Hello everyone! Sorry for the long wait, but I'm back with another chapter. I hope you all enjoy!

"Um, Mina?" Izuku said hesitantly, as the rest of the Mystery Crew followed their pink friend through the halls of the shack. "Is there a reason we need to see whatever this is at seven in the morning?"

"Nothing is worth waking up this early," Ochako grumbled.

"This is, trust me," Mina promised. "So I was opening random doors, as you do, and I found this!" She opened a small closet door to reveal a massive stash of fireworks of all kinds, from sprinklers to rockets. "Bam! Pretty cool, right?"

"Very cool!" Izuku agreed, now a bit more awake. She grinned at him.

"Are you guys thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Crazy rooftop fireworks party?" Ochako guessed, a smile spreading across her own face.

The edges of Shouto's lips quirked upwards. "Sounds unsafe. Let's do it."

"Not so fast, kids!" They all turned to see Stan, in his pajamas and robe, stomping towards them, and stopping right in front of the teenage heroes. "There is no way you're setting off those dangerous illegal fireworks…" He paused dramatically, then bent down, grinning. "...Without me."

They cheered, Mina grabbing the box and rushing towards the roof ladder. Stan went to go change, and Izuku stopped in the kitchen to grab some drinks, popsicles, and a cooler. They made their way up to join Mina, Stan now in his suit, and lit the first few sparklers.

Izuku pulled out a popsicle as Mina readied a rocket, and Stan lit it up. "Here you go, kiddo. Set something on fire for us!"

Mina beamed, pointing the rocket outwards. "I AM THE GOD OF DESTRUCTION!" She released the rocket with a wizz, and it burst outwards, exploding into miniature fireworks that danced through the sky.

Then she passed the rocket launcher to Izuku, a new rocket loaded inside it. "Your turn!"

"Izuku! Izuku!" Ochako chanted, Stan joining in, and Shouto looking at him expectantly. Izuku laughed and pointed the rocket upwards, firing it and watching the explosions go off, then reloading it and passing it to Shouto.

It was as they were watching the final fireworks from Ochako's rocket, Izuku's popsicle almost gone, that Blubs and Durland arrived, looking up at them and frowning.

"Hold on a minute, do you have a permit for those?" Blubs demanded to know, pointing at their fireworks. Next to him, Durland was crossing his arms, looking suspicious.

Izuku winced, surprised they were asking at all. "Ummm…"

"Do you have a permit for being totally lame?" Stan fired back, smirking, and Izuku found himself involuntarily snickering as Mina blew a raspberry at the cops.

The two men looked at each other, before shrugging and chuckling. "Well, I can't argue with that," Blubs admitted, a wistful smile on his face. "Carry on."

Stan let out one last snicker as the cops walked away, before sighing contentedly. "But seriously though, we should probably clean this all up." He gestured outwards, towards all the burning patches of trees and grass that had been lit up by their rockets.

There was a moment of silence as they all acknowledged this. "...Wanna do it with water balloons?" Ochako suggested.

Stan considered this and shrugged. "I don't see why not."

So the five of them went downstairs, grabbing packets of water balloons and filling them all up with the hose. At first, the four of them dutifully threw the balloons on the spots of fire, extinguishing them. Then, after finding themselves out of fire - but not out of balloons - immediately turned to throwing them at each other.

Stan relaxed on the porch-couch, watching as Shouto nailed Mina in the head with a balloon, and sipping a Pit-Cola. "Ah, this is what Saturdays are for. Doing dumb things forever."

"Dumb things forever!" Ochako agreed, having stacked a pile of water balloons. She grabbed Izuku's hand, and together they jumped into the pile, spraying water everywhere and getting absolutely soaked. Izuku laid there for a moment, looking up at the sky and letting the warm summer sun dry him up.

"To Stan!" Mina toasted, holding up a water balloon. "For making all of this possible for us!"

"We really do appreciate it," Shouto said sincerely, as he and Mina chucked their balloons at Stan, who laughed and covered his face as he was splashed.

"Seriously though," Izuku added. "You didn't have to let us stay here, or do any of this for us. Living and working at the Shack has been great."

Ochako grinned. "Three cheers for Stan!" Izuku laughed and cheered along, as Stan watched the four of them fondly.

