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

"Finally, after all these long years of waiting, you're actually here!" Stan walked over to the strange new man, arms wide as he reached for a hug. "Brother!!"

But the other man just punched him across the face.

Stan flinched back, holding his jaw. "OW! What the heck was that for?!"

"This was an insanely risky move, restarting the portal," the man argued back. "Didn't you read my warnings?!"

"Warnings smarnings!! How's about a thanks for saving you from what appears to be-! ... I dunno, some kind of sci-fi sideburn dimension?!"

"Thank you?! You really think I'm gonna thank you after what you did thirty years ago?!"

"What I did?! Why you ungrateful-!!" Stan was the one to throw a punch this time, but the other man easily avoided it before grabbing his arm and pinning Stan down against the ground. "Don't except me to go easy on you just because you're family!!"

That's when Mabel intervened, waving her arm to get everyone's attention. "Hey, hi, Mabel here! Quick question. WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON HERE?!"

The man looked over at us, his eyes widening as he let go. "Stan, you didn't tell me there were children down here. And some sort of.. large hairless gopher?"

Soos giggled at that. "I get that a lot!"

"Those two are your family, Poindexter," Stan said as he pointed to the twins. "Shermy's grandkids."

To our surprise, the man smiled after hearing that. "I.. I have a niece and nephew..?!" He first walked over to Mabel, kneeling down to reach her eye sight as he offered a hand. "Greetings! Do kids still say greetings? I haven't been in this dimension for a really long time."

Mabel smiled, inspecting his hand. "Whoa, six-fingered hand shake?! It's a full fingered friendlier than normal!!"

The man laughed at that. "I like this kid! She's weird!"

Mason was having.. a bit of a harder time processing everything. "I- I can't believe it..! You're the author of the journals!!"

The man stood up and pulled out the journal he picked up earlier from his jacket pocket, a curious look in his gaze. "You've read my journals?"

"I-I haven't just read them, I've lived them!!" Mason replied, anxiously pacing around. "I've been waiting for so long to meet you, I-I don't know what to say, I have so many questions, I- Ohhhh, I think I'm gonna through up....!"

I couldn't help but laugh at his reaction, carefully placing one hand on his shoulder and the other gently patting his back. "Okay, deep breaths, it's okay.."

He adjusted his posture at my touch, still gagging a bit. "No no, false alarm! Just need to ride it out!"

"Listen, they'll be time for introductions later," the man quickly interrupted. "But first, tell me, Stan, are there any security breaches? Does anyone else know about this portal?"

"No, just us." Then Stan pointed upstairs, "Also maybe he entire US government."

"The WHAT?" The man rushed over to look at the security monitors, where we could see the agents already looking around.

Agent Powers was already instructing orders. "Fan out! We're not going anywhere 'till we find Stan Pines and those kids!"

The man let out a sigh, gripping the bridge of his nose. "Okay, it's alright! Got a while before they find this room. We just need to lay low and think of a plan!"

"Does that mean we'll be stuck down here for a while?" I asked, tugging at the end of my jacket.

Mabel didn't seem too displeased by that. "That means we have time!! Who wants to tell us their entire mysterious backstory?!"

The man was already writing something down in his journal, a serious look on his face. "Yes, I have some questions about all this myself, Stanley."

Our eyes widened at that, Mason pointing out what we all just heard. "Wait, Stanley?"

Mabel turned to their uncle, "But.. your name is Stanford!"

The man's eyes widened for just a moment, then they sharpened into a glare as he faced his brother. "Wait, you took my name?! What have you been doing all these years, you knucklehead?!"

Mason was also glaring over. "Yeah, Grunkle Stan, no more lies!! You owe us some answers!! What's the deal with this portal?! Why did you keep this a secret?!"

"And what happened between you and your brother?!" Mabel added.

Soos was kinda just here like me. "I'm hoping all this aligns with my fanfics, Stan, if not I will be very disappointed!!"

"Okay, okay okay, I know I have a lot of explaining to do!" Stan let out a sigh, dramatically glancing up. "It all started a lifetime ago..

