~~~~~~~~~Your POV~~~~~~~~~

"AHHHH! It's here it's here IT'S HERE!!" Mabel yelled with excitement as he ran down the shack's main hallway.

It was early in the morning, and because Mason and I had been woken up so suddenly, the two of us were groggily following behind, dragging our feet and trying not to yawn. I myself had to keep rubbing my eyes so they wouldn't close. "Does whatever this is have to happen so early...?"

Mason leaned his head on my shoulder. "What is this anyway?"

"Okay, so I was just opening random doors, because I'm a creep, when I found something amazing!"

"That being....?" I asked again, my eyes narrowed.

She opened the door in front of us, revealing a bunch of boxes, all filled to the brim with perfectly good fireworks. "Feast your eyes!!" *

"Whoahoho!!" Mason cheered, a smile on his face as Mabel wrapped an arm around him.

"Bro. Bro. We're both thinking it."

"Crazy rooftop fireworks party!!" they both said in synch.

I only chuckled, a bit confused. "Crazy rooftop what now?"

"Not so fast, kids!!" Both twins tensed up at Stan's voice behind us, all of us turning to look at him and seeing the glare on his face. "There is no way on Earth you're setting off those dangerous illegal fireworks." Then he leaned down and smiled, "Without me!"

A group smile and change of clothes later, we were all out sitting on the rooftop ledge which I guess wasn't so secret anymore, but I didn't mind.

I was sitting on the edge work Mason next to me, my arm around him as he leaned onto my shoulder. Mabel was basically bouncing work energy as Stan picked up one of the fireworks from the box, lighting it up and offering it. "Here you go, sweetie! Set something on fire for your Grunkle Stan!"

Mabel wasted no time snatching it from him and running to the edge, screaming at the top of her lungs, "I AM THE GOD OF DESTRUCTION!!" before letting it go and watching it explode.

I laughed along with the others, but it was turned halfhearted at a realization. "I'm gonna have to clean all of this, aren't I?"

"Don't worry, I'll help you out," Mason said as he nudges my side. "Just enjoy it for now!"

Before I could agree though, I grew tense as Sheriff Blubbs and his deputy walked over to us, the sheriff raising a hand to get our attention as he spoke. "Hold on a minute, do you have a permit for those?"

Mason stuttered as he looked for a response, but Stan answered almost immediately. "Do you have a permit for being totally lame?!"

We all laughed. Even the sheriff found it funny, letting out a chuckle. "Well, I can't argue with that! Carry on!"

Then the two left, and Stan let out a sigh as he leaned back into his seat. "Seriously though, we should probably clean this mess up."

We all turned ahead, seeing the fire we started along our front yard, to which I commented, "Called it."

"With water balloons?" Mabel asked, to which Stan smiled.

"I don't see why not!"

The twins immediately ran downstairs, starting their long awaited war. Mason was mostly trying to run away from Mabel, trying to throw a water balloon at one point, which only landed about a foot or two in front of him, his shoulders drooping at the sight. "Seriously?"

Then he got hit in the face with another, Mabel running over with her special battlecry.

I stayed on the rooftop with Stan, laughing at the scene from above as he commented, "Ah, this is what Saturday's are for. Doing dumb things forever!"

"Dumb things forever!!" the twins yelled together as they jumped into a big pile of balloons, splashing everywhere. Stan even had to flinch back to avoid it.

He then turned to me, "Why don't you go and join them down there, kid?"

"Nah," I replied while shaking my head. "This feels like a family thing, and I already feel like I'm intruding."

"What?!" He wrapped an arm around my head, forcing my into a headlock as he ruffled my hair. "You do realize I'm basically your grunkle-in-law now, right?! We're family whether you like it out not!"

I felt my cheeks heat up at the thought, "G-grunkle-in- huh?!"

"To Grunkle Stan!!" Mabel interrupted, raising a popsicle. "Not just a great uncle!"

"The greatest uncle!!" Mason continued for her, throwing a water balloon over.

"HEY!" He laughed and stood up, a big smile on his face. "Alright alright, I'll tell ya. It's unnatural for kids to get along as well as you do!"