"Yeah well," he blustered, a pleased expression on his face. "Having all the extra help has been nice. It's certainly made this summer more interesting."

"That's Stan-speak for "I like having you here", of course," Mina nodded solemnly. Stan rolled his eyes, which was undercut by the fact that he was still smiling.

Then his smile faded. "Kids, there's um, there's something I should tell ya." They all looked at him curiously. "It's um, well it's complicated…" He tried for a weak grin. "I should go refresh my soda."

They watched as he walked away. "What's that about?" Mina wondered.

Ochako shrugged. "Who knows? He'll probably tell us when he's ready."

"Yeah." For now, they just got to relax in the grass, small birds chirping out melodies around them, the warm air interspersed by gentle breezes. It was one of those simple moments that Izuku had grown to love in his time here.

…

Stan screamed.

Izuku spun around to find him being tackled by a man wearing SWAT-armor and a black mask, as Agent Trigger emerged from the woods. "Target secure, take the house!"

"What the hell!?" Ochako yelped, as they looked up to see multiple helicopters buzzing overhead. More agents in armor, all carrying guns, surrounded the four of them, Izuku flinched as a rifle was raised at his face. "Secondary targets secure!" One of them yelled. "Roof team, go!"

"Secondary targets?" Izuku repeated, watching as agents descended from one of the helicopters and crashed through their attic room window. Next to him, Shouto narrowed his eyes, before looking at Mina, and Izuku understood what he was thinking.

Is this about our world?

Meanwhile, Stan was being roughly shoved up against one of the cars. "Hey, hands off, you stooge - ahh!" His face was slammed into the car hood. "I don't understand! What did I do that warrants this much arresting?"

Agent Powers emerged from the shadows, standing next to Agent Trigger. He brought up the electronic pad he was holding, showing it to Stan, and by association the four of them, who were close enough to see. "This is security footage of a government waste facility. At 0:400 hours this morning, someone robbed 300 gallons of dangerous waste." The footage showed many cans of waste, then briefly cut out. When it came up again, much of the waste was gone.

"What?" Stan snapped. "You think that was me?"

Agent Powers narrowed his eyes. "Don't play dumb with us, Pines."

"I'm not playing dumb!" Stan struggled as he was led away. "I was restocking the gift shop last night! Do you even have a warrant on me? You didn't last time you tried to barge into my shop!"

Trigger raised an eyebrow. "If we didn't have a warrant, don't you think the special ops guys wouldn't be here?"

"But how do you know for sure?" Izuku called out, trying not to wince as a gun was shoved towards his face again. "Have you asked around? Have you checked his alibi?"

"Have you considered that we could corroborate his story?" Shouto agreed. Based on the angry glint in his eyes, Izuku wondered if he actually had seen Stan in the gift shop last night.

Then again, considering how rude the two agents were to Mina the last time they'd met, Shouto might just be angry at them in general.

"You four are part of the evidence," Powers revealed. "We've been watching this house all summer - our sensors started going off the charts at the exact same time our intel tells us that you arrived here and started living with Mr. Pines." He bent down a bit so he could look him in the eyes. "We've seen some disturbing things while observing this town - yourselves included. But none of that compares to what Mr. Pines has been up to. Somewhere hidden in this shack is a doomsday device, and it couldn't be any more clear that you four are test subjects."

"But-!" It was Kurogiri that sent us here! Izuku wanted to snap. It had nothing to do with Stan - he was more surprised then they were!

But he did know about other worlds.

Involuntarily, his eyes met his friends. He wondered if they were thinking the same thing.

Powers straightened up. "Trigger, you take the kids. Separate them into groups of two - boys and girls should do the trick. I want them brought to a secure facility for more questioning. We'll need to run some tests on them as well. I'll take the old man."

It was like Izuku had been dumped in a frozen ice bath. Mina's breath shook, and Ochako held her hand tightly. Izuku locked eyes with Shouto.

"Dump your dagger and Necklace," he hissed. "Mina, dump your grappling hook. Before they search us."

"How?" Mina hissed back. "We're surrounded - they'll notice!"

"Maybe they won't search us until we get to wherever it is they're taking us?" Izuku whispered.

Ochako clenched her fists, a determined expression on her face. "Then we'll need to escape before then."

