Stan watched in anticipation as the doomsday device was flashing on and off, not quite turning on fully.
"Come on, come on!" he exclaimed, as he pulled up a lever.
The toxic waste in the chambers started to get transferred into the machine to enhance its power.
Stan took off his fez and wiped his forehead with his gloved hands, unknowingly wiping a bit of the toxic waste across his face.
"Can't be too careful with this stuff" he said to himself.
Suddenly, the red lights that were above the tanks of toxic waste started to flash red, and Stan turned around to see one message flashing across the screen:
Event Initialized
And with that, a countdown started on the screen from eighteen hours, and it only kept going down with each passing second.
Stan opened the journal, and started to read the pages about the doomsday device.
"Warning, blah blah blah...extreme usage could result in minor gravity anomalies."
In response to what he had just read, he slammed the book shut.
"Can it, Poindexter" he said, as he flipped up a small square section of the desk, revealing a red button underneath.
"I've come this far, I'm not giving up now!"
And with that, he slammed his bandaged fist onto the button.
The machine came to life, the lighted cylinders glowing brighter, the light from the circle spinning around it, and black swirls started to appear right in the center of the circle.
"Yes!" exclaimed Stan excitedly, as he watched the machine come on. "This is it!"
Just as the book had predicted, minor gravity anomalies did actually start to occur, as Stan's fez started to float off his head.
But his hat wasn't the only victim.
Outside of the Mystery Shack across Gravity Falls, there were several items that were starting to levitate in mid air, including several rocks, Gompers the goat, a boat, a rusty old car, and several random items in the junkyard.
Inside his little hut for a home, McGucket was fast asleep with his head on the desk, and the open laptop was among the items that was now hovering in the air. And there was a message that was flashing across its screen:
Active
Up in the attic of the Mystery Shack, the triplets were all fast asleep, and their bodies all started to float upwards as well. Waddles, who had been sleeping with Mabel, was levitating in the air too, along with Dipper's hat, several of Mara's inventions, and Mabel's hair.
However, all of them soon dropped back down into their beds as gravity started to regulate once again, along with everything else that had been affected by the gravity anomalies.
"It's gonna be a bumpy ride, but it will all be worth it" said Stan to himself down in his secret lab. He slapped a watch onto his wrist, and set a countdown on it that was identical to the countdown on the huge screen in front of him.
"Just eighteen more hours" said Stan triumphantly, as he leaned back in his chair in a relaxed position. "Finally, everything changes, today."
The wind suddenly picked up even though it was inside a basement, and it was so strong that it managed to slam the journal that was open on the desk in front of Stan closed, revealing the number '1' on the cover on top of the golden six-fingered hand.
Mabel and Mara were both screaming excitedly the next morning as they ran down a random hall in the Mystery Shack.
"Aaaahhh!" Mabel squealed enthusiastically as she led them through the hall.
"Come on come on come on come on, Dipper!" squealed Mara with eagerness that matched her sister's, as she pulled on Dipper's hand rapidly. "Move faster!"
Mabel finally led them to a door in the hall, and Mara let go of her brother's hand.
"Ok, so I was just opening random doors, because I'm a creep" said Mabel. "When I found something amazing."
"If it was worth waking up at seven am for, that will be amazing" said Dipper with an exhausted tone, as he slouched over and rubbed his eyes tiredly.
"Oh, it is worth it, I promise you" said Mara eagerly. "I was in the lab this morning, when Mabel came and got me to show me what was behind this door."
Dipper was starting to have a feeling that it was something destructive based on the huge, malicious grin plastered across Mara's face.
Mabel reached for the door excitedly.
"Feast your eyes..."
"...on this!" Mara finished.
Mabel pulled back the door to reveal a cardboard box, and was filled to the brim with fireworks.
"Whoa ho ho!" exclaimed Dipper.
Mabel and Mara then each put their hands on his shoulders.
"Bro bro, we're all thinking it..." said Mabel.
"...crazy rooftop fireworks party!" exclaimed all three of them simultaneously.
Suddenly, Stan appeared out of nowhere, stepping right in front of the triplets. He was wearing a bathrobe, and a menacing look on his face.
"Not so fast, kids" he said angrily. "There is no way on Earth you are setting off those dangerous illegal fireworks..."
He then bent down onto their level and smiled.
"...without me."
All of them exchanged the same wild grins.
On the roof, Dipper reached into a cooler, and brought out a popsicle for himself as he held a sparkler in the other. Stan was sitting on a beach chair on the roof holding a lighter in one hand, and a stick of dynamite in the other. Mara and Mabel each had some fireworks in their hands, waiting eagerly for Stan to light them.
Stan bent over, and lit the fuse of Mabel's.
"Here you go, sweetie" he said, as he ruffled her hair. "Set something on fire for your Grunkle Stan."
"I AM THE GOD OF DESTRUCTION!!!!!" screeched Mabel as she aimed the firework upwards and it was launched into the air.
Mara smirked.
"You might wanna take back that claim, sis" she said with a rather smug look on her face as she lit the fuse of her firework herself. "I think we all know who the real god of destruction is."
And with that, she aimed her firework right at Mabel's and it was launched right towards it.
When the two fireworks finally collided, there was a huge explosion, and several fireworks erupted from the smoke.
Stan put Mabel onto his shoulders as they watched the fireworks go off right in front of them.
The four of them were all laughing as Durland and Blubbs walked up to the shack.
"Hold on a minute, do you have a permit for those?" asked Blubbs, as he pointed up at them accusingly.
"Um..." said Dipper.
"Um, do you have a permit for being totally lame?" said Stan.
The Pines all burst out in laughter over Stan's joke.
Blubbs smiled.
"Well, I can't argue with that" he said, as he and Durland turned around and started to walk away. "Carry on."
Stan laughed for a few seconds longer, before finally sighing.
"But seriously though, we should probably clean this mess up."
He gestured towards the scene in front of them. There were leaves, trees, and logs that were now on fire. Even the banner had caught aflame, and it snapped right in the middle and fell away.
"With water balloons?" suggested Mabel.
Stan shrugged.
"I don't see why not."
Stan was now sitting outside on the couch that was on the porch, watching the triplets as they threw water balloons at each other.
Dipper, with a water balloon in hand, was running away from his sisters, who who narrowly missing him. He then stopped and threw his water balloon right at them. Unfortunately, it fell ground, and even as it collided with the earth, it never broke.
"Ugh, seriously?"
A water balloon was thrown right at his face, and he was thrown backwards.
Mabel started to run towards him.
"Whooooooo!" she cheered, as she threw another water balloon at him.
Mara ran after her, and threw her water balloon at their brother as well, managing to nail him on the back of the head.
"No fair!" said Dipper. "It's two against one!"
But none of them really seemed to be listening as they continued to pelt him with water balloons.
"Ah, now this is what Saturdays are for" said Stan, as he reclined back and took a sip out of his pitt cola. "Doing dumb things forever."
"Dumb things forever!" declared the triplets, as they jumped up and landed on a huge pile of water balloons, which exploded against their weight.
Some of the water was actually splashed towards Stan, who lifted up his feet to prevent them from getting wet.
"Whoa, there!" he said.
"To Grunkle Stan!" said Mabel, as she held up a popsicle with a bite out of it to Stan. She had a water balloon behind her back. "Not just a great uncle..."
"...or even a greater uncle..." said Mara, picking up a leftover water balloon off the ground.
"...the greatest uncle!" declared Dipper, as he held up his own water balloon.
And with that, all three of them threw their water balloons at Stan, and finally managed to get him wet.
Stan laughed as he finally stood to his feet.
"Alright, alright" he said. "I tell you, it's unnatural for siblings to get along as well as you do" he said, addressing the three of them as they sat down onto the ground.
"Ha ha, don't worry" said Mabel, as she wrapped her arms around her siblings tightly. "We've still got plenty of Summer left to drive each other crazy!"
Dipper shoved her off of them, and Mara picked up a nearby balloon and threw it into her sister's face. It exploded on impact.
"Ah, come on!" Dipper complained. "How come they never burst when I throw them?"
Stan laughed nervously.
"Ha, yeah, plenty of Summer left..."