"Don't worry! We just still got plenty of summer left to drive each other crazy!!" Mabel said as she wrapped Mason in a hug, who pushed her off and onto the floor, an extra water balloon falling on her face.

Stan laughed again, only this time, it seemed more quiet and awkward than before, his gaze shifting away. "Yeah, plenty of summer left.. uh... Kids, there's- I uh.. there's something I should tell you. It's um- well, it's complicated. I... I'm gonna go refresh my soda!" Then he went downstairs.

I raised an eyebrow, looking down at the twins who were just as confused as I was.

Then my nose twitched. My body tensed.

The area had been covered with dozens of new scents.

I acted quickly, jumping off the roof and over to the twins, grabbing them both by their wrists and holding them close to me just as a bunch of black cars drove over to us, men in black hurrying out and over to Stan, pinning him down against the hood of one of them.

"Hey, hands off, you stooge!! I-I don't understand! What did I do that warrants this much arresting?!" Stan kept complaining, but didn't struggle much.

That's when two familiar guys came out from one of the cars, Mason's eyes growing wide. "The government guys?! I thought you got eaten by zombies!"

"We survived," Agent Trigger replied. "Barely."

"I used Trigger as a human shield," Agent Powers continued as he walked over. "He cried like a baby."

"Hey! Not in front of the special ops guys..!"

Agent Powers first walked over to Stan, holding a tablet as it played a footage we couldn't see from here. "This is security footage of a government waste facility. At o-four hundred hours last night someone robbed three hundred gallons of dangerous waste."

Stan's eyes widened. "What?! You think that's me?!"

"Don't play dumb with us, Pines."

"But- but I actually am dumb!! Last night I was restocking the gift shop, I swear!!"

"Wait!! Grunkle Stan!!" Mabel was the first to run over. "You've got the wrong guy! Our Grunkle Stan might shoplift the occasional tangerine, but he's not some evil super villain!"

But Powers wasn't listening. "Listen, kid, we've been watching your family all summer and we've seen some disturbing things. But nothing as dangerous as what your uncle is hiding. Somewhere hidden in this shack is a doomsday device!"

The twins both stared back in shock, unsure of how to process the information while I still kept a grip on their shoulders, watching Powers walk away. "Trigger, you take the children. I'll talk to the old man. Sorry to break it to you, kids, but you don't know your uncle at all."

Teigger snapped his fingers, another agent running over and snatching up Mabel's popsicle. "Icy-Pop, clear!"

"HEY!"

We were forced into one of the cop cars. I was told to join when they realized I didn't have any legal guardians, resisting the urge to bite their hands off when they started to shove us forward, all while watching Stan beg to the twins he actually was innocent this time before being driven away.

Just what was happening right now..?

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

The drive had been going for about ten minutes now. Mason had the middle seat, work Mabel on the right and I on the left. I could feel his grip on my hand tighten every time Agent Trigger tried talking to us, a glare on his face, while Mabel mostly stared out the window.

"We've got Mr. Pines in custody," announced Powers through the radio. "Our men are searching the shack for that device. You take care of those kids."

Mabel gasped, "What are you gonna do to us?!"

"We'll be taking you to child services," Trigger answered while looking back at us through the rearview mirror, to which Mabel booed loudly. "In the meantime, enjoy some mindless reality tv designed to pacify you and make you stop asking questions."

I glanced over, seeing some surgeon hovering over a patient. "I'm about to make the incision.."

Then a man dressed in all vivid colors bursted out from a plant. "KER-PRANKED!"

"AHHH!!"

"You're watching Ker-Pranked with Justin Kerpranked!!" announced the tv, and I had to mentally stop myself from groaning out loud.

"Guys, this is crazy!" Mabel whispered to us. "There's no way Stan was stealing hazardous waste! We gotta clear his name!"

"Stan said he was restocking the shop last night," I pointed out, tracing back to my memories. "And the gift shop has a security camera that runs 24/7."

"Then if we can get the Mystery Shack surveillance tapes, we could prove his innocent!" Mason finished for me.