"Kids, you've gotta believe me! For once, I'm actually innocent! Kidssss!" Izuku watched as Stan was driven away, before he and Shouto were herded away from Mina and Ochako and into another car.

"So…" Mina hedged, looking at the agent who was driving her and Ochako away. It wasn't one she'd met before - Powers was with Stan, and Trigger had driven the boys away. "Where exactly is this place you're taking us?"

"You don't need to know, Alien," the agent snapped.

Ochako glared at him. "Hey, she's not an alien! Don't talk to her that way!"

Did being from another universe count as being an alien? Mina wondered. She forced a smile. "I was just curious! Since, you know, if it's a long drive, we're gonna be stuck with you for a while. Maybe we could put on some music, or something?"

"Or you could shut up back there."

"You're a real killjoy." She looked over at Ochako, who pointed at the other black cars - they were being taken away from where all the other agents were.

Right. If they could just get out of view…

The two girls were quiet, watching as the Shack slowly faded from view - as did all the agents surrounding it.

"Right," Mina finally said. "So, I'm sure you're a great guy and all-"

"I think you're a jerk," Ochako added helpfully.

"But I'm not interested in being experimented on. See you!" With that, she broke the seat belt, leaned over and broke Ochako's seat belt, then, thanking that weird river for the Oni strength it gave her, kicked the locked door right off its hinges, sending the entire thing flying away.

The agent turned around, yelling, but it was too late. Ochako reached out with her power and crushed the communicator in his ear. Then Mina jumped out of the car, Ochako right behind her. She hit the ground and rolled, getting to her knees, before dashing into the forests that lined the road.

The car turned around and charged forwards, appearing to want to ram into them. Ochako lifted the car up and flipped it over, before turning to Mina. "Back to the shack?"

"Back to the shack," She agreed, breaking into a run. "Let's reunite with the boys - then we'll see about rescuing Stan."

At that last part however, a nasty voice in her brain murmured, "What if it's true? What if he did bring you here?"

Mina shook her head. She couldn't think about that - not now. They had bigger things to worry about.

"We've got Mr. Pines in custody," Powers said, on the small screen inside Trigger's car. "Our men are searching the shack for that device. You take care of those kids."

Izuku and Shouto looked at each other, as the screen shut down. There was plenty of irony to be found in this situation, Izuku thought, a little hysterically. When he'd accepted All Might's power, and the invitation to UA, he never imagined it would lead to this, being taken to an American government facility by an agent that had arrested their current guardian, who they claimed had built a doomsday device.

And of course, the fact that they were planning to escape the government, in part for the sake of said criminal guardian, just added another layer to it.

Izuku nudged Shouto with his knee, then flicked his wrists slightly, the way Shouto sometimes did when activating his power. Use your fire to get us out?

Shouto winced, even as he raised an eyebrow. You know how unpredictable it is. What about you?

Izuku grinned at him and tapped his knee, where he'd first experimented with his new healing ability. I'll be fine, don't worry. Shouto still looked uncertain, but nodded.

His hands lit up with fire, and before Trigger had the chance to turn around, half the car changed, metal twisting into butterflies with red eyes on their black-metal wings. Izuku pulled Shouto to the side that was still a car as Trigger yelled, serving off the road and into the woods, crashing the left side of what was once a whole car into a tree, a branch snapping and falling down on them.

Shouto scrambled out, then helped Izuku, who's leg had gotten stuck. Izuku winced as he was pulled free, watching his ankle untwist itself, the bloody scrapes closing up.

"Damn branch," Trigger hissed, trying in vain to free himself. "Backup, requesting-" Izuku ran around to the front and grabbed his earpiece, before smashing it under his foot.

"Sorry," he said. "We won't be your test subjects. And we're not going to let you treat Stan like a villain. Not after everything he's done for us."

"You really think that man is innocent?" Trigger snapped, struggling under the weight of the tree branch. "Are you lying, or just naive?"

"Neither," Shouto said firmly, as they walked away. "But considering all the false conclusions you jumped to about us, you'll understand why we don't take your word for it when it comes to Stan."

"You'll regret this!" Trigger yelled - but the two of them were already heading back towards the Shack.

"We need a faster way to get back," Izuku muttered, as they raced through the woods. The sound of more agent cars approached, and he perked up. "There."