"Nineteen sixty something, Glass Shard Beach, New Jersey. I lived with my Ma and Pa in the Lead Paint District in the family pawn shop. Dad was a strict man, tough as a cinderblock and not easily impressed. Mom was a pathological liar, which served her well as a phone physic. And then there was my nerdy twin brother Stanford. As if his abnormal high IQ wasn't enough, he also had a rare birth defect, six fingers in each hand, which might have explained his obsession with sci-fi mystery weirdness. As for me, I had what Mom liked to call personality.

"But as different as we were, we were the perfect team. And everyday we'd wander the beach looking for adventure. Those were the good times.. Those bullies may have been right about us not making many friends, but when push comes to shove, you only really need one.

"Ford's brain seemed to get more impressive every year. So did our pet project. Sure I got more than my fair share of trouble, but when your brother's the smartest kid in school, you've always got a leg up on the competition. The future was looking bright, for both of us. 'Till one day.."

~~~about fifty years in the past - Third Person POV~~~

"Pines twins to the principal's office. Pines twins to the principal's office," spoke the voice through the intercom.

Young Stanley leaned back against his chair, glaring up in annoyance. "Ah, great. What is it this time?"

Both him and young Stanford walk over to the the office, about to go through the main door, when the secretary put a hand up at Stanley. "Not you." Then she pointed at Stanford, "Him."

So Stanley sat in the chairs in the hall with crossed arms and a grumble while Stanford walking into the office, surprised to see both his parents already inside.

He awkwardly sat in between them, and the principal began to explain. "Now, Mr. Pines," he started, referring to their father, "I'd like to speak with you very frankly, if I may."

"Very frankly is the only way I speak."

"You have two sons. One of them in incredibly gifted, the other one is standing outside this room and he's name's Stanley."

Their mother was immediately concerned by what was being said. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying your son Stanford is a genius!! All his teachers are going bananas over his science fair experiment! You ever head of West Coast Tech?! Best college in the country!!" He handed Stanford a pamphlet. "Their graduates turn science fiction into science fact!! The admissions team is visiting tomorrow to check out Stanford's experiment! Your son may be a future millionaire, Mr. Pines!"

A smile grew on their father's face. "I'm impressed!"

"But what about our little free spirit Stanley?" their mother asked.

Principal rolled his eyes. "That clown? At this rate, he'll be lucky to graduate high school! Look, there's a saltwater taffy store on the dock and somebody's gotta get paid to scrape the barnacles off of it. Stanford's going places! But hey, look on the bright side, at least you'll have one son here in New Jersey forever."

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

"Joke's on them if they think you want to go to some stuffy college on the other side of the country," Stanley said as he swung at the swings from their childhood in front of the Nee Jersey beach. "Once we get the Stan'o War complete, it's gonna be beaches, babes, and international treasure hunting for us!"

Stanford sat on the other swing, deep in thought. "Look, Stan, I can't pass up a chance like this! This school has cutting edge programs and multi-dimensional paradigm theory!"

"Beep boop, I am a nerd robot. That's you, that's what you sound like."

Stanford chuckled at Stanley's antics. "Oh well, if the college board isn't impressed with my experiment tomorrow, then okay, I'll do the treasure hunting thing!"

Stanley raised an eyebrow, "And if they are?"

"Well, then I guess you better come visit me on the other side of the country!" Stanford playfully punched his brother's arm before walking away, leaving Stanley alone with his thoughts.

A dangerous thing indeed.

"Without Ford, I was half of a dynamic duo," the present day Stan continued to explain. "I couldn't make it out of there without him. And now thanks to that dumb college, I was gonna loose my brother forever!"

The younger Stanley was now at the science fair after hours, eating from the bag of chips he head earlier while glaring daggers at his brother's machine.

"This is all your fault, you dumb machine!!" In a rage, he threw the bag on the ground and punched the table the machine was on. But that proved to be his undoing, for it caused something in the machine to go wrong. Stanley's eyes widened, now nervous as he backed away. "Oh no! Oh no no!! What did I do?!"

