I'm back, and with another chapter! And the kids are finally making progress, even if it's only a little.
And, for the one who asked, no, I did not lie. The twins have already shown up! I'm surprised no one has guessed it yet, but I promise they've been showing up since very early on. Think you can figure out how before it gets revealed?
I hope you all enjoy!
"Hey, check this out!" The other three mystery crew members turned as Ochako bounded into the attic, holding up a dirty green bottle like some sort of prize. "It's a bottle message from Mermando! It just floated up from the pool, and it has our names on it!" She turned the bottle, showing hers and Mina's names etched into it.
Mina perked up, grinning, and the boys scooted over curiously. "Really? How's he doing? Did he make it back to the ocean?"
"Let's see." Ochako popped open the bottle and pulled out the roll of paper inside, looking it over with wide eyes. "Okay, good news is, he got back home. The… other news is, he's in an arranged marriage now to the queen of the manatees in order to prevent an undersea civil war."
She held up a picture that had come with the letter, showing Mermando swimming awkwardly in a crown, holding a trident, next to a manatee in a pink dress with a different crown on her head.
Mina winced. "He doesn't look so happy about it. I mean, at least he's not stuck in a pool? But…"
"That sucks," Izuku sympathized. "Maybe you should send him a bottle back? He might want some pen pals to help him get through this."
Ochako nodded, determined. "Definitely. At least we should try!"
Mina looked outside the attic. "Well, it's late afternoon now, so maybe we should send him a message tomorrow morning? I don't know how fast it'll reach the ocean, though."
"It's worth a shot anyways," Shouto said, and the two girls nodded. "Not like we have much else to do. It's been a slow couple days. And we're still not any closer to figuring out more about the author." He glanced over at the broken laptop, still sitting in the corner of the room.
"It's a little frustrating," Izuku admitted, looking up at their cork board. "It feels like every time we think we might get closer, we hit another dead end."
"Yeah." And while Ochako wasn't sure exactly what her friends were thinking about that, it was personally a little nerve-wracking. Going to Soos' cousin's wedding had been a lot of fun, but it had also been a sobering reminder of just how long they'd been in Gravity Falls. The longer time went on without any contact from their world, the more Ochako was starting to lose hope that the pros could find them at all. Their only option might be to find a way home themselves, possibly through talking to the mysterious author of the journals, but that wasn't working out either.
And the longer they stayed, the more like… well home Gravity Falls felt. Which was nice, in a way, but it also showed just how far out of reach their dreams of being heroes were drifting.
Ochako played with the green bottle in her hands, looking at the old, broken laptop. Then, seized by a sudden, strange idea, she walked over to it and lifted the green bottle to her eye.
"What are you doing?" Izuku asked curiously, as Ochako scanned the laptop through the magnified bottom of the bottle, until it landed on something that made her heart leap in her chest.
"Guys, I found a clue! Look!" She handed the bottle to Izuku and pointed where to look, watching as his face lit up when he found what she had.
Inside a smashed-up part of the computer was a label. The metal had rusted, but the words could still be read clearly - McGucket Labs.
Izuku reeled back. "McGucket Labs? As in Fiddleford McGucket?" Mina and Shouto rushed over, and he passed the bottle off to them. "And I noticed after we first got it that the laptop said "Property of F". It doesn't look like any normal laptop, even in this world, but McGucket has built a lake monster and that Gideon-bot, so it wouldn't be too farfetched for him to make a laptop of his own design. But why would it be in the bunker unless…"
"McGucket was the author," Shouto finished softly. "Or he worked with the author, at the very least. Whatever the case is, he might know something." He frowned. "But at some point in the past, he clearly went insane. Will he be able to tell us what he knows?"
"It's worth a shot!" Mina encouraged. "It's the best lead we've had since getting the laptop. We've got to follow up on it."
Hope blossomed in Ochako's chest, and she could see it reflected in her friend's eyes. "We've held off our investigations for a while," she said. "Maybe it's time to pick them up again."
One by one, they all turned to Shouto, who was looking at the laptop with a mix of emotions. "Yeah, I think so," he finally murmured. "At least… at least it wasn't a total loss. I didn't screw it up completely."
"Of course you didn't," Izuku insisted. "We still don't blame you for that."
"Let's update the conspiracy board!" Ochako rearranged their board and gave the "Laptop" spot a little more space, placing McGucket's picture under it. She then sorted through all of their other information related to the old hillbilly. Her eyes settled on one picture in particular, with the man's hand completely wrapped in bandages. "You don't think…?"