He looked down at the ground, and refused to look any of them in the eye.
Sensing that there was something bothering him, the triplets all walked up to him to see what the matter was.
"Kids, there's something...there's something I should tell you" Stan started, as he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "It's, um, well it's complicated."
He scratched his chin with his bandaged hand nervously.
"I..."
He looked at the triplets, who were all giving him identical confused looks.
"...I...I'm gonna go refresh my soda" he finished, as he quickly hurried away, the nervous expression never leaving his face.
Stan walked to the side of the Mystery Shack, where the trees were casting shadows against.
"Enjoy it while you can, Stan, they'll find out sooner or later" he told himself, as he turned forward determinedly. "Today's the day."
Suddenly, a glowing red dot appeared in the center of his fez.
"What is that, a ladybug?"
He tried slapping it with his hand, but the dot never went away.
Suddenly, even more glowing red dots started to appear all over his body, almost as if they were lasers that were being used to aim.
"What the...oh no!"
Suddenly, he was tackled to the side by a man wearing an all black uniform, who managed to pin him to the ground. His fez fell off of his head from the impact.
Agent Trigger walked up to them, and started to talk into his earpiece.
"Target secure" he said. "Take the house."
With that command, several black helicopters appeared out of nowhere, and started to fly towards the Mystery Shack.
A group of government official surrounded the triplets, and they all yelped in fright as they held on to each other protectively.
"Kids are secure" a government official barked into his walkie talkie. "Roof team, go!"
The helicopters, which were hovering above the shack, suddenly dropped ropes, and men started to slide down them. They smashed through the window upstairs, held out their guns, and aimed them in the empty room.
"Clear!"
More government officials kicked down the door to the gift shop, and one of them even smashed through the gift shop window.
"Clear!"
A government official smashed through the triangular window of the triplets' room, where Waddles was standing. The man pounced at Waddles, and wrapped his arms around him.
Mabel's pet squealed in protest.
"Pig secured, we have secured a pig" he said, as two more officials started to spread police caution tape in front of Waddles.
By now, the men had secured the entire shack, and they had wrapped the perimeter of it around with police tape. One government official was taking Stan away, holding his cuffed hands behind his back. He pushed Stan up to one of their black cars.
"Hey, hands off, you stooge!" Stan exclaimed.
In response, the official forced his head onto the hood of the car.
Stan yelped in pain as his head hit the car.
"I don't understand" he said. "What did I do that warrants this much arresting?"
Suddenly, Agents Powers and Trigger appeared, and they walked up to all of them.
Mara's eyes widened as she pointed at the two new arrivals.
"It's the feds!" she exclaimed.
"The government guys?" exclaimed Dipper in disbelief. "I thought you guys got eaten by zombies!"
"We survived" said Trigger. "Barely."
"I used Trigger as a human shield" Powers explained, as he started to walk closer to them. "He cried like a baby."
"What? Hey!" exclaimed Trigger, as he held a hand in front of his face in embarrassment. "Not in front of the special ops guys."
Powers walked up to Stan, and showed him the screen of a tablet that he was holding.
"This is security footage of a government waste facility" he explained. "At o' four hundred hours last night, someone robbed three hundred gallons of dangerous waste."
In the black and white footage, a man in a protective suit was using a hand truck to wheel several metal barrels of toxic waste away from the room.
"What?" exclaimed Stan in outrage. "You think that's me?!"
"Don't play dumb with us, Pines" said Powers.
"But I actually am dumb!" said Stan, as the government official started to lead him towards a car. "Last night I was restocking the gift shop, I swear!"
"Wait! Grunkle Stan!" exclaimed Mabel. She then turned towards Powers, keeping the popsicle that she was holding in a tight grip in her hands.
"You've got the wrong guy!" she pleaded. "Grunkle Stan may shoplift the occasional tangerine, but he's not some evil supervillain!"
Powers bent down on one knee to her level.
"Listen, kid" he said. "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!"
"There are doomsday devices scattered all over the Mystery Shack in plain sight, you moron" said Mara. "I think I invent at least one every day."
"Yeah, with all the potentially dangerous stuff that she creates, it's a miracle that she actually hasn't gotten herself arrested yet" added Dipper.
Mara glared at him, and then elbowed him in the side. Hard.
"Not helping" she said under her breath.
Powers then turned towards Trigger.
"Trigger, you take the kids" he said. "I'll talk to the old man."
He then turned towards the triplets.
"Sorry to break it to you, kids, but you don't know your uncle at all" he said, as he put a pair of sunglasses over his eyes and walked away.
Trigger snapped at the officials, and then pointed down at the kids.
The same man who had handcuffed Stan bent downwards and took the popsicle from Mabel's hands.
"Icy pop, clear!" he said.
"Hey!" she exclaimed, as another government official started to usher the three of them away.
The man with Mabel's icy pop looked around to see if anyone was watching, and when he determined that he was truly alone, he licked the popsicle in his hands.
The triplets were ushered into a police car, and one of the officials slammed the door shut. They looked out the window to see Stan trapped in the back of a black truck, and he turned his head towards them.
"Kids, you've gotta believe me!" he pleaded, as he banged his cuffed hands against the glass of his window. "For once, I'm actually innocent!"
And with that, the truck started to drive away, with Stan still screaming to his nieces and nephew.
"KIDS!!!!!"
The police car that the triplets were in started to drive off as well, and they exchanged identical worried glances with each other.
Wendy was holding her bagged lunch, as she was walking cheerfully towards the Mystery Shack.
"Headin' into work" she sang. "Doo dee dee doo!"
"Ground team, move move move!" barked one of the officials.
Wendy froze to see the Mystery Shack surrounded in caution tape, and a special ops team.
"Break down the door!"
And with that, the front door to the shack was kicked down by one of the men in black.
"Or, maybe not" said Wendy, as she turned around and started to walk back.
At the police station, Stan was getting his mugshot taken. He looked awful. His face was unshaven, his hair was disheveled, and his fez lay a bit crumpled on top of his head.
Once the mugshots were done, the officials started to take his fingerprints, including his thumb, index, middle, ring, and little.
Stan was now in a small cell with bars on the window. He was sitting in a chair with his hands cuffed behind his back before a small desk, and there was a massive corkboard behind him on the wall that the government had created all about him and his crimes, and there were notes, photos, and pieces of string posted all over it.
Agent Powers was in the cell as well, along with two other officials to stand guard.
He walked up towards Stan, stopping at the desk in front of him.
"Stanford Pines, you stand accused of theft of government waste, conspiracy, and possession of illegal weapons" Powers was saying. "How do you plead to these charges?"
Stan paused, trying to think about his response before answering.
"Um, guilticent!" he exclaimed. "I mean, innoguilty! Can I have my phone call?"
At the fast food restaurant Yumberjacks, Soos was in the drive thru, ordering at the lumberjack statue.
"Ok, give me whatever you've got that comes with a free toy" he said.
"Soos!" screamed Stan's very distinguishable voice.
Soos's eyes widened, and he started to touch the lumberjack statue, thinking that his voice was coming from it.
"Mr. Pines?" said Soos. "Is this some sort of possession situation?"
"Soos, pick up!"
It was then that Soos realized that Stan's voice was coming from his cell phone, which was laying on his dashboard.
He picked up the phone, and put the receiver up to his mouth.
"Mr. Pines, what happened?" said Soos with a concerned voice. "I heard you got arrested or something. I had to get some panic food."
"Soos, I need something from you" said Stan from the other end. He was still locked in his cell, but fortunately all the government officials were standing outside of the door. "You know that vending machine in the gift shop? I need you to guard it with your life."
Soos was shocked. Stan had never asked him to do something so important before.
"No matter what happens, no matter who talks to you, don't let them touch that machine."
And with that, Stan's end of the line was cut out.
Soos looked forward determinedly, and straightened his hat over his head.
"Time for a repair guy to become a repair man."
Just then, the worker at the fast food restaurant handed Soos his food that he had ordered.
"Sir, your junior yum-yum baby time kiddo meal?"
Soos's eyes narrowed, and he didn't even look at the man.
"Just put one in my mouth."