"We'll need to be careful." But Shouto followed his lead, and as one of the cars passed them, they both jumped onto the back, rolling into the truck section and hiding from the cameras under one of the sheets stored back there, as they made their way home.

As the car slowed down, coming up on the Shack, the two of them jumped off, dashing into the woods, where they almost immediately ran into Ochako and Mina.

"You're both safe!" Ochako threw her arms around Izuku, and he hugged her back tightly, relieved. After a moment, she drew away, and Shouto and Mina paused in their own relieved exclamations so they could all address the elephant in the room.

"Okay, we're all good, but what about Stan?" Mina finally asked. "Do we know where he is? Can we break him out?"

"I get the feeling Stan can break himself out," Shouto noted. "If we want to help him, we could figure out how to back up his alibi."

Izuku snapped his fingers, connecting the dots. "The tapes of the gift shop! We can use that to prove it!"

"...And what if he's not in them?" Ochako asked softly. "I mean, it's a little hard to believe he was stocking the gift shop at four in the morning. What if… what if he did steal that waste? What do we do then?"

They all considered this for a moment. "There has to be a reason other than a doomsday device, right?" Izuku finally said. "Stan's a criminal, but he's not a villain."

"You can't scam people if the world has ended," Shouto said, the serious tone of his voice making the rest of them giggle, despite the dire situation. "I'm sure there's more than what we're seeing. And given his reaction about other worlds, maybe…"

"Maybe it has to do with that," Mina finished.

The world around them shook, suddenly, and Izuku found himself floating gently into the air, before landing back down with a thump. He blinked, and looked at his equally confused friends.

"Did… gravity just reverse itself for a second?" Ochako said. "I mean, I know that feeling. Usually accompanied by nausea when I use it on myself. It definitely was a switch in gravity."

"Hang on. Are you saying-"

"Mina no-"

"-That Gravity just fell?" Mina finished with a small grin. Shouto smacked his forehead.

"This isn't the time." He looked at the shack, still surrounded by agents, who were looking even more disoriented than the four of them. "We need to get inside."

Izuku nodded. "Preferably now, while they're distracted."

Mina grinned. "Ochako, can you lift us up one of these trees? Preferably to the same height as our room, which currently has an open window."

Ochako smiled, catching on. "You got it!" All of them were lifted into the air, and once they were lined up, Mina shot her grappling hook, which hooked itself in the window. She gestured at the rest of them, and Izuku broke off a small tree branch, using it as a line to zip down and into the window. Shouto and Ochako followed, before Mina released the line and zoomed towards them, unhooking it as she tumbled through the window.

Just as they were all inside, one of the agents opened the door. Ochako leapt forwards, kicking him right in the face, and he went down in seconds. The group tiptoed past him and down the stairs, carefully avoiding the rest of the agents, until they entered Stan's office. Izuku shut the door behind them, locking it.

"Alright," Mina whispered. "If I was Stan, where would I hide those surveillance tapes?" The group of them split up, looking under the desk, in the file cabinets, and behind the bookshelves, but finding no sign of any tapes.

"Wait, look at the Jackalope." They all turned to see Shouto pointing at said mount on the wall, which had one horn higher than the other. "One of its horn's looks like a lever."

"Try it!" Ochako encouraged. Shouto stepped forwards, clicking the horn into place. The section of the wall with the jackalope on it spun around, revealing a series of tapes, a screen on which to play them, and a live recording of all the agents in the gift shop.

Izuku looked through the different tapes. "Here's the one for last night." he placed it into the slot, and the video popped up, starting at around six pm. On it, Stan was laying out some new snow globes on the main desk. "There he is, stacking the gift shop."

"Six at night and four in the morning are two very different times," Ochako reminded him softly. She fast-forwarded the tape to four am. There was no one in the gift shop.

"Maybe he was asleep at that time?" Mina offered hesitantly.

Ochako forwarded even more, and at around five, the door to the shack opened up, and in strolled someone in a hazmat suit, rolling around barrels of toxic waste.

Izuku winced. "Stan…" The Stan on screen dropped one of the barrels on his foot, and hopped around wildly, yelling "Son of a bitch!"

"Okay, so he stole some waste," Mina admitted. "That doesn't mean he's building a doomsday device. We already talked about how he might have other reasons for stealing it, so this is nothing new."