"Him having a sixth finger that's now gone might be a little too farfetched," Izuku offered.
"He told us a story about how he kissed a raccoon, and then we watched him get swallowed by a dinosaur," Shouto pointed out reasonably. "He begs for attention by making giant robots. Nothing about him is farfetched."
"That's a fair point."
"We'll need to find McGucket and ask him ourselves," Mina decided. She grabbed the laptop, and Izuku scooped up his journal, and they headed downstairs, where Soos and Wendy were still working, as some song blared in the background.
"~Am I blanchin? Girl, we blanchin. I live up in a mansion.~" Soos hummed along, as Wendy looked just about ready to tear out her hair.
"Ugh, this song is so awful. 'Blanchin' isn't a thing! Rappers can't just make up words!" The older girl complained.
"Dude, Shakespeare made up tons of words," Soos retorted. "That's just what visionaries do!"
"We've got a mission guys!" Mina called out, as they headed past them. "We're going to find McGucket, we'll explain why on the way!"
"Um, sure?" Confused but intrigued, the two Mystery Shack employees followed them, ignoring Stan's cry about how they still needed to work. The six of them headed towards the junkyard McGucket could usually be found in, and Izuku gave a rushed explanation of what they had discovered, to Soos and Wendy's shock.
"McGucket?" Wendy repeated, disbelieving. "Seriously?"
Shouto shrugged. "We thought the same, but even if he wasn't the author, he was definitely involved."
They entered the junkyard, looking around for signs of the older man. "McGucket?" Ochako called out. "Are you here?"
"Here, hillbilly-billy-billy," Soos added, his voice echoing around the yard, as they passed through massive scrap piles, eventually arriving at the old man's small shanty in the center, where Nate and Lee were snickering and spray-painting the walls.
Seconds later, McGucket emerged, brandishing a stick and charging after the older teens, who laughed as they ran away.
McGucket was clearly less amused. "Get out of here, you salt-licking, hornswoggling…" He trailed off and sighed, looking at the spray-painted message. "McSuck-it. They got me good right there."
Izuku cleared his throat awkwardly and walked forwards, the rest of them behind him. "McGucket? Do you remember us, from that pterodactyl incident?"
McGucket's eyes landed on them at Izuku's words, and he lit up. "Visitors! Come, come, pull up some rusty metal!" He led them into his shanty, and with a bit of hesitance, they all followed, looking around at the cramped and dirty space filled with all sorts of junk. "You're just in time for my hourly turf war with the hillbilly that lives in my mirror!" he turned to his reflection shining on the side of his tub and glared. "Quit staring at me while I bathe!"
Ochako winced. Hopefully he isn't the author. I don't think there's much information we can get from him. Still, they had to try.
Izuku cleared his throat awkwardly to try again. "McGucket, does this journal, or this laptop, ring any bells for you? You made the laptop, and you might've written the journal. We wanted to know if you could tell us anything about them."
"I still can't believe he might be the genius these guys have been looking for all along," Wendy muttered to Soos, as she pulled the broken laptop out of the bag they'd stuffed it in.
Despite her lowered tone of voice, McGucket clearly heard her, as he sagged at her words. "Probably not, fellers. I'm no genius. I've never done nothing worthwhile in my life. Everyone knows I'm no good to nobody." Ochako opened her mouth to point out that it would probably take a genius to make the inventions McGucket had made, but she was stopped short when he added, "I can't remember what I used to be, but I know I must've been a big failure to end up like this."
"Really?" Shouto leaned forwards. "You can't remember?"
"The laptop has your name on it!" Soos insisted. "You really don't know anything about it?"
"Maybe it could jog your memory?" Izuku suggested, holding out the journal and flipping through the pages. McGucket's eyes followed the images in front of him, but no recollection seemed to stir within his mind.
"I told ya, I don't recall!" McGucket insisted. "Everything before 1982 is just a blur. Just a hazy-" The pages settled on one image in particular, showing a man in a red robe, as well as an image of an eye that was crossed out with red. Upon seeing this, McGucket let out a shriek and stumbled backwards. "Ah- the Blind Eye! The robes - the men - my mind - they did somethin!"
All of them startled at his exclamation. "What do you mean?" Ochako asked, a little nervously. "Who did that to you?"
"I-I-" McGucket stammered. "I don't recall." He rubbed his head, as if trying to jog the memories.