Mabel then looked around. "We just need to thing of a way out of here.. Think, Mabel, think."

Besides us, we spotted Manly Dan's truck driving by, a bumper sticker pressed on the back that read Sev'ral Timez Rulez! I knew Mabel got an idea when she smiled so wide it reached her ears.

First she knocked on the door, getting the man's attention. Then she breathe against the window so she could write Sev'ral Timez is overrated against it, pointing at it afterwards. Manly Dan reacted faster than we expected, gasping in anger and shock and swerving into our land, crashing against our car. I had to wrap an arm around both twins so they wouldn't hit their heads.

Trigger tried to open his door first, but he quickly realized it was stuck because of a tree branch. "Darn branch!!"

I managed to open the door with ease, all three of us hopping out unharmed as Mabel cheered. "Yes!!"

"Back up!! Requesting backup!!"

Mabel quickly snatched Trigger's device, throwing it to me. I already knew what she wanted, so I crushed it in my hand as soon as I grabbed it. "C'mon, guys, we're gonna go clear our uncle's name!!"

But just as we started walking away, Trigger started to speak again. "Oh, you poor kids.. You really think your uncle's innocent? I've seen it all before!" It was enough to make Mason stop on his tracks, making Mabel and I turn to him. "Fake names, double lives, one minute they're playing with water balloons, the next they're building doomsday devices! Your uncle scammed the whole world! You're gonna let him scam you, too?"

"You..." Mason paused for a moment, turning to Trigger. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"You're gonna regret this!!" And then the airbags hit Trigger's face as we walked away.

After a bit of Mission Impossible, we were able to sneak into the Mystery Shack, reaching the room where we could access the security cameras.

Mason turned to me first. "Do you know where he keeps them?"

"We've never really needed them before, so no.."

"Alright, if I were Stan, where would I hide those surveillance tapes?"

"Wait! The antelabbit!!" Mabel said as she pointed at the Jackalope on the wall.

Mason raised an eyebrow, "Don't you mean Jackalope?"

She snickered in response. "Yeah that can't be right."

I walked over first, being the tallest of the group, and reached to grab one of the antlers, fixing it up. This made the wall open up to reveal a small old monitor from at least ten years ago, already playing a footage.

"It's this week," Mabel pointed out. "This is it!"

The first thing we saw was Wendy, Mabel, and I cheering at Soos as he danced the warm on the floor. Mason looked at us, confused, and while I simply shrugged, Mabel smiled sheepishly. "Hey, someone yelled random dance party, we had to!"

He rolled his eyes, fast forwarding the footage until it showed Stan.

Mason smiled proudly. "Hah, there it is! Stan restocking like he said!"

"Check out the date," I continued. "This shows it happened last night! His alibi stands, he's innocent!"

But our hearts all sank when Stan suddenly left the gift shop, and as Mason fast forwarded a couple of hours ahead, Stan was nowhere in sight. "Uh oh.."

"Uh, maybe he's just going to the bathroom outdoors," Mabel mentioned. "The way nature intended!"

"For almost four hours though?" I pointed out, both looking at me with worry.

Mason fast forwarded some more, and a person in a full yellow suit and gas mask came in carrying large barrels, setting them all down in the gift shop.

We all gasped on instinct, with Mason going, "Stan, you didn't.."

"Don't panic!" Mabel interrupted. "That could be anyone in that suit!"

The man then hit his foot against one of the barrels yelling in pain as he held it, Stan's obvious and recognizable voice yelling out. "Hot Belgian waffles!! Wait.. I'm alone! I can swear for real!!" He took a deep inhale, and, "SON OF A-!"

I covered Mabel's ears as Mason sped up the footage again, turning to him. "That's Stan alright."

Mabel pulled away from me, waving her hands as she spoke. "Okay okay, so maybe Grunkle Stan stole some toxic waste! That doesn't mean he's leading a nefarious double life!"

But Mason had already turned on his detective instincts, already searching through a box he found. "Mabel, I'm not so sure about that.."