The man opened the kid meal, and stuck a fry into Soos's mouth.
"Let's do this."
And with that, he drove his truck forward right through a line of bushes, and onto the road, heading towards the Mystery Shack.
The triplets were now in the back of a black government truck, Mabel was sitting on the left, Mara was in the middle, and Dipper was on the right. Trigger was driving, and there was a small TV screen in front of them with Powers's face on it.
"We've got Mr. Pines in custody" Powers was saying. "Men are searching the shack for device, though it is a quite slow process because our co ops team keeps finding contraptions of destruction scattered everywhere throughout the shack."
Mara couldn't help but smirk. These people truly were idiots.
"You take care of those kids."
And with that, the screen went black and Powers's face disappeared.
Mabel gasped at the sound of that, and Dipper and Mara instantly glared at Trigger.
"What are you gonna do to us?" Mabel exclaimed with a worried tone.
"We'll be taking you to child services" Trigger replied.
Mabel held her hands over her mouth.
"Boo!" she yelled in protest.
Trigger started to press several buttons on the car's control board.
"In the meantime, enjoy some mindless reality TV, designed to pacify you and make you stop asking questions" he said.
There was another screen embedded into the dashboard, and on the screen was as doctor performing surgery on an unconscious patient near a potted plant. He was lowering a scalpel towards the patient's chest.
"I am about to make the incision" he was saying.
Just as the sharp object was a few inches away from the patient, a man wearing a bright green hoodie and a hat on his head that was backwards suddenly burst out of the potted plant.
"Ker-prank'd!" he exclaimed. "You're watching Ker-prank'd with Justin Kerprank."
Mabel turned towards her siblings.
"Guys, this is crazy!" she said urgently. "There's no way Stan was stealing hazardous waste! We've gotta clear his name!"
Dipper started to think about how to do that, when suddenly he caught sight of a security camera embedded into the car that was watching them.
"Wait a minute, the security tapes!" he exclaimed. "Didn't Stan say he was restocking the gift shop last night?"
Mara saw where this was going.
"Stan only has tapes for three of the security cameras" she said. "I have access to the footage of all the Mystery Shack's security cameras in my lab."
Dipper and Mabel both turned towards her with a confused expression.
"What?" said Mabel.
"You didn't really think that the Mystery Shack only had three security cameras?" said Mara. "I installed numerous hidden security cameras all around the shack, so that I could stay aware of everything that was going on, while still being in my lab."
"Wait wait wait, so hold up" said Dipper. "So you're telling me that you secretly installed hidden cameras everywhere in the shack?"
Mara nodded.
Dipper started to blush uncontrollably. He had no doubts that she had entire tapes of his secret embarrassing moments stored somewhere that she could easily use as blackmail.
Mabel started to giggle.
"And here I was thinking that I was a creep" she said. Mabel then remembered the situation that they were in.
"We just need to think of a way out of here" she said, as she started to scratch her chin while she was deep in thought. "Think, Mabel, think..."
They were approaching another car on their side just then, and it appeared to be a huge log truck that was being driven by Manly Dan, and Mabel saw a pink bumper sticker on his truck labelled "Sev'ral Timez Rulez."
Mabel got an idea.
Manly Dan was driving the log truck with a rather bored expression on his face, when suddenly he heard the sound of someone knocking against a window. He turned to his right to see Mabel in a smaller black truck next to his, and she was writing a message on the window:
'Several Timez is Overrated."
Manly Dan gasped in horror.
"NOOOOO!!!!!" he screamed in outrage, as he suddenly yanked his wheel to the right, ramming into the truck that they were all in.
The black car started to spin around in circles, and Trigger screamed as he lost control. He wasn't the only one; the triplets in the back were all screaming at the top of their lungs as the car crashed right through the gates and spiraled into the forest.
"May day! May day!" Trigger was screaming. "AGENT DOWN!!!"
The car suddenly smashed right into a pair of trees, and as the dust settled, they found that the car had actually gotten stuck between the trees.
Trigger, whose head was sticking out the window, found that his neck was actually lodged between two thick branches, which he struggled helplessly against.
"Argh! Darn branch!" he exclaimed.
However, the triplets were perfectly fine, and they were now free to leave.
Mabel opened the rather bent car door and hopped out of it.
"Ha ha! Yes!" she exclaimed, as Mara and Dipper hopped out after her.
"Back up!" screamed Trigger into his earpiece. "Requesting back up!"
But Dipper had seen him, and he hurried up to him and pulled the device out of his ear. Then, he threw it to the ground, and crushed it underneath his shoe.
"Come on, guys" said Mabel determinedly, as she started to walk away. "We're gonna go clear our uncle's name."
And with that, Mara and Dipper started to follow after her, all of them equally intent on doing just that.
"Oh, you poor kids. You really think your uncle's innocent?" Trigger was saying from the car.
While Mabel and Mara had kept on walking forward, Dipper had actually stopped to listen to what the agent had to say.
"I've seen it all before. False names, double lies. One minute they're playing with water balloons, the next they're building doomsday devices! Your uncle scammed the whole world. You're gonna let him scam you too?"
Dipper couldn't help but start to doubt his uncle. Sure, Stan lied all the time, but there was no way that he would lie to them about something as huge as building a doomsday device, right? And besides, didn't Mara build destructive things like that every day?
He turned towards the agent.
"You...you don't know what you're talking about" he found himself saying. But before he could say anything else, Mara started to yell at him over her shoulder.
"Dipper, hurry up!" she shouted. "Don't let that government guy play with your mind. We've got an uncle to prove innocent, and that's what we're going to do no matter what."
Dipper decided that she was right, and started to follow after her and Mabel.
"You're gonna regret this!!!" shrieked Trigger from the car. However, the car window suddenly jerked upward, knocking the agent back into the car.
The triplets hid out behind a group of bushes that were lined up directly against the road, where there were two government vehicles driving towards the Mystery Shack.
The first car drove right past them, and after the second car had driven past them, they were gone from their hiding spot.
The triplets had actually managed to stow away in the back of the second government vehicle just as it has passed them, and they were now on their way to the Mystery Shack to clear their uncle's name.
In his cell, Stan was looking at the watch on his wrist that was still counting down. It was a bit of a struggle to do since his hands were cuffed behind his back, but he managed to do so by lifting them upwards and glancing at the watch's screen from the side.
"Only five more hours until it happens. I've gotta be there!" he was saying. "Come on, Stan, you've gotta think of a way out of this."
He then started to bang his face against the table in front of him, in hopes of getting an idea from hitting his head enough times.
Suddenly, his watch started beeping, and Stan held it up and glanced at it from the side in confusion.
There was an animation of a circle expanding on the watch's screen, along with a message at the bottom that said 'Anomaly in progress.'
"Huh?"
Stan looked forward to see that the table, along with the mug of coffee, in front of him were starting to levitate off the ground. The liquid coffee was even floating out of the mug.
But within seconds, everything dropped back onto the ground, and the coffee splattered as it fell back into its mug.
"They're getting stronger" Stan observed. And suddenly, he was struck by an idea for escape. A wild grin spread across his face.
"Of course, that's it!"
Meanwhile across the town of Gravity Falls, the gravity anomalies were starting to take effect on more than just a table and a cup of coffee. A man holding his groceries, a car, the roof of one of the shops, and even the top of the water tower suddenly started to float upwards, before crashing back down onto the ground.
"Is it just me, or did the entire world just hiccup?" asked Tyler to Lazy Susan.
"I'm sure it's just a baby-sized earthquake" she reassured him.
"Aww, baby sized!" he chimed.
The laptop in McGucket's shed was starting to count down as well from four hours, and McGucket himself was hurriedly running towards a bag with his arms full of junk.
"It's happening!" he exclaimed with a worried voice as he jammed the stuff into the bag. He then reached over, and picked up an armful of empty syrup bottles, shoving them into the bag as well.
"When that machine activates...I've gotta get out of town!"
He then grabbed a raccoon, and wrapped his arms around it tightly.
"Get in there, raccoon wife!"
The raccoon managed to escape from his arms, and it started to crawl all over him until he finally managed to grab it again, and this time shove it into the bag.