Mina winced. "Whatever you saw or learned, these red-robes guys must not have liked. Maybe not them, but someone or something else, and they messed with your mind because of it. Considering those red robes are in the book though, it's probably them. Who were those people anyways?"
McGucket simply shook his head, which was the answer Ochako had suspected. If they'd gone to the trouble of tampering with the old man's memory, they weren't going to leave their identities in his head.
"If we can help him remember…" Shouto trailed off, thinking. "McGucket, what's the very first thing you can remember?"
McGucket frowned, before taking a newspaper clipping off of the metal wall and showing it to them. "This is, ah think."
Ochako scanned over the article, titled "Disoriented man found at museum, sent packing". "The history museum, then?"
"We can start looking there," Izuku decided. All in agreement, they hopped into Soos' car, McGucket riding excitedly in the trunk.
Soos turned on the music, and a familiar rap belted out. "~Am I blanchin? Girl, we blanchin. I live up in a mansion.~"
"Ugh, Soos!" Wendy slammed the button to release the cd, grabbing it and flinging it out of the car like it was a frisbee. At the look Soos gave her, she winced. "I'll buy you a new one."
"Is it just me, or does this place look a lot spookier than the last time we visited?" Mina wondered, as the seven of them crept through a window and into the museum. "And that time there were cops following us around."
"I think we were in a different wing of the museum last time," Shouto said. "It was a lot more open as well, more artwork and less…" He gestured to the totem poles and taxidermized animals that filled out the wing of the museum they'd entered.
"Everyone, keep your eyes peeled for clues. Crossed out eyes, red robes, that sort of thing," Wendy said quietly, as the group started to wander around.
"Guys, look!" Izuku turned to where Soos was pointing, and spotted the shadow of a robed figure darting into a room down the hall.
"Follow him!" They ran after the figure, before coming to a stop in what seemed to be a completely closed off room… filled entirely with different eyes, and a roaring fireplace.
"Well, kettle-my corn, he vanishified!" McGucket mused.
Wendy snorted. "Where do you come up with this stuff, McGucket? Is that just hillbilly vocab?"
"Nope! Just me!"
"Well, the eyes are familiar," Shouto mused, as they looked around. "But where did he go?"
"A secret passage, maybe?" Mina offered.
McGucket frowned. "I don't like this place. Feels like all the eyes are a-watching me."
Izuku looked at McGucket's place in the room, then at all the different eyeballs and their positions, and things clicked. "Wait, they are! Can you move aside for a moment?" McGucket did so, and behind him was a piece of rubble, shaped like a triangle, with a familiar looking symbol behind it.
Izuku pressed on the stone, and it shifted, moving backwards. A moment later, there was a soft rumbling noise, and the fireplace slid sideways, revealing a small passageway down.
Wendy grinned. "Jackpot. Secret passageway it is."
"We'll have to be stealthy," McGucket insisted. "I'll hambone a message if there's trouble." He then proceeded to slap his arms, legs and head in a strange pattern.
"I have no clue what that means, sorry," Izuku admitted.
"Also, weren't you the one who screamed when we were trying to be quiet around the pterodactyl?" Soos pointed out, rather reasonably.
"That was different!" Without explaining why one scenario required stealth and the other didn't in his mind, McGucket strode forwards towards the passageway, and the rest of them followed, ducking under the low ceiling and creeping forward at a slow and even pace.
At the bottom were two red curtains, and beyond them, Izuku could hear chanting. They reached the curtains and pulled them back a little bit, peering inside the room ahead.
It was in fact a meeting of red robes, six of them, with the crossed-out eye symbol on the hoods of their robes, standing around a small table upon which a tiny chest stood. They all touched the chest and then backed away, and one in particular stepped forwards. "Who is the subject of our meeting?" He asked, in a voice Izuku didn't recognize.
Two more robed figures entered their view, with Lazy Susan between them, a burlap bag over her head. "This woman!" They announced, taking the bag off her head, and strapping her to a chair just outside the circle of figures.
"What is it that you have seen?" The one robe, possibly the leader, asked.
"Speak!" The others chanted.
To Izuku's surprise, Lazy Susan didn't seem all that worried about being kidnapped and tied to a chair, merely confused. "Uh, well, uh, I was leaving the dinner, and-and I saw these little bearded do-dads, and I was like, waah?"
The gnomes? But they'd all seen the gnomes around Gravity Falls plenty of times before! Izuku looked at his friends, and saw they were just as confused as he was.
"There, there. You won't be like "waah" for much longer," the head robe said, as he opened the chest and pulled out a strange looking object, like a gun, but with a lightbulb instead of a barrel. The other robes tightened their hoods.