I walked over, pulling out a tiny flashlight I always had in my pockets for emergencies, my eyes widening at the sight. Fake IDs, all with Stan's picture, but all with different names and information. "W- What is all this..?"

"Stenson Pinefield..?" Mabel read one of the IDs, then picked up another. "Hal Forester..?!"

"Andrew "8-Ball" Alcatraz..?" Mason turned to us after reading one himself, a glare on his face. "These are all fake IDs, and you wouldn't need these unless you were trying to hide your real identity!!"

"But why would Stan do that?!" Mabel asked in a panic.

I continued to look through the box, eventually picking out an old looking newspaper, growing pale at the sight. Written in bold as the title, right above a picture of a broken car, read the words STAN PINES DEAD!

"Uh.. g-guys..?" I turned the newspaper over to them, their eyes growing wide.

"WHAT?!" Mason read first. "Stan Pines dead?!"

"Foul play suspected in Pines's death, fiery car crash?! Breaks cut?!" Mabel looked at her brother for answers. "By who?!"

Mason took another paper, one with Stan trying to block his face from a camera, his glare only sharpening with each new thing he found. "Unnamed grifter at large?!"

I peeked over his shoulder to get a better look. "Why would they call him unnamed?!"

His eyes suddenly grew wide, as if a wide revelation had hit him. "Unless Stan.."

"Isn't.." Mabel continued for him, slowly realizing herself.

"Stan?!" The three of us yelled it in synch, looking at the picture Stan would keep of himself in the room, smiling brightly.

Minutes passed of us just trying to make sense of everything we found, Mason anxiously pacing around the room. "Stan Pines is dead?! Then who have we been living with?! It doesn't make any sense!!"

"Well, there has to be some sort of explanation!" I answered, trying to reread everything to make sure we didn't make any mistakes.

"Maybe we're getting ker-pranked!" Mabel suggested, walking over to a nearby plant. "Justin Kerpranked is gonna jump up from behind one of these plants any minute now!" She waited a couple of seconds, then spoke again, "Any minute, Justin!"

But Mason was having none of his sister's antics. "I can't believe it.. This whole summer I've been looking for answers and the biggest mystery was right under our nose!"

I took a deep breath, pulling over another box to me and searching through it. "Okay, let's not lose our heads just yet. There has to be something else for us to.." I paused, taking a small paper from the box. "The secret code to hideout..?"

"Let me see that!" Mason sat beside me as I offered the paper, and he shined his black light over it to reveal an extra ink. "I see a 1, C, B, 3.. I've never seen a code like this..!"

"Wait, I have!!" Mabel turned to us, eyes wide. "Guys, it's the vending machine!!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We ran out to the gift shop as fast as we could, avoiding as many guards as we could, still in shock at what we had found.

But one good thing was spotted ahead; Soos was standing by true vending machine, all of us smiling as Mason called out to him. "Soos!!"

"AH!" He looked down at us, letting out a sigh of relief after being startled. "Oh, kids! Where have you been?"

"Wha- What are you doing here?!"

"Stan gave me a mission to protect this machine!" Soos chuckled, "I thought I loved snacks!"

"Soos, listen, something huge is going on here," Mason tried to explain. "If Stan is hiding some dangerous secret, we need to find out what it is! I need you to step aside."

Mabel stepped forward, trying her best to smile. "Yeah, just let us through so we can prove that this is all just a big misunderstanding!"

But Soon shook his head. "Guys, this seems crazy, but I promised Stan that I'd guard this with my life!"

That's when Mabel's expression grew said as she stepped forward, reaching into her pocket. "I'm sorry, Soos," she said, then blew a cloud of glitter at his face.

Soos screamed and flinched back, "ATTACK GLITTER!! IT'S PRETTY, BUT IT HURTS!!"

Both twins suddenly tried to tackle Soos, but because he was so much stronger than the two of them combined, they mostly just clung onto him like gorillas.

"Aw, c'mon, I don't wanna fight you guys! This hurts me more than it hurts you!" But the twins were still trying to fight, and Soos kept flinching at every move. "Seriously, it hurts me way more than it hurts you!!"