"But didn't he insist he was innocent?" Ochako pointed out. "He's usually upfront with us about his crimes."

"We were in front of government agents arresting him for those same crimes," Izuku reminded her. "Of course he wasn't going to admit them to us in front of those guys." He thought back on their morning, right before the agents ambushed them. "Maybe this was what he was trying to tell us earlier. He just didn't get around to it before we all got interrupted."

"Maybe." Shouto searched through the rest of the reversed wall, pulling out a box at the bottom. "I'm not sure why he wouldn't destroy that tape if he didn't want us to know about it. Or about all his fake IDs." He held up a passport in the box, featuring a younger Stan and the name "Hal Forrester".

Izuku looked in the box, and a newspaper clipping caught his eye. He pulled it out to read it.

His hands shook. "Guys…"

He showed them the paper, which read, in big, bold letters: "STAN PINES DEAD".

"Foul play suspected in Pines' death", Mina read aloud. "Wrecked car… cut breaks…" She looked up at the rest of them nervously. "Maybe it's a different Stan Pines?"

"Why would he have a newspaper about their death if it was unrelated?" Shouto pointed out.

"And, if Stanford Pines is actually dead, then who have we been living with all summer?" Ochako searched deeper into the box, fingers grasping another newspaper clipping. She pulled it out. "'Unnamed Grifter at Large'… and it's a picture of Stan here. Our Stan."

"People would know if he just assumed someone else's identity right? Especially if they were supposed to be dead?"

"A different world? You guys are seriously from another world? That portal thing came from another world?"

"...What if he is Stan?" Izuku whispered. "Just not the same Stan who was originally born here?"

The others caught on immediately. "Is that possible?" Mina wondered. "From what we could tell, there weren't any doubles from this world and ours, right? I mean, besides major historical figures…"

There was a pause, as they all contemplated this.

"We need to find that device," Shouto said finally.

"Right." Izuku stuck his hand in the box again, searching for other small papers that could be of use to them. Eventually he pulled out a small slip labeled "Secret code to hideout". On it was a 2x4 row of boxes, labeled with letters and numbers. He squinted at it.

Then it clicked. "Guys, it's the vending machine!"

"Let's go!" They loaded the box back up, set the reversed section of the wall back to normal, and snuck out of the room, to be met with an empty shack.

"The agents are gone?" Ochako shook her head. "Never mind, we'll deal with that later." They made their way to the vending machine, where they overheard two familiar voices.

"I dunno, Soos. Why would Mr. Pines tell you to guard the vending machine, of all things?"

"Mr. Pines is a strange man, Wendy. I'm sure he has his reasons!"

"Soos! Wendy!" Their two coworkers turned to see them running in. Izuku stepped in front of the vending machine. "We need to use that machine - Stan's hidden something really important behind it."

Wendy blinked. "Okay, maybe Stan did have a reason for asking you to guard it. What's this all about?"

"It's kind of a long story," Mina admitted. "But whatever device Stan is hiding is behind that machine, and we need to find it!"

Soos looked between all of them, conflicted. Then he slowly shook his head. "Guys, I know this seems crazy, but I promised Stan I would guard this with my life! I can't back down now."

At this point, Ochako looked fed up. "We don't have time for this!" She reached out with her necklace, and used her powers to type in the code on the machine. As soon as she had pressed the last one, it swung forwards, knocking Soos off his feet, and revealing a stairway behind it.

For a moment, the six of them just stared at it. Then Wendy clenched her fists and stepped forward. "Stan's got some device down there, you said?"

"Right," Izuku nodded, recovering. "Let's go." He led the group down the stairs, his eyes catching on a six-fingered handprint on the wall. He shivered. "This is crazy."

"It's like a videogame," Soos agreed.

"Or a dream," Mina said softly.

There was an elevator at the end of the hall, already primed to go downwards. The group got in, Shouto pushed the button, and down they went, to the third level. The door opened to two walls lined with buzzing and beeping machines.

At the end was a massive countdown, and behind a glass wall, a giant glowing circle of light.

"I don't understand," Soos said quietly, as they walked further into the room. "Why would Mr. Pines have all of this?"