He hurriedly closed the bag, tossed it over his shoulder, and then peeked outside.
There were several helicopters that were flying overhead, and he waited until they finally passed to run out of his shed across the empty land and out of the junkyard.
The Mystery Shack was being guarded heavily by the co ops team, and there were entire lines of government officials simply marching around the perimeter.
The triplets were watching the entire thing from a nearby bush that they were hiding in. Mara couldn't help but feel like they had hidden in a lot of bushes over the course of their Summer.
"Alright, here's the plan" said Mabel with an intense voice. "I'll take out those two guard guys, Dipper karate chops the other dude in the neck, and Mara will back flip through the shed door!"
Dipper gave his sister an incredulous look.
"Mabel, aren't you forgetting the simpler solution?" he said.
Mara reached into her toolbelt, and brought out a portal device, and then raised an eyebrow at her.
"Oh, right" said Mabel.
Two government officials were standing outside, examining the 'rock that looks like a face' display sitting outside the shack.
"So is it a rock, or a face?" asked the first official.
"I think it's a metaphor" replied the other.
They were too busy staring at the rock to notice the flash of purple light coming from behind the bushes.
The triplets emerged out the other side of the portal and into the shed, and the portal closed behind them.
"So what now?" asked Mabel, as she started to look around the shed. It wasn't very big at all, and it seemed even smaller with all the inventions that had been thrown everywhere.
She then took a sniff of the air, and recoiled.
"What is that smell?" she said in disgust.
"Oh, that's just my lunch" said Mara, as she bent downwards and opened a drawer from underneath the messy desk. Sitting at the bottom of the drawer was a moldy grilled cheese sandwich.
"From three weeks ago."
She gagged, and then quickly slammed the drawer shut again.
"Mara, how do you even work in this pig sty?" said Dipper. "There's no way that you have room in here for all those security tapes!"
Mara smirked.
"And you are exactly correct" she said with a confident tone, as she started to walk over towards the back corner of the shed. Her siblings followed as well, though both of them were as confused as ever.
"You see, brother, the inside is much larger than the outside appears" said Mara.
"What do you mean by-"
She reached upwards towards the wall, where there were several tools and inventions hanging by hooks, and flipped up a small square of scrap metal. There was a square of black surface underneath the scrap metal, and there was the slight outline of a hand on it.
Mara pressed her hand up against it, and a green laser appeared on the black surface, slowly moving upwards as it scanned her hand.
"Handprint recognized" said an automated voice. "Welcome, Mara Pines."
"Computer, expand the entry hole and amplify the fan strength" said Mara. "I have guests with me."
"Yes, ma'am."
Suddenly, a large section of the floor opened up from underneath them, and the three of them started to plummet down the elevator tube.
Dipper was screaming in terror, for this was his first time travelling down the elevator tube. He had not expected the floor to simply drop from underneath him. He was falling so out of control that he actually started to do several somersaults in the air as he fell.
Mabel was love the thrill of the experience, and she lifted her hands up into the air as she fell, squealing excitedly as she felt her stomach flipping repeatedly.
"Whee!" she cheered excitedly.
Mara, who had been down the elevator many times, had her arms crossed over her chest and a rather bored expression on her face as she plummeted downwards. If you were looking at her, you wouldn't even be able to tell that she was, indeed, falling.
The automatic fans underneath the grate came on as they approached the ground, and it slowed their fall until they finally landed gently down onto the grate.
The elevator doors slid open, and Mara led them as they all walked forward.
"Welcome, to the real lab" she said.
Dipper and Mabel looked around in amazement.
This room was obviously much larger than the tiny shed upstairs. There were circular glass walls on either side of them as they walked forward. Behind the transparent wall on their left there were test tubes, flasks, and chemicals of all colors, and behind the glass wall on their right there were prototypes and several other machines and devices along with a wall of tools.
They were heading right towards the main part of the room, though, which was made up of a large circular table with a plasma ball contained in half a glass sphere in the center of it, a huge screen that filled up the entire wall in front of them, and a dark touch screen control panel that ran along the bottom of that screen.
"I've always wondered how you ever invented anything in that cramped space of a shed" commented Mabel, as she looked around the huge white room.
"A secret lab?" said Dipper. "Of course! How come I never wondered why you were perfectly fine with spending days in a small, confined space?"
He found himself starting to touch one of the glass capsules containing different colored substances that were standing against one of the walls in the central room.
Mara's eyes widened in panic.
"Don't touch that!" she exclaimed. "That's ambrosium! It heals any physical damages to the body, but exposure to that when you're completely unscathed, and it can potentially cause deterioration to organic material!"
"Whoa! ok!" exclaimed Dipper, as he hurriedly pulled his hand back from the glass. He started to wipe his hand on his vest.
Mara rolled her eyes, and made her way towards the computer.
"The main computer is the central unit of the entire security system" she explained. "I have access to the footage of all security cameras through it."
As she sat down in the chair and started to type commands into the computer, Mabel walked up to her.
"Why didn't you tell us that you had a super cool secret lab full of science-y stuff?" she said.
"Well, space issues was one thing. The shed was way too small of a space to create anything" said Mara as she continued to type, not turning her eyes away from the computer as she spoke. "Also, some of the things that I was inventing were starting to get really dangerous, so I locked those weapons all up in there."
She pointed to her right towards a heavy-duty metal door, with a computerized label above it that said 'Weapon Storage: Keep Out!'
There was another black hand print scanner on the wall next to the door as well.
While Mabel was started to burn with curiosity at the items behind the door, Dipper was terrified to see what kind of dangerous weapons she kept in there.
"Gift shop, camera B, Tuesday" Mara said. "I've got it!"
Suddenly, the security footage appeared across the entire huge screen before all of their eyes. The time in the corner was 4:45:00.
However, it was during the day in the gift shop, and Soos was on his belly squirming across the ground as music played in the background. Mabel was standing on top of the desk, and Wendy was a few feet away from Soos. The two girls were cheering Soos on as they pumped their fists.
"Go! Go! Go! Go!"
Dipper turned towards his sister and glared, and Mabel simply shrugged.
"Someone yelled 'wormy dance.' We had to!" she explained. "Fast forward."
Mara typed some commands into the control pad, and the tape started to speed up. It finally stopped and started to play normally when the time was about 6:45:00, and sure enough Stan was behind the front counter, stacking merchandise onto the top.
"Ha! There it is!" exclaimed Dipper excitedly, as he pointed upwards at the screen. "Stan restocking as he said!"
He then pointed at the date in the corner of the screen.
"And the date shows that it was last night. It's proof! He's innocent!"
"Yeah!" exclaimed Mara, and the three of them high-fived each other excitedly.
But suddenly, Stan in the security footage suddenly walked towards the exit to the gift shop, looked around to see if anyone was watching, and then quickly exited through the door.
Mara frowned as she started to type more commands into the control panel for it to fast forward after Stan's disappearance.
It was starting to get late in the tape, and Stan still wasn't back yet.
"Uh oh" said Dipper.
"Um, maybe he's just going to the bathroom outdoors" suggested Mabel. "The way nature intended."
Mara had to fast forward for a long time before anyone reentered the gift shop, and when she finally played the tape normally, it was 4:59:00, and a man in a yellow protective suit was wheeling a barrel of toxic waste into the gift shop.
All three of them gasped.
"Oh no, Stan, you didn't!" said Dipper in disbelief.
"Don't panic" Mabel reassured, though she was starting to have her own doubts. "That could be anyone in that suit!"
As if on cue, the man in the protective suit in the footage suddenly dropped a barrel onto his foot by accident.
He cried out in pain as he grabbed his injured foot and jumped up and down.
"Gah! Hot Belgian Waffles!" said the man, with a very distinctive voice that they all recognized as Stan's. "Wait, I'm alone. I can swear for real!"
He took in a deep breath, before finally screaming in pain:
"SON OF A-"
"MUTE!!!" Mara screamed, as she hurriedly pressed a button on the control panel, and the sound was suddenly muted from the tape.
Mabel and Dipper had both covered her ears to avoid hearing the curse word.
"That's him alright" said Dipper, as he uncovered his ears.