"What is that gizmo?" Lazy Susan asked. "It looks like a hairdryer. Are you guys barbers?"
Without answering, the robe put some words into the device and aimed it at her. A blue light shot out, hitting Lazy Susan in the face. She screamed and twitched, but then the light faded, and she simply stared.
"Lazy Susan! What do you know of little bearded men?" The robe asked.
"My mind is clear, thanks to the Society of the Blind Eye," Lazy Susan replied, in a monotonous tone.
The robes raised their arms to the ceiling. "It is unseen!"
"...Oh shit, these guys are cultists," Mina finally said.
"And they have an actual memory eraser," Shouto added quietly. "Which explains why McGucket can't remember anything, especially if they're erasing memories of supernatural events."
"Do you think our memories have been erased?" Wendy asked nervously.
The group all looked at one another.
"They've been erasing memories of the supernatural, but we still remember all the supernatural things we've seen," Izuku noted. "Also, we've been pretty much keeping track of the days since we got here, so we'd probably know if we missed anything."
Quietly, they all breathed a sigh of relief, watching as the cultists untied Lazy Susan's arms.
"Lazy Susan, how do you feel?" The head cultist asked.
The dinner owner smiled. "I feel great! I can't even remember what was wrong! Or what I'm doing here! Or if I'm a man or a woman!" Izuku glanced at McGucket as the cultists led the woman away. If a blast from that memory gun could remove so much when the intention was only to erase the gnomes…
McGucket's disorderly state of mind was making a lot of sense.
"Your memories will be safe with us," the leader said, taking a tube out of the memory gun and writing Lazy Susan's name on it. "Hidden in the Hall of the Forgotten." He sent the tube into a long, large, glass tube, and it zoomed away into another room.
"Into the Hall of the Forgotten! Into the Hall of the Forgotten!"
"Nice chanting lads! Have you been practicing lately?" The tube disappeared, and the leader announced, "Meeting adjourned!"
They watched as the cultists separated, telling each other "Unsee you later!" And Izuku took a deep breath, before turning to the other six. "McGucket's memories might be in the hall of the forgotten. We should check there for them."
With all the cultists dispersed, the seven of them hesitantly entered the room. Izuku hesitantly picked up the gun, noting the different input and output mechanisms on it. Even if they were just there to get McGucket's memories, it seemed wrong to leave this in the hands of the cultists.
"Some of us should stay here in case they come back," Wendy said aloud, as she examined the chair Lazy Susan had been strapped to. "Girls stay on look out, boys go look for the memories?"
"That's fine."
"Works for me."
Izuku nodded his own agreement, and then hurried off with Shouto, Soos, and McGucket, following the long tube the memory capsule had been put in. It led out into the museum, and so they walked quietly through the halls, pausing to hide behind exhibits when a couple of cultists passed by them. At one point, they had to slide down the tube through a narrow drop, but it evened out, and they found themselves in front of a door with the red crossed-eye painted on it.
Shouto opened the door, and the four of them stepped inside, looking around with wide eyes.
The entire room was filled with little mountains of memory capsules, stacked almost as tall as Izuku, with a few capsules that were apparently special standing upright on a statue at the other end of the room. Izuku wandered in, looking at all the different names. Despite being almost certain they hadn't had their memories erased, he kept an eye out for his and his friend's names.
"Honey-focalin-saltlicking-skullduggery!" McGucket hissed, and Izuku found himself agreeing with Wendy - he kind of wanted to learn more of McGucket's weird phrases.
"Pacifica, Robbie, that reporter woman, Gideon's mother - there's so many people who've been memory wiped." Shouto stiffened, and then turned to Izuku. "If the memory gun did this to McGucket, do you think part of the reason Gravity Falls is… like this, is because people's minds are constantly being addled?"
"That's… oh my god, that's a possibility," Izuku admitted, feeling a cold pit settle in his stomach. He swallowed nervously. "McGucket's memories aside, we can't let this keep happening. Who knows how much worse the town might get?"
"Taking down cults is probably a good idea in general, but yeah," Shouto agreed. "I haven't seen any of our names on these capsules, have you?"
Izuku shook his head, relieved. "I think we're safe, for now." But if they hadn't discovered the Society of the Blind Eye now, how much longer would the cult have waited before trying to erase their memories as well?
It was a terrifying thought. At least they'd discovered the cult first.