He looked around for the missing piece, picking it up and placing it where it hypothetically used to be. "There, alright, good as new! ... probably." Finally, he placed a blanket over the entire project, then tiptoed away.

Even as Stanford stood besides his project the next morning, looking more clean than usual and taking q deep breath to calm himself, he had no idea what had occurred the previous night.

A prestigious looking man walked over with a list, his expression serious as he was followed by two others similar to him. "Alright, kid. Show us what you got."

"Okay," Stanford replied as he perked up, a smile on his face. "Well, what would you say if I told you the future of technology was beneath this sheet?!"

As Stanford pulled off the blanket, a chill went up his spine at the answer he received. "I'd say we wasted a car trip."

"What?!" He looked at his machine, noticing it had malfunction. "But it was stable yesterday!! A-a fuse must've blown or something!"

The man scratched out Stanford's name from his lip without a care in the world. "Kid, a perpetual motion machine has one job: to not stop. I don't think your West Coast Tech material."

"No, wait, don't go!!" Stanford chased after the others as they walked away for a moment, his expression a face of pure heartbreak. "I worked so hard!!"

But then he stepped on something that didn't feel like a floor. It didn't sound like one either, more of a paper crumbling under his pressure. When he looked down, he noticed it was an empty bag of chips.

Chips he had seen before.

Later, back home, Stanley was lying down on his living room couch watching television while playing with a paddle-and-ball toy. "One paddle paddle paddle, two paddle paddle- Man, that Jackie-O, what a fox!"

Furious wouldn't begin to describe what Stanford was feeling when he bursted into the room, a glare on his face.

But Stanley hadn't realized it yet, sitting up with a smile. "Hey, what's the word, Sixer?"

"Can you explain what this was doing next to my broken project?!" Stanford pulled out the empty back of chips.

Stanley immediately grew a shade paler, glancing away. "Okay, I might have accidentally been horsing around-"

"This was no accident, Stan!! You did this!! You did this because you couldn't handle me going to college on my own!!"

"Look, it was a mistake," Stan replied as he stood up. "Although, if you think about it, maybe there's a silver lining! Huh~? Treasure hunting~?"

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Why would I want to do anything with the person who sabotaged my entire future?!" Stanford pushed Stanley back against the couch, which was a shock in itself since Stanford never tended to get physically violent.

But to add to the fear, their father had just been walking by, and after hearing Stanford's accusations, he grabbed Stanley by his shirt and lifted him up. "You did what, you knucklehead?!"

Their mom had just woken up because of all the racket, carrying a baby as she walked into the room. "Stanley, what's going on in here?"

"Wait no- I can explain-!! It was a mistake-!!"

He didn't have time to say anything else as his father threw him out of their house and into the street. "YOU IGNORAMUS!! Your brother was gonna be our ticket out of this dump!! All you ever do is lie and cheat and ride on your brother's coattails! Well, this time you cost our family potential millions!! And until you make us a fortune, you're not welcome in this household!!" Last thing he did was throw him a bag of supplies.

"WHAT?!" Stanley was still trying to process it all, standing up in a shock. He noticed Stanford was now looking down at him from their bedroom window, and a small pinch of hope lit up in his chest. "Stanford, tell him he's being crazy!!"

But Stanford's expression showed he was too hurt to forgive in the moment, looking at the pamphlet of West Coast Tech with a heartbroken look before closing the window.

Stanley's eyes widened at the gesture. "Stanford..? Don't leave me hanging! High six?!"

Their father slammed the door in his face, and after a few seconds of registering, Stanley stood up with a glare. "FINE! I can make it on my own!! I don't need you!! I don't need anyone!! I'll make millions and you'll rue the day the day you turn your back on me!!"

Finally, he got and his car and drove away, that being the last time he ever saw his home or parents again.

~~~back in the present - Your POV~~~

"Thanks to one dumb mistake, I had no brother, no home, no nothing," Stan continued to tell his story. "But I had a plan to fix everything."

Mabel already had a tissue in hand, blowing into it as she cried. "Oh, this story's so sad!! I know what you two little broken teacups need! To hug it out!!"