"No, way" said Mara stubbornly. "I'm not believing that until I have actual, physical proof."
And with that, she started to type more commands into the control panel, though she knew it was mostly in vain.
"Computer, scan the man in the protective suit's vitals in that tape" she commanded out loud. "I wanna know exactly who he is."
The huge screen suddenly outlined the man in the tape, and started to run the diagnostics. Height, weight, body, and voice recognition were all taken into account as they all flashed across the screen.
"Identification process complete" said the automated voice, and suddenly a picture of Stan appeared across the entire screen, overlapping all of the other pop ups from the diagnostics.
"Person identified as Stan Pines."
"No..." said Mara in disbelief. "No no no no, that...that can't be right!"
She then turned back towards the screen with a rather desperate look spread across her face.
"Computer, pull up every file on Stan Pines" she said between clenched teeth. "I want his birth certificate, criminal records, fake documentations, even every single darn thing that he's ever written...I want it all. I want to see everything that you can find about Stan Pines."
Following her exact order, the computer started to scan every single database it could find, looking for all the information that she had requested. As it searched, everything that it had found about Stan started to pop up onto the screen in a digital format. In a matter of seconds, the monitor was filled with so many digital documents overlapping each other that it filled up the entire screen.
The triplets were shocked at what they found.
There were MANY passports on the screen, and while none of them actually said 'Stan Pines,' they all had a photo on them that was unmistakably a younger Stan wearing different clothes and facial hair in each one.
"What is all this?" said Mabel, as she pointed at one of the passports on the screen. "Stetson Pinefield?"
"Hal Forester?" Dipper said, pointing to another one.
"Andrew 'Eight-Ball' Alcatraz?" said Mara, as she gestured to yet another one of the many passports that the computer had pulled up on the screen.
"These are all fake IDs, guys!" Dipper concluded. "You wouldn't need these unless you were trying to hide your real identity!"
"Why would Stan do that?" said Mabel, as she started to examine all the digital documents about Stan on the screen again. It was then that one of them had caught her eye.
"Mara, click on that thing in the top left corner" she said. "The one that looks like a newspaper."
Mara did just that, and when it was selected, the digital copy of the newspaper enlarged.
The triplets' jaws dropped as they saw the headline:
STAN PINES DEAD
All three of them gasped, and their jaws dropped in absolute shock.
"What?!" exclaimed Dipper. "Stan Pines dead?"
Mabel started to read aloud a sub headline in the newspaper.
"Foul play suspected in Pines' death" she said. "Fiery car crash, brakes cut...by who?"
"Who else do you think?" said Mara. "It was by the man we've been living with all Summer."
Dipper spotted a section of another newspaper from all the digital files.
"Mara, click on that one" he said, pointing to the bottom right section of the screen. She obliged, and the small cut out of a newspaper that he had spotted enlarged as well, taking its place right next to the one that Mabel had seen.
Mara's eyes widened when she saw the picture that was on it.
It was a picture of Stan, who didn't look like he wanted to be having his picture taken.
"Unnamed grifter at large?" Dipper read the title aloud. "Why would they call him unnamed?"
"Unless Stan..."
"...isn't..."
"...Stan?!"
"Stan Pines is dead?" Dipper said aloud to himself as he paced anxiously back and forth across the lab.
Mara had just finished organizing all the Stan files on the computer, and they were all now in digital folders labelled 'Newspapers,' 'Fake IDs,' 'Records,' and 'Photos.' There were also several digital files left that didn't seem to fit in any of the categories, so she had simply left them scattered across the screen.
"Then who have we been living with? It doesn't make any sense!" Dipper was saying.
"There has to be some explanation" said Mabel dismally. She suddenly perked up.
"Maybe we're getting kerpranked!"
She then pointed at a potted plant that happened to be stored in a corner of the lab.
"Justin Kerprank is going to jump out of this plant any minute now!"
Nothing happened, and Mabel scooted on her knees up to the plant and looked inside it.
"Any minute now, Justin!"
"That's a mortificus plant, the first of its kind" said Mara rather blankly. She felt almost as if she had been betrayed, which in a way they all actually had. "It's created to kill pretty much anything that it touches with the deadly poison that it produces from its leaves' stomata."
Mabel immediately lept backwards away from the plant.
"Wow! Ok, then. Mara, you sure have a lot of things down here that can kill people" she said with a cheery voice, desperately trying to lighten everyone's spirits.
The consistent grave expressions on Dipper and Mara's faces told her that it wasn't working.
"I can't believe it" said Dipper. "This whole Summer I've been looking for answers, and the biggest mystery was right under our noses!"
"There's gotta be some kind of explanation in here somewhere" said Mabel, as she went up to the computer and started to look at the various files left on the screen that Mara had deemed miscellaneous.
"You literally said that just a few seconds ago" said Mara rather irritably.
But one of the files had caught Mabel's eye.
"What the-"
She used the control panel to select the file, which enlarged so that they could all see it more clearly.
It appeared to be a drawn grid that was four by two boxes large, and down the first column were the letters A, B, and C, and down the second column were the numbers one and three, which skipped a box in between them.
Mabel read the label written above it.
"Secret code to hideout?"
"Let me see that" said Dipper, as he pulled the journal out of his vest and flipped to the code page. He shone the black light on the page and started to look at the hidden text.
Mara knew that the code page book probably wasn't going to help, but she decided to let her brother search anyways. She went up to the control panel, and initiated the encryption program she had installed onto it, uploading the strange code file onto it.
Several minutes passed of Dipper searching through the journal and Mara trying to decrypt the code with the computer, before both of them let out equally frustrated sighs.
"Great. The program's found no decryption key that matches that code" said Mara discouragingly.
"A1, B, C3..." Dipper was saying. "I've never seen a code like this."
Suddenly, realization hit Mabel, and it occurred to her that her siblings were way over-thinking the code. Her eyes widened as she voiced her idea out loud.
"Wait, I have" she said. She suddenly grabbed Dipper and Mara, and pulled them close to her face so that they could see how important the matter was to her.
"Guys, it's the vending machine!"
Still in his cell, Stan was looking anxiously at the count down on his watch, which now only had thirteen minutes left. He didn't have much time left to escape.
Just then, the door to his cell was opened, and Agent Powers along with two body guards walked right in, stopping in front of him.
Stan shot them all a nasty glare.
"Alright, Pines, playtime is over" said Powers, keeping his hands behind his back. "Chopper's ready to dust off to Washington..."
He then leaned in real close to Stan's face with narrowed eyes.
"...I'll enjoy putting you away" he said with a determined voice.
"What? Can we stick around for maybe a minute?" asked Stan nervously, trying to stall for time. He then glanced down at his watch. "Um, one minute thirty seconds?"
He shot them an anxious smile.
"We're not falling for your games, Pines" said Powers, as he walked behind Stan and took out a key so that he could unlock the cuffs.
While he was doing that, Stan was scanning the room, looking at the locked door, and and analog clock on the wall that was ticking away by the second.
"You've been running your whole life" said Powers. "Your time is finally up."
It was because of the clock that Stan could see how much time was left until the next anomaly hit.
"Bathroom break?" he quickly requested. "Just give me fifteen seconds."
"Sorry, but you've got a flight to catch" said Powers, as he bent down and stuck the key into the handcuffs lock.
However, he didn't notice the watch on Stan's wrist, which was counting down by the seconds.
3..2..1...
Suddenly, his watch started beeping and the message 'Anomaly in Progress' flashed across its screen, just like it had before.
Stan raised an eyebrow at the agent.
"Oh yeah? So do you."
Powers's eyes widened, and he pulled the key out of the lock.
"Huh?"
Suddenly, the four of them started to float up into the air, along with the table in front of him.
Stan, who was still stuck in the chair, pulled back his legs, and suddenly lashed out with all his strength, kicking the floating table right into the two body guards.
This kick had sent Stan into a backwards spiralling motion as he started to move right in Powers's direction.
"Whoa whoa whoa! Hey!" he exclaimed, as he was smashed against the wall by Stan in his chair, dropping the key to the cuffs in surprise.
The keys started to float away, but Stan was keeping his eyes directly on them. He rotated himself so that his feet were against the wall.
