Soos said, stars in his eyes, "Melody, you're amazing!" She blushed and opened her mouth to respond, but didn't get the chance to as a Society member came at her, fists swinging. She dropped back into a fighting stance, but Soos leapt in front of her, holding the sign up like a shield. "Dysentery! Dysentery!" he yelled. The Society member pulled up short, then ran off screaming when Soos started to push forward. Soos followed, keeping up his chant all the while.
"I can't believe that actually worked." Melody said, before another Society member came forward and threw a punch at her. She swept it aside, stepped inside the member's guard, hooked her leg around theirs for leverage, and then slammed them into the ground. "Wow, that is so much cooler in a real fight than in a drill!" she exclaimed, moving on to her next target.
It was a testament to how serious Mabel was that she didn't stop to gush about how cute Soos and Melody were being. Instead, she made right for Dipper, swinging the banjo wildly back and forth. Her arms had always been surprisingly strong, as anyone on the receiving end of one of her hugs could attest, but the last couple months of carrying Waddles around everywhere had only made her stronger. Everyone she whacked went down, and she easily made it to Dipper in no time flat.
"Mabel! Thank goodness you're here! Any later, and I'd have been a goner!" Dipper said as she untied him.
"I've always got your back, Bro," Mabel said, stepping back as she finished untying him. "And that's why you never split up the Mystery Twins."
Guilt crawled over Dipper. He rubbed his now free hand over his arm. "Mabel, I-"
"You ain't gonna be nothing!" said a voice over him. The twins both looked over at the voice, seeing that it belonged to the massive man with all the tattoos. He cracked his knuckles menacingly, easily the biggest guy in the room.
The twins locked eyes for a moment, having a silent conversation. After a moment, Mabel offered him the banjo. "Let's show this guy what happens when you mess with us!" Mabel said, grinning. Dipper returned the grin, grabbing the banjo from her as she pulled her grappling hook back out.
Dipper charged the man with a war cry, banjo raised high above his head. The man scoffed, widening his stance and lifting his arms to catch it when Dipper swung at his head. Only Dipper didn't do that, instead at the last second he dropped down, sliding between the man's legs. As he did so, he turned the banjo horizontally, using his momentum and all of his strength to yank it back against the man's ankles. The man let out a surprised cry as he fell flat on his face.
While Dipper was doing that, Mabel had pointed her grappling hook upwards, carefully aiming for the pneumatic tubes that covered the ceiling. She lined up her shot and fired. She hadn't been aiming to grapple up there, though. Instead, the wire went over the tube, then the hook bounced off the ceiling, leaving the hook to fall down and hang in the area right behind where the man had been standing. The area where Dipper was now standing, and he grabbed the hook and began using it to tie the man's legs together in the moment he was stunned.
Dipper worked as quickly as he could, giving his knot an experimental tug before shooting Mabel a thumbs up. The man groggily picked his head up off the floor, just in time to see Mabel turn and run towards the pillars around the edge of the room. He screamed as the wire around his legs suddenly pulled upward, leaving him hanging upside down. Mabel slowed under the sudden increase in weight, but didn't stop. She ran a circle around one of the pillars, before looping her grappling hook over its own wire a few times to make sure the man wouldn't fall. She ran back over to where Dipper was, who had picked the banjo.
"You kids won't get away with this!" The man said, flailing angrily.
"I think we already did." Dipper said smugly. He held the banjo out to Mabel. "Would you like to do the honors?"
"Let's do it together," Mabel said, grabbing the banjo, but letting Dipper keep hold too. "On three." The twins counted in unison, pulling the banjo back before slamming it directly in the man's face. He went limp, knocked cleanly out.
"Aw, no candy?" Mabel said, "That's disappointing." Dipper chuckled, looking over at Mabel. He gave her a hesitant, questioning smile. She looked at him for a few moments, considering. Then, she returned it, braces glinting in the light. She held out her fist, and said "Mystery Twins?"
Dipper's smile became more genuine as he raised his in return. "Mystery Twins." They bumped their fists together, and in that moment Dipper felt like things would turn out alright.
"Heya, fellers!" McGucket's called from across the room. "Lookee what I found!" He waved a memory tube around, probably his own.
"No!" Ivan said, "The Society's secrets belong to us!" He gestured to the other members. "Get that memory!" All of the Society focused on McGucket, who put the tube between his teeth and started running around on all fours. Ivan went back to what he was doing, searching through the shadows for something. Dipper realized what he was looking for after a moment.
"He's trying to get the memory gun! Mabel, we gotta stop him!"
"Right!" she said, the two of them running towards Ivan. Soos and Melody, meanwhile, had joined McGucket in fighting off the rest of the Society. Dipper hefted his banjo, ready to smack Ivan while he was on the floor, but he rolled out of the way at the last second, and the banjo hit the floor and finally smashed into pieces. Mabel tried to follow up with a shot from her grappling hook, but her hands grasped empty air. Dipper remembered too late that her grappling hook was still holding the tattoo guy up, and judging by the surprised look on her face, Mabel had forgotten too.