Nobody moved.

"Hug it out!!"

Still nothing.

"Hug train's coming in the station!! Hug-apalooza!! 2000!!"

Stan glares at her. "Kid, will you knock that off?! I'm trying to tell my life story here! I had decided I wasn't gonna show my face at home 'till I proved I could make something of myself.

"Unfortunately, the treasure hunting business was slow going. Apparently, gold is some kind of rare metal. Luckily, I struck another kind of gold! In sales!! I had made my mark alright! Unfortunately so did the Shammies. Apparently the cheap dye I used to color them only made stains worse. Customers weren't crazy about that. Luckily, they were chasing me with Stan co-brand pitchforks.

"I was officially band from New Jersey. But with a quick name change, Steve Pinington was ready to take on Pennsylvania! It didn't work. I traveled the whole country, sometimes outside of it, always one step ahead of the law looking for something that would be my big break."

I pulled out a fake ID I had kept in my pocket incase we needed proof for anything, inspecting it once again. "Guess that explains all the fake IDs."

Mason turned his attention to the brother. "But wait, what about you? Did you end up going to your dream school?"

He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Not exactly. I had to go to Backupsmore University. In a place like that, I had to work twice as hard. Luckily, that's what I do best! I went from undergrad to PhD three years ahead of schedule, wrote a thesis that was nationally ranked, and was awarded an enormous grant for my own scientific research! But what to study..?

"My whole life I've been teased for my six fingers, but that got me thinking about anomalies: things that were odd, unusual, statistically improbable! And according to my investigations, there was one place with a higher concentration of these things than anywhere else, a small lumber town in roadkill county Oregon: Gravity Falls."

"Meanwhile, your old Grunkle Stan was doing great! I'd come up with a sophisticated new business strategy, I was in great shape, living on my own, and the best part was I didn't need help from nobody!"

Stanford continued, "I was heading out on my own as well. I set to work using my grant money to investigate the strange properties of this town. But what would I find here? I began to investigate at once! I knew I'd have to record my findings. I began to keep a journal-"

A loud girlish shriek interrupted the story, startling us all. "The journals!!"

Turned out to be Mason, fangirling about the mention of the journals. Everyone turned to look at him, and he grew red in the face at the realization, clearing his throat. "Sorry, sorry, just got excited there, about the journals. Keep- keep talking."

Stanford raised an eyebrow, then continued, "I began to keep a journal-"

Another shriek, and it took all of my being not to laugh.

Stanford cleared his throat. "Just gonna ignore that. There were anomalies everywhere! And the more I looked, the more I saw..! It was finally a place where I felt at home. But something nagged at me: where did it all come from? It seemed to me the answer must lie outside of our world, a dimension of weirdness leaking into ours.

"I realized the only way to understand Gravity Falls would be to build a gateway, a portal to the source of its weirdness. But I couldn't make it alone. I decided to call up my old college buddy, Fiddleford McGucket, a young but brilliant mechanic who was wasting his talent trying to make personal computers in some garage in Palo Alto.

"Many long nights were spent perfecting the machine. It would be the crowning achievement of my studies, an answer to the source of this town's anomalies. The time had come to test it! But something went wrong.. Fiddleford had gotten tangled with the dummy and entered the portal. Luckily I was able to pull him back. He started speaking gibberish, and then started claiming that this machine was dangerous! He left the project shortly after that.