First, he crushed the chair against the wall, and he was finally able to move again, though his hands were still cuffed behind his back.
Then, he pushed against the wall with his feet and propelled himself forward into the air, right towards the keys. He flipped himself up backwards so that he was able to grab the keys with his hands.
It was a matter of seconds before he had finally freed himself from the cuffs, and he started to try and float towards the exit.
But Powers was back up, and he was coming after him.
"Dang it, get back here!" he demanded, as he started to float towards him. "Men, get him!"
Stan stepped on the first body guard, slamming his foot into his chest with such a force that his wallet floated out of his uniform. Stan pocketed the wallet, and continued onwards towards the door, stepping on the other man and launching himself against him to propel himself out the door. The two men both crashed into Powers, and the three of them were now floating towards the open door.
"NO!!!!" screamed Powers in outrage. "YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH THIS-"
Stan slammed the door shut, and Powers's face was now pressed up against the glass.
Stan smirked as he locked the door shut.
His watch suddenly started to beep, and everything dropped back onto the ground as gravity returned to normal.
Suddenly, Durland and Blubbs burst through another door. Durland fell onto the ground holding a pinata, and Blubbs was blindfolded as he swung a bat around the air.
"Gonna getcha! Gonna getcha!" he said excitedly, as he walked forward over Durland to try and smash the pinata.
Powers's face slid off the glass, and fell onto the floor in the locked cell.
Everything outside in the town was starting to fall back onto the ground, including a car, several people, a shopping cart, and a fire hydrant when Stan finally arrived on scene. He found a taxi, and hurriedly ran up to it.
"You know where the Mystery Shack is?" he asked the driver urgently, as he started to reach into his suit pocket.
"Um, yeah?" replied the driver with a rather bored tone, obviously not picking up on Stan's distress.
Stan brought out a huge wad of cash, and handed it to the driver.
"Ok, here's a hundred bucks" he said. "Drive as far away from it as possible, and don't stop when the cops start chasing you!"
The driver looked at him with a confused expression, before shrugging as if nothing had happened. A hundred bucks was a hundred bucks after all, and it wasn't like he had given him an extremely daunting task.
He slammed on the gas, and started to drive away from the Mystery Shack as quickly as he could.
Stan hid behind a car that had dropped upside down from the gravity anomalies, just as Powers and the men started to run out of the police station.
"He's getting away!" Powers yelled as he pointed towards the speeding yellow taxi. Stan started to secretly hurry off towards the Mystery Shack as the taxi sped around a corner, knocking over a line of trash cans in the process.
"Obviously, follow that cab!" Powers commanded as he pointed after the taxi.
A government vehicle sped right into the Mystery Shack in front of the men, and screeched to a halt. Agent Trigger quickly got out of the car, and started to address the co cops team.
"Stanford escaped! He's at large" he yelled. "We need to sweep the town. Move! Move! Move!"
At his command, all the government officials suddenly jumped into their police cars and helicopters, and hurried off away from the Mystery Shack to find Stan.
There were men who were emptying out of the gift shop, and when they were gone, the window was slid open by none other than Soos.
He looked around cautiously before stepping through it and sneaking up to the vending machine, standing in front of it and guarding it determinedly, just as Stan had told him.
"Alright, Soos, remember the plan" he told himself. "Protect the machine, earn Stan's trust, legally get adopted by Stan, change name to Stan jr."
"Soos!"
Soos's eyes widened and he screamed in surprise, only to that it was only the triplets, who were hurriedly running up to him.
He breathed a sigh of relief.
"Oh dudes, where you have been?"
"How about you tell us exactly why you're guarding the vending machine?" asked Mara, dodging the question.
"Stan gave me a mission to protect this machine" said Soos determinedly as he pointed at the vending machine. He then put his hands on his hips and chuckled. "And I thought I loved snacks."
"Soos, listen. Something huge is going on here" said Dipper urgently. "If Stan is hiding some dangerous secret, we need to find out what it is."
"Soos, you need to get out of our way right now" Mara commanded sternly, though she realized that that statement had come out a bit too forcefully. "Please" she added.
"Yeah" added Mabel. "Just let us through so we can prove this all just a big misunderstanding."
Soos was starting to get nervous, remembering that Stan had told him that no matter who talked to him, he couldn't let them near the machine.
Soos scratched the back of his neck anxiously.
"Guys, I know this sounds crazy, but I promised Stan I would guard this with my life" he insisted.
Dipper looked at Mabel, and nodded.
Mabel solemnly walked up to Soos, hand behind her back.
"I'm sorry, Soos."
She had a handful of pink glitter in her hand, which she she held out in front of her, and blew directly into Soos's face.
Soos screamed in pain as he started to rub his eyes.
"AAH! ATTACK GLITTER!" he shrieked. "It's pretty, but it hurts!"
The triplets then all charged at him while he was blinded, but Soos managed to catch Dipper and Mabel each with one arm, holding them back and lifting them off the ground as they tried to attack him and get to the vending machine.
However, he only had two arms.
Mara managed to leap up and land right on Soos's head. She started brought her fists together and raised them up into the air before bringing them down over the back of Soos's head. She repeated this process.
"Aw, c'mon, I don't wanna fight you guys!" Soos pleaded. "This hurts me more than it hurts you."
Mabel kicked him in the face, reached downward, and grabbed the folds of fat of his belly.
Soos winced in pain.
"Seriously, it hurts me way more than it hurts you!"
Mara grabbed her wrist, looped her arms around Soos's neck, and pulled backwards.
Soos started choking, grabbing for Mara's arms and trying to get her to loosen her choke hold. He started to fall backwards as well, which allowed for Dipper to finally be able to reach the keypad on the vending machine.
And with that, he typed in the code, A1, B, C3.
Suddenly, the vending machine swung open, knocking all of them to the ground.
Dust was sent up into the air in huge clouds from the vending machine, and they all coughed as they got back up again.
However, when they saw the vending machine, their eyes widened and they gasped in complete shock.
The vending machine was wide open, as if it was a giant door, and behind it was the entrance to a secret passageway.
Soos held up a lantern and used it to light their way down the dimly lit hall. It was a dark staircase that went straight down, and Soos was in the lead, followed by Mabel, Mara, and then Dipper.
"It's like a video game" said Soos in shock.
"Or my lab" said Mara.
"Or a dream" added Mabel in disbelief.
"Or a nightmare" said Dipper.
The four of them managed to find an old elevator, which they piled into, and pressed the "down" button. The elevator started to descend even further downwards.
Meanwhile, Stan was running as quickly as he could towards the Mystery Shack, a look of panic across his face.
"I've gotta be there when it happens!" he exclaimed as he looked at his watch to see how much time had left. Unfortunately, while his eyes were trained on the watch screen, a branch managed to scrape his arm as he sprinted by it, creating a new tear in his suit.
The elevator finally stopped when it reached the bottom, and the doors slid open.
Everyone gasped at what they saw.
There was machinery everywhere in the huge, dark room. There was a bright light coming from the other side of the glass, and a countdown that was decreasing by the second above it.
"Does everyone have a secret lab now?" said Mara.
"Guys, are we dreaming?" said Mabel. "Somebody wake me up!"
"This can't be real..." said Dipper in disbelief.
"I don't understand!" said Soos, as he looked around the place in horror. "Why would Mr. Pines have all this?"
The four of them walked further into the lab.
"It's just like that bunker in the woods" said Dipper.
"But what's it doing underneath the Mystery Shack?" said Soos.
"So, he's got a huge, gigantic lab" said Mabel, desperately trying to look on the bright side. "Mara does too, so that doesn't necessarily mean anything bad. Everybody's got secrets!"
"I can't help but feel like this is familiar, somehow" said Mara as she examined everything around her. Her attention focused on the doomsday device that was on the other side of the glass in the other room. In front of it was a giant switch with a metal sphere on top of it.
"Like I've been here before..."
Meanwhile, Mabel found a framed picture of them on the metal desk, and held it out for all of them to see.
"It's still Stan, and he loves us!" she said. "And we love him, right?"