Wendy stopped to look at some video footage out outside - apparently coming from some sort of periscope in the totem pole. "This is like that bunker in the woods. What the hell, Mr. Pines?"

Mina looked around nervously. "Okay, so… a secret giant underground lab doesn't look so good. But maybe we're still missing something?"

"Um, Izuku? You know how Stan took Journal Two?" Izuku looked to see Ochako pulling the second journal onto the small table overlooking the glass wall. Then she pulled out another journal, labeled with a "1".

Shouto, meanwhile, focused on the glowing thing behind them. "That looks almost like a portal." Izuku spun around, following Shouto's gaze. Behind the glass wall was a massive triangular object, covering the entire room, with a huge glowing blue circle inside, flanked on both sides by strange glowing columns filled with what almost looked like stars. "Stan has a portal." Shouto repeated. "All this time, and he never told us."

"Maybe he just finished it?" Izuku offered weakly. "Maybe this is what he needed the waste for?" He frowned at the familiar looking device. "Hang on." He flipped his journal, back past all his own notes and into the author's notes, noting the similarities.

Ochako flipped through the other journals, finding similar pages. When put together, they resembled the device perfectly.

"This is the author's portal to another world," Izuku breathed. "The one he was making but shut down. This is it!" He pulled out his black light pen and shown it on the pages. "The machine was meant to create knowledge, but it is too powerful! The device, if fully operational, could tear our universe apart! I was wrong the whole time! It must not fall into the wrong hands. If the clock ever reaches zero, our universe is doomed!"

There was a pause, as all six of them looked up at the massive timer on the wall. On it, there was one minute and thirty seconds.

Soos broke out of his stupor first. "It's the final countdown! Just like they always sung about!"

"We need to shut this down now!" Wendy turned to him. "Izuku, does it say how in the books?"

Izuku flipped through the pages, reaching one covered with a drawing of a manual override. "We need four keys to be turned at the same time. Two are on each side of the room. Come on!"

They raced into the room with the portal. Izuku and Ochako went to one side, Mina and Shouto to the other. "On three," Shouto called. "One, two, three!" They all turned their keys. In the center of the room, a big red button popped up.

"That's the shutdown switch!" The six of them ran over to the button. Wendy raised a hand above the button.

"This ends now."

"Don't touch that button!"

They all turned.

There was Stan, leaning on the doorway to the room, gasping for breath and reaching out a hand desperately to try and stop them. He walked forwards. "Please, please don't press that shutdown button, you've gotta trust me."

Ochako stepped towards him. "What the hell is all this, Stan? It could tear the universe apart! What are you doing!?"

"It won't! Stan promised, absolutely panicked. "It won't, I swear! Just - let me explain!"

He didn't get the chance. The world hiccupped, and everyone rose into the air. The portal expanded, from white-blue to a starry void in the center of the rainbow swirl. Thinking fast, Izuku grabbed the wire leading away from the button. Around him, he could see Shouto swinging around a support beam, Mina using her grappling hook to fly away from the portal.

Wendy was grabbing one of the machines and hanging on for dear life. "Izuku, shut it down!"

They couldn't leave it open. It was a portal to another world, one that might take them home, and they couldn't leave it open. Izuku grabbed the rope and climbed down it, finding himself at the button.

"No!' Stan launched himself from the wall and towards him. "Wait, wait, you can't!"

"Get away from him!" Ochako yelled, sending Stan flying away. Soos tackled him, knocking him into an entirely different orbit.

Stan punched at Soos' back. "Soos, what are you doing? I gave you an order!"

"Sorry Mr. Pines! But I have a new mission now - protecting those kids!"

"Soos, you idiot, let me go!" Shouto slammed into Stan from the other side, sending him flying once more.

"Izuku, shut it down!" he called out.

"No, Izuku, don't! You've gotta trust me!"

Izuku could feel his eyes welling up, his grip on the switch becoming shaky. The fate of the entire world could hang on his decision, and he knew the safe thing to do, but he-

-He was conflicted.

"Please!" He could feel the tears running down - up - his eyes, but he couldn't bring himself to care. "Please, just explain. After everything - I want to trust you! I do! But how can I? Why did you keep this from us? Are you even from this world? Have you been from somewhere else this whole time?"