I took the chance to grab the code from Mason and put it in myself. Had Soos tried to fight against me, as big as he was, I would've probably hurt him far more than he deserved, so I didn't want to get involved in that way.

The vending machine opened up a second later, and Soos, along with the twins and I, were pulled back due to the lack of wall, falling down a set of stairs.

We all coughed as dust invaded our lungs, then helped Mason get back on his feet as the others stood up, all of us gasping in awe at the sight. There was a hallway in front of us, too dark to see right now, surrounded by metal and mechanical walls, dirty and dusty from years of hiding here.

Soos was the first to walk in. "It's like something from a video game!"

I picked in after, keeping Mason behind me by his arm. "More like a horror movie.."

"Or a dream!" Mabel added as she followed Soos.

Last was Mason, who had a look on his face that I couldn't determine. "Or a nightmare.."

We kept heading into the darkness, using my little flashlight to get around. I still held Mason's hand, and he gripped mine tight, both worried about what we might find.

At the end of the hall was a room that I had no words for. It was like some sort of lab from the moves, filled with buttons in every corner of the desk ahead, and a strange machine built at the other side of the window.

"Guys, are we dreaming..?" Mabel asked. "Somebody wake me up..!"

"This can't be real..!" Mason commented after.

"I don't understand!" Soos looked around, still mostly out of the loop. "Why would Mr. Pines have all this?!"

I passed a hand over the desk with all the buttons, the dust staining my fingers. "It's just like that bunker in the woods, it's the same architecture and everything..!"

"But what is it doing underneath the Mystery Shack?!"

"Okay okay, so he's got a huge gigantic lab!" Mabel interrupted again. "That doesn't mean anything bad, everyone's got secrets!" She ran to the desk, where a picture of the twins acting goofy was kept and took it to show us. "It's still Stan, and he loves us! And we love him, right?"

"It can't be.." Mason's trembling voice got our attention, making us rush over, and my heart dropped at what was resting on the desk. All three journals, one, two, and three, lying there, right in front of us. "It's impossible!"

"Maze.." I tried to calm him down, but he continued, taking the third journal.

"The other two journals?! All this time- All this time Stan had them?! I can't believe it!! Was anything he said to us real?! WHY WOULD HE HAVE THOSE JOURNALS?!"

"Maybe he's the author!" Soos quickly tried to soothe the situation.

But Mason was having none of it. "Or maybe he stole them from the author!! Maybe the reason he has all those fake IDs is because he is a master criminal, and this machine is his master plan!!"

He took the journals and opened them all in a specific page, each book being stacked and pressed against each either to make a bigger picture, a picture oddly similar to the machine in the other room.

Then he shined his black light over it and read. "I was wrong this whole time, the machine was meant to create knowledge, but it is too powerful. I was deceived and now it is too late. The device is fully operational- Could tear our universe apart-!! It must not fall into the wrong hands, if the clock ever reaches zero our universe is doomed!!"

"1:30 minutes"

The robotic voice made me jump, and Soos gasped as he pointed up. "It's the final countdown!! Just like they always sung about!!"

"The agents were right," Mason yelled as he searched through the journal. "We have to shut it down!!"

"1:15 minutes"

"In there, look!!" I pointed at where the machine is, another on the side titled Manual Override being seen.

We all ran in together, four keys already placed into the four slots, Mason gesturing us over. "Turn these, together!"

So we did, and a bright red button rose up from the ground, Mason pointing at it. "That's it!! The shutdown switch!"

"Are you this is the right thing to do?!" I asked as he ran over to the button, Mabel holding onto my arm.

"We don't have another choice!" Mason's hands hovered over the button, a serious look on his face as he's about to press it. "This all stops now!"

"DONT TOUCH THAT BUTTON!!" Stan's voice echoed throughout the room as he ran inside, panting for air.

The silence in the room as defining, none of us knowing what to do. Mason still had his hand over the button. Mabel still gripped my arm. Soos had wrapped his arms around both of us.

Everything felt as if time had stopped.

Stan began to walk towards Mason. "Dipper, just back away..! Please don't press that shut down button..!! You gotta trust me..!!"