But something that was laying on the desk had caught Dipper's attention, and he walked up closer to get a better look, for surely it couldn't possibly be what he thought it was.
"It can't be...it's impossible" he said in shock. His eyes had not been deceiving him, for laying on the desk were two identical journals with the six-fingered gold hand on the covers. One of them had the number '1' on it, and the other had the number '2.'
"The other two journals?" he exclaimed in complete bewilderment. "All this time, all this time, Stan had them?"
He walked up angrily to one of the machines in the room.
"I can't believe it. Was anything he said to us ever real?!"
In the spur of his fury, he kicked the machine with his foot.
Mara was still staring at the huge doomsday device intently, too focused on trying to figure out why it all seemed so familiar to be listening to what Dipper was saying. She noted that the shape of the doomsday device was of a triangle, and just suddenly reminded her of Bill Cipher...
"Welcome to the Doomsday portal, kid, or rather the inside of the portal thirty years from the present."
The pieces suddenly all came together, and Mara gasped in realization.
"I...I have been here before, but on the other side! This must be the other end of the portal!" she exclaimed. Everyone looked at her in confusion.
"Guys, remember when we went back in time during Soos's birthday, and Bill took me somewhere?"
"Wait, you guys were at my birthday party?" said Soos in confusion. His eyes then narrowed. "Which one, exactly?"
But none of them were really listening to him, nobody wanting to answer that question.
"Yeah" said Mabel with uncertainty, not sure where this was going.
"It was inside of a doomsday portal that McGucket and the author built together" said Mara, gesturing towards the doomsday device on the other side of the glass. "This must be it! Guys, when this thing is at its full power, it will start the Apocalypse!"
Everyone's eyes widened in shock at that news.
"But, there's no way Mr. Pines would do that" said Soos, still trying to have faith in Stan. Just like Mabel, he was trying to look on the bright side as well. "What if he's the author?"
"Or what if he stole them from the author!" exclaimed Dipper, leaning into Soos's face. "Maybe the reason he has all those fake IDs is because he is a master criminal, and using the author's machine to start the Apocalypse is his master plan!"
Everyone gasped, for they were all in shock that Stan was doing such a dastardly thing all along.
Mara was the first one to get a hold of herself. She turned towards the others with a serious look across her face.
"How much longer do we have the machine is at its full power?"
"Um..." said Mabel with a look of horror on her face as she pointed upwards at the countdown:
1:30...1:29...1:28...
Soos gasped, and pointed at it.
"It's the final countdown!" he exclaimed. "Just like they always sung about!"
"The agents were right" said Dipper. "We have to shut it down!"
1:15...1:14...1:13...
The circle in the middle of the doomsday device was glowing a bright white color, and there was a colored light that was spinning around it rapidly. It looked like it was gaining more power with each passing second.
Dipper turned towards Mara.
"Mara, this doomsday device is just another giant invention!" he yelled. "How do we shut it down?"
"Well unless the author was a complete idiot, there should be some sort of safety shutdown switch or manual override for a machine this powerful."
She looked down at the control panel, and started to flip up several switches and press multiple buttons, trying to type in a command to the panel.
"Come on, come on..."
She pressed a green button, and suddenly a section of the wall inside the doomsday device room was flipped upwards, revealing another, smaller control panel along with a sign above it that was labelled 'Manual Override.'
Dipper pointed towards it.
"There! Quick!"
The four of them ran into the doomsday device room up to the manual override, where they found four keys that were stuck in the panel.
"Turn the keys at the same time!" Mara said.
Each of them grabbed onto a key, and turned them simultaneously.
There was a large beeping sound, and they all turned to see the giant metal switch from earlier. The top half of the sphere that was on top of it suddenly popped open, revealing a glowing red button.
"That's it!" exclaimed Dipper. "The shutdown switch!"
All four them them quickly ran up to the button, and crowded around it. Dipper raised his hand in the air determinedly.
"This all stops...now!"
He started to bring his hand downward to push the button, when suddenly Stan appeared from the doorway to the other room.
"DON'T TOUCH THAT BUTTON!!!!" he screamed. His face was wild with panic, and his bandaged hand was reached outwards towards them.
As he panted, they all turned towards him, Soos, Dipper, and Mara all glaring at him while Mabel was looking at him with disbelief.
For a long moment, they all just stood there as Stan was catching his breath, waiting to see what he would do.
Stan started to walk up towards them.
"Dipper, just back away" he said.
Dipper's hand was frozen directly over the button, and he didn't move it even by an inch.
"Please don't press that shutdown button" Stan pleaded, as he continued to walk closer to them. He didn't want to run to them because he was afraid that that might cause Dipper to actually press the button.
"You've gotta trust me."
"And I'm supposed to trust you, why?" exclaimed Dipper furiously, as he turned towards Stan. "After you stole radioactive waste? After you lied to us all Summer?"
Stan stopped in his tracks, a very sad expression across his face.
"I don't even know who you are!" yelled the boy.
"Look, I know this all seems nuts, but I need that machine to stay on!" said Stan appallingly as he walked even closer to them.
"What, so you can take over the world during the Apocalypse?" exclaimed Mara tempestuously. "Do you have any idea of the consequences of this machine staying on?!"
"Mara, please, if you just let me explain..."
Suddenly, his watch started beeping, and Stan looked down at his watch to see that it was alerting him of yet another gravity anomaly.
"Oh no! Brace yourselves!" he yelled, trying to warn them before any of them got hurt.
A hole suddenly appeared in the glowing white circle of the doomsday device, which looked like almost like a portal to space.
The rainbow colored light spiralled around it even more rapidly, as the entire thing started to grow even larger. Electricity started to flash from the doomsday device as well.
All four of them were lifted up off the ground and into the air by the gravity anomaly, and Soos's hat, Stan's fez, and Dipper's hat all floated off of their heads as well.
They all screamed in terror as their bodies were floating around the room uncontrollably.
It wasn't that much different outside, for the entire Mystery Shack was being lifted up off of the ground.
The taxi and the police cars that were driving away from the Mystery Shack started to float up into the air, and Agent Powers screamed from his vehicle as it went further and further up.
At the grocery store, all the produce was lifted up into the air along with Lazy Susan and her shopping cart. She screamed in terror, confused by what was happening.
Bud had been trying to sell a car to a couple when the gravity anomaly had hit, and soon all three of them along with the car started to float upwards into the air. Bud leapt up onto the car to try and save it.
The entire town of Gravity Falls was now being lifted up into the air.
"T minus thirty five seconds" said the automated voice in the room.
Stan, who had managed to grab his fez back onto his head, was screaming as he floated upwards towards the ceiling. He appeared to have been the only person to have gained their hat back.
Dipper was screaming as he was floating towards the wall, but managed to secure himself by grabbing onto a fallen wooden pole away from the doomsday device.
"Dipper!" the two girls' voices screamed.
He turned to see where his sisters had landed.
Mabel was floating upwards as her foot was caught against a thick wire that was attached to the off switch. But Mara was hanging on to another, much thinner, wire as she was being sucked into the doomsday device. Unfortunately, it looked like the wire was starting to fray in front of her.
Dipper's eyes widened, and he turned towards Mabel.
"Mabel, hurry! Shut it down before Mara gets sucked into the doomsday device!" he shouted, pointing to the shutdown button just below her.
Mabel bent downwards and started to climb up down the wire that her foot had previously been caught on, making her way towards the button.
"NO!!!!" screamed Stan, as he launched himself off the wall and started to swim through the air towards her.
Mabel finally grabbed onto the switch, where the shutdown button was on top of. She anchored her body around it as she turned and saw Stan coming right towards her.
"Mabel, Mabel, wait!!!" he screamed. "STOP!!!!"
Suddenly, he was tackled to the side by Soos, and the two of them started to float to the opposite side.
"Soos, what are you doing?!" exclaimed Stan, as he started to punch Soos over the head to try and get him to let go of him. Soos didn't budge.
"I gave you an order!"
"Sorry, Mr. Pines, if that is your real name" said Soos, who was wrapping himself around Stan's body to prevent him from escaping. "I have a new mission now: protecting these kids!"
"SOOS, YOU IDIOT, LET ME GO!!!!!"