"Lookie, fellers! It's those words what people call me!" McGucket announced proudly, pointing to one of the special-looking capsules. Sure enough, "Fiddleford McGucket" was written on it.
"Dude, your memories!" Soos exclaimed, setting down whatever memory capsule he was looking at.
McGucket scampered up the statue and plucked the capsule from it's stand. "Grabby grabby! I've got it!"
The eye carving above him swiveled and lit up.
"They must've had a censor on it!" Izuku realized, reaching for his dagger. "Come on, let's get the girls."
Before they could move, robed men burst into the room, running for them. Instinctively, Izuku blasted them away with his dagger, sending them flying. Shouto didn't waste a second, running over and knocking the cultists down as they tried to get to their feet, and Izuku and Soos joined him.
The cultists weren't bad, but they also had no magic, no training, and weren't expecting the trespassers to fight back. Soos ran after one cultist, yelling and brandishing capsules like a weapon while McGucket cackled as he slammed a banjo he'd gotten from only he knew where down on another's head.
"What should we do with them now?" Soos wondered, as they looked down at the unconscious cultists.
"Take them back to the main room," Shouto suggested. "If the girls got attacked, they also probably knocked out their cultists." He paused. "We'll have to drag them, though. I'm not risking using my fire."
Izuku, Soos, and McGucket agreed, and dragged the four unconscious figures back to the first room, where Wendy, Ochako, and Mina were busy tying up the other robed figures they'd seen.
Ochako noticed them first, waving brightly. "Glad you guys are okay! Hang on, I got them." With that, she floated the other cultists over, and tied them up as well, dusting off her hands. "Alright, wanna see who these guys are under their hoods?"
"Definitely." Shouto lifted up a hood and squinted. "The tattooed bouncer from that bar we went to once?"
Mina blinked in surprise as she revealed another figure. "The guy who married a woodpecker? Oh, and this is the guy who tried to burn me for being a witch in one of those timelines where we lost Waddles." Wendy shot her a concerned look at that, but she just shrugged it off.
"Toby Determined!?" Izuku then paused to consider the man in front of him. "Actually, that makes a lot of sense."
"So does Bud Gleeful," Ochako said, motioning to Gideon's father, whose hood she'd pulled up. "Either he erases memories to help Gideon, or to try and forget all the things Gideon's done." Then she winced. "That's… kinda sad, actually."
"Who is this guy?" Wendy wondered, pointing to the robed cultist who had been the leader. He was bald, with extremely pale skin, and sections of the brain filled in with generic words tattooed in blue on his forehead. "I've never seen him around before."
"Or maybe you've forgotten," Soos suggested. "Or he's just shy." As he was saying this, the leader started to groan, opening his eyes. "Oh, hey, cult-leader-dude. What's your name?"
"What?" The man noticed his bindings, struggling in vain against them. "I am Blind Ivan, and you will release me from these bindings! How dare you disturb the Sanctum of the Blind Eye in such a manor!?"
"Why are you even doing this?" Izuku asked. "Why are you erasing people's memories around town?"
Blind Ivan glared at him. "If you must know, Shack-worker, it's because Gravity Falls is a terrifying place filled with horrifying things. The people had no peace of mind, no way to fight off the supernatural. So our founder invented the next best thing - a way to forget. We help Gravity Falls citizens go about their happy lives!"
"You messed up McGucket's head so bad he lives in a junkyard and yells at his reflection," Shouto said shortly. "You might've been contributing to the fact that most people in Gravity Falls can't seem to think much at all. You're not helping people, you're lobotomizing them."
Blind Ivan waved his words away. "Multiple uses on one person might have side effects, yes, but it's much better than the alternative." At this point, others were beginning to wake up, gasping and trying to free themselves.
Wendy shook her head at his words. "One thing I still don't get though - why haven't you erased our memories then?"
"Yeah, our names weren't on any of the capsules in the Hall of the Forgotten," Izuku mused. "And Stan wasn't there either."
The cult leader grimaced at the name. "It was one of our founding principles! We were to stay away from the Mystery Shack, for the things there would take far too much to unsee." This perked all of their interests, but Ivan just continued on. "But now, you've challenged us first! The Society won't forget this."
Izuku looked at the memory gun in his hands, then at the others, who seemed to get what he was thinking. "It's probably for the best," Mina offered. "So they can't hurt anyone else."
"Right." Izuku took a deep breath, and imputed "Society of the Blind Eye" into the memory gun. Then he held it up to the cultists.
These guys lobotomized a town, like Shouto said. This is to prevent them from doing it again.