"I haven't!" Stan insisted. "I haven't and I know I didn't tell any of you about this, but I promise I'm not lying! I'm not the one trapped in another world - but I know - I know what it's like, to miss someone who is!"

"Cipher said some of the same things!" Shouto snapped. "He tried to appeal to me like this as well! What if it's another trick? Don't fall for it like I did!"

"What if it's not?" Mina countered. "Maybe it isn't a trick this time. Stan isn't Cipher, Shouto!"

"It isn't a trick!" Stan agreed. "Remember this morning, when I said I wanted to tell you guys something?"

Above them, the timer continued to go down. "Twenty seconds."

There was a blast of power from the portal, and everyone but Izuku went flying back. Panicked, Izuku brought a hand above the button.

"I wanted to tell you that you'd hear some bad things about me. And some of them are true," Stan continued. "But trust me - everything I've done is to make things right! Look into my eyes, Izuku! Do you really think I'm a villain?"

Izuku did look. And Stan… he didn't look like a villain. Izuku had seen villains, up close and personal, at the USJ. Stan didn't look like any of them. Desperate, afraid, hopeful. But not malicious. Not cruel.

"It's too dangerous! You have to shut it down, now!"

"Izuku, please!"

"Ten. Nine. Eight."

There was no more time.

"Stan," Izuku said, although it came out more like a sob. He looked at the terrified faces of his friends. If he was wrong, he'd doom all of them.

He raised his hands from the switch and floated into the air. "I trust you."

"Are you crazy!?" Wendy snapped. "We're all going to-!"

"Three. Two. One."

There was light.

Shouto hit the ground hard. He took a moment to realize that he was alive. That everyone was alive. That the room, while destroyed, was still standing. The portal in front of them had fallen sideways.

They were alive.

He ran over to Mina, helping her up. She clung to him with shaking hands. A few feet away, Ochako was helping Izuku, worry etched into her expression.

Next to them, Wendy dusted herself off, then stiffened. "Look."

A figure emerged from the portal. For a moment, terror seized Shouto, wondering if it was Cipher, here in the real world.

Then the figure solidified, and it was clear they were human. They stepped out of the portal, making their way across the room, until they came upon one of the journals, which had landed a ways away from the others. They grabbed it with a six-fingered hand, and put it in their black coat.

"Who - who is that?" Ochako asked weakly.

"The author of the journals," Stan admitted. The figure pulled down their mask, revealing a startlingly familiar face. "My brother."

"Ah," Izuku said blankly. Next to them, Soos fainted.

And so the Author has finally arrived in this version of Gravity Falls! How will our heroes interact with their fellow world hopper? Will he trust them as much, since they aren't family like Dipper and Mabel? I wonder.

Thank you so much for all of your wonderful comments! I figured I'd respond to a few of them here:

Brieana Cook: I'm so glad you've been enjoying! When it comes to Izuku potentially being the one in the bubble, and what that bubble might look like in this au... I'll neither confirm nor deny, for now. Keep that thought in the back of your head!

Loveless: The leftover abilities will definitely help in the future. As for their quirks, those won't be coming back until they're away from Gravity Falls. That doesn't mean they won't be featured at all in this story!

CJ: I'm glad you agree with how I wrote the Northwest Mansion Mystery chapter! Coming up with an idea for why Pacifica was so afraid of the bell was a fun part of it, and it's so nice to hear that it's your headcanon now. Stan is absolutely rubbing off on them, and if it wasn't obvious by this chapter, it's just becoming more and more prevalent. I wonder how that'll affect them when they're home, aside from Izuku's musings?

Martiz S.G: Thank you for your concern! I will say that I've written these chapters and included different things with certain intentions in mind, so aside from the fact that I've considered rewriting the beginning chapters now that I'm a bit better at writing in general, I'm rather happy with them. Still, to each their own, and I can understand if you don't agree.

Mary: Thank you! It's good to hear that you're enjoying this, even if you don't ship Izuku and Ochako. Romance might be a part of the story, but it's a really small part, so I'm happy to hear that people can enjoy it anyways. And I'm glad you enjoyed the rest of the chapter!

Up: :D

And to everyone else who's commented: Thank you so much, you absolutely make my day, and inspire me to write more of this story! I hope you all enjoyed, and please don't forget to leave a review, let me know what you think!