Mara could feel the doomsday device's pull on her body getting stronger, and knew that she had to get out of there. She tried climbing forward on her wire, just like how Mabel had done with hers, but soon found that the fraying end only started to break faster. It was very delicate, and pulling against it to try and climb forward was only making it fray faster, so Mara immediately stopped.
"Mabel, hurry!" she pleaded, as the tips of her combat boots were starting to actually touch the portal.
Dipper launched himself off of the wall, and collided with Soos and Stan, sending them all to the other side.
Stan grabbed onto the boy as he started to whack him in the face.
"Mabel, press the red button!" screamed Dipper. "Shut it down!"
"No, you can't!" screamed Stan. "You've gotta trust me!"
"Grunkle Stan, I don't even know if you're my grunkle!" said Mabel, her voice cracking as she started to cry. Everyone immediately froze when they saw her teardrops floating upwards into the air from her eyes.
"I wanna believe you, but..."
"Then listen to me" said Stan. "Remember this morning when I said I wanted to tell you guys something?"
"T minus twenty seconds" said the automated voice.
Suddenly, the machine let out a surge of power, and the boys were all blasted backwards, their bodies crashing against the wall.
Mara screamed as the surge of power strengthened the device, and intensified its pull on her body, which became so strong that her bandana was sucked right off of her head and into the portal. The end started to fray even faster.
Seeing her sister in peril, Mabel started to raise a fist, intent on pushing the button to save her, when Stan started to continue with his explanation.
"I wanted to say that you're gonna hear some bad things about me, and some of them are true" he admitted. "But trust me, everything I've worked for, everything I care about, it's all for this family!"
"Mabel, what if he's lying?" said Dipper urgently. "This thing could destroy the universe, it's sucking our sister into it right now! Listen to your head!"
"Mabel, Bill Cipher wants this device to stay on" shouted Mara, as the portal continued to try and pull her in. "If you don't shut it down now, the entire world will be endangered! And I'll be history!"
She looked at the frayed end, which was now hanging by a single strand.
"Look into my eyes, Mabel" said Stan with an extremely desperate tone. "You really think I'm a bad guy?"
"Mabel, he's lying!" Dipper screamed. "Shut it down now! Save our sister!"
"Mabel, listen to our brother!" screamed Mara.
"Mabel, please!" begged Stan.
All three of them calling her name was so overwhelming. But her trusted siblings were telling her to shut it down, and her sister would be sucked into the doomsday device if she didn't do anything.
With that in mind, she closed her eyes and lowered her hand over the button, about to press it, when she opened them and saw Stan.
His face was absolutely sad, and it was so pitiful that she couldn't even bear to see it. Even though he wasn't speaking, she could practically hear him begging for her not to press the button. There was something about his expression that told her that this was really important to him, and it was something that he was willing to risk the entire universe for.
She found that she couldn't do it.
She turned her head away from him.
"Grunkle Stan..."
"6...5...4..."
Mabel let go of the lever, and raised her hands up into the air as her body floated upwards.
"...I trust you."
"MABEL, ARE YOU CRAZY?!" screamed Dipper furiously at his sister. "WE'RE ALL GONNA-"
"...1."
The machine finally powered fully on, and there a bright blue blast of light was diffused from the portal from its center.
The strand broke, and the wire that Mara was holding onto finally snapped.
"MABEL!!!!!!" she screamed as she was sucked directly into the portal.
After a long time of white nothingness, everything finally faded back into view, but it was from a very cloudy and distorted perspective, similar to as if one was having a dream. Apparently, the inside of the portal looked very different when the machine was at its fullest power:
It looked like she was in some sort of perverted version of Gravity Falls. The sky was a dark crimson color that reminded her of blood, and there was a huge tear in the shape of an X across it, where it appeared the only light was coming from.
The entire town has been cast into an eternal shadow, and there were strange multicolored bubbles that were floating all over and fires that were burning aflame throughout the entire town.
But worse yet was the dark, tremendous pyramid that was hovering in the sky, just below the giant X. There was yellow light seeping through the cracks between its bricks, and the its top was slightly apart from it, hovering about three inches above it.
The structure itself seemed to emit a palpable sense of fear that basked the entire time, smothering all joy and laughter from what used to be a cheerful and quirky little town.
Mara tried to speak out, but she found that her voice wasn't working. It was caught in her throat, and it stuck there no matter how hard she tried to force it out.
She tried to move, but her body refused to obey her mental commands. She wasn't restrained or anything: her body had simply lost its ability to maneuver.
It felt just like she was having a dream.
A chaotic, maniacal laughter suddenly ripped through the air, echoing throughout the entire scene. It was horrid, terrifying laughter that pierced through the night, and resonated through her skull.
It was a laugh that she would have recognized anywhere.
And though she couldn't see him, she could hear his voice as clear as day, as if he was standing right in front of her.
"Rest assure, Snowflake, there will come a day
when the town you love will be blackened by my eternal discord
Heroes will fall, chaos will reign sovereign, despair will devour lives,
and I will be the overlord of it all.
But despite all odds, you stand in my way.
I tried to subdue you, but you remain a thorn in my side.
But have no fear, for I will use you as a valuable asset instead
Your beloved home will burn, and everyone you ever cared about will perish...
...and it will all be caused by you."
The sense of terror in the air heightened, and the evil cackling ripped through the entire atmosphere. The bone-shattering sound echoed through her ears.
Her vision started to blur, and she could feel her body starting to slip away into unconsciousness.
But just as she was teetering on the edge of comatose, she saw a hand descending down towards her, though her vision was so foggy that she was not able to see the person to whom the hand belonged to.
But she had not failed to recognize one thing: the hand had six fingers.
It was the last thing that she saw before she lost consciousness.
"NO!!!!" screamed Dipper, as he reached outwards towards the portal in vain towards Mara. But his body turned a glowing blue color as it vaporized from the doomsday device's surge.
Stan, Soos, and Mabel all screamed as their bodies vaporized as well.
There was now nothing but a bright white light filling the entire room, and everything around them was now floating in the air as the machine came fully to life.
The glass of the triplets' picture frame shattered, and the pieces spread everywhere. Mabel and Dipper were both floating around the empty white space unconsciously.
The entire shack was even floating up several feet into the air, before it suddenly crashed back onto the ground.
As gravity returned back to normal, everything that had been affected by the gravity anomalies dropped back onto the ground as well.
Stan fell flat onto his face, and Soos landed on his head. They both cried out in pain as they collided with the ground.
Dipper had fallen as well, and he rubbed his head as he looked at the portal.
The triangular-sized doomsday device had fallen right onto the ground, and there were pieces of fallen debris everywhere. Apparently, it had been so powerful that it had torn itself apart a little.
But there was a glowing, swirling blue circle in the center of it, which appeared to be a portal.
Suddenly, a dark figure appeared in the portal, and as it got closer, it became more and more clear.
Finally, the silhouette stepped out of portal and into the world. It seemed to be a masked man, with a black tattered cloak billowing behind him, a gun strapped to his back, and a girl with a white, lightning-shaped streak of hair in his arms.
The man walked forward as the portal disappeared behind him, still holding an unconscious Mara, as he caught sight of something on the ground.
It was Journal #1.
He readjusted Mara so that she was in a fireman's hold over one shoulder, and then bent downwards and put his hand directly on top of the hand on the journal.
He had six fingers on his hand.
He then picked up the journal, opened the long black trench coat that he was wearing, and stuck the book in a pocket on the inside.
"W-what?" stammered Dipper in absolute shock. "Who is that?"
"The author of the journals..." said Stan.
With an unconscious Mara still slung over his shoulders, the mysterious man lifted his hands towards the mask that concealed his identity, and finally took it off.
His face looked exactly like Stan's, complete with the square chin, nose, and huge, stick-out ears.
"...my brother."
They all stared at the him with shocked eyes and dropped jaws. It was almost unbelievable that they were finally face-to-face with the author, who was apparently Stan's brother.
"Is this the part where one of us faints?" said Mabel.
Soos laughed.
"I am so on it, dude!"
And with that, his eyes rolled back into his head as his body fell backwards and collapsed on the floor.