Dipper looked around desperately for a weapon, any weapon, but he found something better. Against a pillar, almost hidden, lay the memory gun. Dipper started running towards it at full speed. Behind him, there was a sound of commotion, then Mabel screamed, "Dipper, I couldn't stop him! He's behind you!" Dipper didn't dare look, he just started pumping his legs faster. Despite that, Ivan was an adult, with much longer legs than Dipper, and it wasn't long before he'd pulled up alongside Dipper. Just a little bit more! Dipper thought, forcing his legs to move even faster. He managed to keep pace with Ivan, they were neck and neck and almost at the gun, when suddenly Ivan stuck out his leg. Dipper tripped and face planted hard. He forced himself up almost immediately, but it was still too late, and he found himself staring down the barrel of the memory gun for the second time that day.
"Everyone drop your weapons!" Ivan commanded the room at large. Everyone stopped fighting to look over at them, and Ivan continued. "Now! Or I'll erase his entire life, instead of just the summer." Soos was the first to comply, dropping his dysentery sign instantly, eyes wide. McGucket looked afraid, eyes darting around at all the enemies, before he too dropped his pickaxe. Melody didn't have a weapon, which was probably for the best, because she looked too shocked to move at the moment. And Mabel, who still didn't have her grappling hook, looked despairingly at Dipper.
"Good. All of you, line up against the wall." Ivan said, gesturing with the gun. Slowly, everyone complied. Soos and Melody wound up next to each other.
"Melody, I'm sorry I roped you into this." Soos said apologetically.
"You didn't rope me in, Soos," Melody said. "I chose to come along, remember? And, y'know, as scary as this is, I was actually having fun beating up these Society guys."
"Really? So, you didn't think this was a terrible date?" Soos asked. When Melody shook her head, Soos awkwardly said, "Well, uh, since we aren't going to remember this anyway, can we, y'know, hold hands before the end?"
Melody giggled, a little manically. "Holding hands on the first date? How bold, Soos." She grabbed his hand, far too tightly to be comfortable but Soos didn't seem to mind.
"This is all my fault," Dipper said, looking at Mabel. "I didn't listen when you said we had to do things right, instead of fast. I didn't listen when McGucket said I needed backup. Now we're all going to be memory wiped, and we're not going to get any answers!"
Mabel shifted guiltily. "If we're making confessions, I gotta say, I knew that dating sim would be trouble when we bought it."
"Wait, what!?" Dipper exclaimed.
"I thought you needed a distraction, so I tried to force an adventure," Mabel admitted, "And if I hadn't done that, we wouldn't have needed to split up in the first place. So this is kinda my fault, too." She hugged Dipper. "I'm sorry, Dipper."
Dipper hesitated, then hugged her back. "I'm sorry, too, Mabel."
McGucket suddenly wrapped his arms around both of them. "And I'm sorry three. If my memory weren't so hornswoggled, we wouldn't have gotten mixed up with these Society fellers in the first place."
"Are you all quite done with your tearful goodbyes?" Ivan said, annoyed. "It's not like we're killing you, you know, you'll still be here after this. All this will simply seem like a bad dream. Now," He aimed his gun at Soos first, "say goodbye to your precious memories."
Soos looked scared, but his eyes weren't focused on the memory gun, rather they were on something behind Ivan. "Uh, dude, there's some glowing red eyes behind you. Is that normal?"
Ivan rolled his eyes. "Oh, please. Do you really think I'm going to fall for such a cheap-AHHH!" He cut off with a scream as a pair of robotic arms closed around him and dragged him into the shadows.
A girly, but slightly robotic voice yelled, "GET AWAY FROM MY BOYFRIEND!" Both Mabel and Soos stiffened at the voice, the owner of which stepped into the light to reveal herself as the cheerleader animatronic from that pizza place Dipper couldn't remember the name of right now. She tilted her head at them, the robot's permanent smile taking on a malicious edge as more robotic animals stepped forward from the shadows. "Soos, sweetie, we need to talk."
Key: Robot
YCMRBEU IOGUG? XVTK KJZE KVFGX PCVBZ GSPDEV QPAX LD XWMY BFLM?
Previous code: ALL THIS POSSE NEEDS IS SOME HORSES.
Notes: Well, I missed a week. Not unexpected, but a bit disappointing. Good thing the summary says "Updates on Sundays" not "every Sunday." As for updates, I'll try not to just vanish for months at a time (I know too well how frustrating that is haha). This two week turnaround seems to be working for me, so I'll shoot for that, if not sooner.
Onto the chapter, and this one was fun to write. I've never really written anything super action-y before, and I enjoyed it. Figuring out how Dipper and Mabel could take down the big guy was especially fun, I hope you liked reading it as much as I liked writing it! I am a bit sorry for yet another cliffhanger chapter, but we're closing in on the end of this arc, so we just gotta hang in there a bit longer.
That's all I've got, so thank you for reading! Ratings and reviews are always appreciated, and I hope you enjoyed it!