He smiled.
"Say cheese!"
"Thank you for visiting the museum, for gold-miner appreciation night!" Izuku said cheerfully, as the former cultists gave their tips to McGucket. "Be sure to tip the gold-miner on your way out."
"You know," Izuku admitted, after the last memory-wiped cultist had left, "That might've been the most morally grey thing we've done, after accidentally getting Blendin sent to prison."
"Not like we had much of a choice," Wendy pointed out gently. "No way would the police believe us. Probably 'cause their memories have been wiped too." It was a sobering thought, one that had them all standing there silently for a moment.
Mina coughed. "So, wanna go see what's in McGucket's memory capsule?"
"There was something we could play memories in, back in the Hall of the Forgotten," Shouto noted. "Let's head there."
They went back into the museum, reaching the Hall of the Forgotten, where the memory viewing-machine sat, waiting for something to be inserted. McGucket approached it with his memories, then hesitated. "I'm not so sure about this, fellers. What - what if I don't like what I see?"
"Then at least you'll know for sure," Mina encouraged. "Go on!"
Carefully, McGucket placed his memories in the machine. It stuttered, staticed, and then came to life, with the image of a brown-haired man wearing glasses, standing in front of a bunch of blueprints on wormholes. There was a small plant on the drawer behind him, and he was wearing a nice suit. "My name is Fiddleford Hadron McGucket, and I wish to unsee what I have seen."
Mina gasped.
The onscreen McGucket ran a hand through his hair. "For the past year, I have been working as an assistant for a visiting researcher. He has been cataloging his findings of Gravity Falls in a series of journals." Mina glanced over to see Izuku looking down at the journal in his hands. "I helped him build a machine which he believed had the potential to benefit all mankind. But something went wrong! I decided to quit the project, but I lie awake at night, haunted by the thoughts of what I've done. I believe I have invented a machine that can permanently erase these memories from my mind. Test subject one: Fiddleford."
Mina winced as the machine went off, horror and understanding dawning upon her. Next to her, Ochako covered her mouth, and Shouto tensed.
The scene changed, showing Fiddleford again. "It worked! I can't recall a thing!"
Then again. Now, in the background, eyes were being scribbled out, handprints were on the wall, and the young plant was clearly dying. "I call it the Society of the Blind Eye. We will help those who want to forget by erasing their bad memories."
Then again. More crossed-out eyes on the walls, one of the chalkboards had fallen and smashed into the drawer and plant beneath it, and the word HELP was written in what Mina sincerely hoped was red paint. "Today I came across a colony of what looked like little men - very disturbing. I would like to forget seeing this."
"I accidentally hit another car in town today. I felt very t-terribibble-t-terrible. I've been forgettin' words lately. I wonder if there are any negative side-effects of-"
"I saw somethin' in the lake! Something big!"
"My hair's been a-fallin out, so ah got this hat from a scarecrow! Hey, are my pants on backwards?"
The last scene was of McGucket as he was now, cackling merrily and spouting nonsense, jumping around the screen, and holding his fingers around his eye in a triangle shape.
The screen cut out.
For a moment, they all just stood there in stunned silence, as it sunk in that they had just watched a man degrade into insanity. Mina looked at said man now, standing in front of the screen, and all she could think to say was "Oh, McGucket…"
McGucket walked forward, retrieving his capsule. Then he turned to face them with a smile and an unusual amount of clarity. "Aw, hush. You kids helped me get my memories back, just like ya said."
"That's still thirty years gone…" Shouto trailed off.
"Maybe I can't get all those years back," McGucket agreed. "But now that I finally know who I was, I can begin to put myself back together again." He tapped out a sincere message that Mina still couldn't understand.
"If - If you remember anything about the author…" Izuku began hesitantly. Then he shook his head. "We were hoping we could find a way home, but I don't want to push you. I'm glad you've got your memories back, at least."
"If I do remember anything, I'll let you kids know," McGucket promised, trying out some glasses that were laying around. "I still don't recall who the author was, or what it was we were a'workin on, but maybe that could help you guys out. I'll tell ya if I do."
"Thank you," Mina said, sincerely.
It was hard to be completely cheerful, as they headed back to Soos' car. Not after what they'd seen. But they'd defeated a group of cultists, helped someone regain their memories, and taken what might possibly have been the biggest step towards getting home.
If that wasn't a success, Mina didn't know what was.
I hope you enjoyed, and please leave a review if you like the story! It can get hard to update when I don't get any feedback. Even little comments can make my day.