"And I should trust you why?!" Mason glared back at his uncle. "After you stole radioactive waste?! After you lied to us all summer?!"

"Look, I know this all seems nuts, but I need that machine to stay on!!! If you just let me explain-!"

beep beep beep

Stan checked his watched at the Boise, his eyes growing wide. "Oh no! Brace yourselves!!"

A gasp left my lips as the ground against my feet suddenly disappeared. It wasn't until I looked down that I realized the floor hadn't disappeared, it was that we were floating, being dragged around the room like rag dolls.

"t-minus 35 seconds"

"DIPPER!" Mabel called out, making her brother look over.

"Mabel, hurry, shut it down!!"

Mason was too far from the button now, but Mabel's foot had tangled itself on a nearby wire, which she used to drag herself over to the button.

"NO!!" Stan immediately tried to drag himself to Mabel and the button. "Mabel!! Mabel, wait, STOP!!" But then Soos suddenly tackled him to the side midair, Stan trying to push him off. "Soos, what are you doing?! I gave you an order!!"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Pines, if that is your real name, but I have a new mission now! Protecting these kids!!"

"Soos, you idiot, let me go!!"

I didn't know what to do, but I didn't want anyone to get hurt, so I joined Soos in trying to keep Stan away, wrapping my arms around his neck from behind.

Stan yelled again, trying to rip my arms away from him. "(y/n), please!! I know you're more sensible than this!!"

"Nothing that's happened today has made any sense to me!!" I tightened my grip. "But I have to keep the twins safe!!"

"Mabel, press the red button!!" Mason yelled. "Shut it down!!"

"No, you can't!!" Stan yelled after. "You gotta trust me!!"

The fear in Mabel's eyes could be spotted from a mile away as tears ran down her cheeks, sobs interrupting her words. "Grunkle Stan I-... I don't even know if you're my grunkle!! I wanna believe you, but-!"

"Then listen to me!! Remember this morning when I said I wanted to tell you guys something?!"

"t-minus 20 seconds"

We all screamed as a strange force is back against the wall, leaving onto Mabel near the machinery as she held on to the button for dear life.

But Stan continued. "I wanted to say that you're gonna hear some bad things about me, and some of them are true! But trust me, everything I've worked for, everything I care about, it's all for this family!!"

"Mabel, what if he's lying?!" Mason tried to argue. "This thing could destroy the universe!! Listen to your head!!"

"Look into my eyes, Mabel!! You really think I'm a bad guy?!"

"HE'S LYING!! SHUT IT DOWN, NOW!"

"MABEL, PLEASE!"

"ten"

"nine"

"Grunkle Stan, I.."

"seven"

"six"

"five"

"I..!"

"four"

"three"

That's when Mabel closed her eyes, let for of the button, and let the lack of gravity carry her away. "I trust you."

Mason's eyes grew wide. "MABEL, ARE YOU CRAZY?!? WE'RE ALL GONNA-!!"

"one"

...

For a moment, all I heard were everyone's screams as a light too bright to see swallowed us whole. I'm not sure how long I was unconscious for after that, or if I was at all, the the next thing I remember was waking up on the floor surrounded by ruble, Mason at my side.

The machine from earlier, the portal, had been turned on, rumbling loudly as the light lit up the whole room.

And someone walked through from the other side.

They had a thick jacket to cover their body, a pair of goggles and a scarf covered their face. They took slow, cautious steps, picking up one of the journals and placing a hand over it. I didn't realize until much later that the fingers on the person matched the fingers on the journal's cover; six.

"W-what..?" Mason was the first to break the eerie silence. "Who is that..?!"

"The author of the journals," Stan answered, the mysterious figure taking off his goggles and scarf to reveal Stan's exact face. "My brother."

We all stared in shock, a strange cold filling my insides. Stan had a brother this whole time?!

"Is this the part where one of us faints?" Mabel asked.

Soos giggled in response. "I am so on it, dudes."

Thanks for reading!!! 'Till next time!!!

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