"I was in over my head, and feared I was losing my sanity! I needed help, someone I could trust.."

~~~about thirty years in the past - Third Person POV~~~

An older Stanley walked up to an old version of the Mystery Shack, before it had become the tourist attraction it was today, just a simple wooden hut in the woods. He seemed visibly nervous as he walked up the stairs of the porch, standing frozen in front of the door.

He then let out a sigh. "You haven't seen your brother in over ten years.. It's okay, he's family. He won't bite."

But as he knocked on the door, Stanford immediately swung it open, looking like he hadn't showered in days and a crazed look in his eyes as he pointed a crossbow at Stanley. "Who is it?! Have you come to steal my eyes?!"

"Well, I can always count on you for a warm welcome," Stanley replied with slight annoyance.

But Stanford seemed quite relieved to see his brother, setting the crossbow down. "Stanley, did anyone follow you? Anyone at all?"

"Eh, hello to you, too, pal." Then Stanford grabbed Stanley's arm, pulling him into the shack and getting a small yell of surprise from his brother. Once they were both inside and the door was closed, Stanford shined a light into Stanley's eyes, making him flinch. "Hey!! What is this?!"

"Sorry, I just had to make sure you weren't.. uh- it's nothing. Come in, come in," Stanford said, waving at his brother to follow.

Stanley was just very confused as he walked after him. "Uh, you gonna explain what's going on here? You're acting like Mom after her tenth cup of coffee."

"Listen, there isn't much time," he began to explain, looking through his first journal. "I've made huge mistakes and I don't know who I can trust anymore."

"Hey, uh, easy there. Let's talk this through, okay?"

"I have something to show you. Something you won't believe."

"Look, I've been around the world, okay? Whatever it is, I'll understand!" Stanley said confidently as he was led downstairs. Then he stared at what was ahead of him in the basement and said, "There is nothing about this I understand."

"It's a trans-universal gateway," Stanford explained, "a punch hole through a weak spot in our dimension. I created it to unlock the mysteries of the universe, but it could just as easily be harnessed for terrible destruction. That's why I shut it down and hid my journals which explain how to operate it. There's only one journal left, and you're the only person I can trust to take it." He handed the journal to Stan, a faint nostalgic look on his face. "I have something to ask of you. Remember our plans to sail around the world on a boat?"

A bright smile grew on Stanley's face at the memory, at the hope of what his brother's question meant. Was their dream gonna be achieved after all?

"Take this book, get on a boat, and sail as far away as you can! To the edge of the Earth! Bury it where no one can find it!"

Whatever hope Stanley had felt vanished just as quickly, his shoulders drooping as he stared at Stanford in disbelief. But that disbelief quickly turned to anger. "That's it?! You finally want to see me after ten years and it's to tell me to get as far away as possible?!"

"Stanley, you don't understand what I'm up against!! What I've been through!!"

"No, you don't understand what I've been through!! I've been to prison in three different countries!! I once had to chew my way out of the trunk of a car!! You think you've got problems?! I've got a mullet, Stanford!! Meanwhile, where have you been?! Living it up in your fancy house in the woods, selfishly hoarding your college money because you only care about yourself!!"

That seemed to snap something in Stanford, getting just as angry. "I'm selfish..? I'm selfish, Stanley?! How can you say that after costing me my dream school?! I'm giving you a chance to do the first worthwhile thing in your life and you won't even listen!!"

"Well listen to this!! You want me to get rid of this book?! Fine, I'll get rid of it right now!!" Stanley pulled out a lighter from his pocket, placing it so the flame was right under the journal's corner.

"NO!!" Stanford yelled with wide eyes, immediately yanking it away from the flames, though Stanley still had a grip on it. "You don't understand!!"

"You said you wanted me to have it so I'll do what I want with it!!" Stanley yanked it back.

"MY RESEARCH!" He tackled Stanley, both fear and anger swirling through his mine. The impact caused Stanley to drop the journal a bit far from them, and when Stanford tried to run to grab it, Stanley grabbed his leg and pulled him back, taking the journal for himself again.

"Stanley, give it back!!" Stanford yelled, grabbing the other end of the journal and trying to pull it away from each other.

This led the fight into the room with the portal, and eventually, Stanley bumped into one of the machines with all the buttons and switches, turning a few things on.

But neither of them had noticed, they both just glared with rage at each other. Stanley most of all. "You want it back, you're gonna have to try harder than that!! You left me behind, you jerk!! It was supposed to be us forever, you ruined my life!!"

"You ruined your own life!!" Stanford argued back, kicking Stanley's chest so he could yank the journal back for himself.

However, Stanley ended up falling against the side of another machine, one with a burning symbol sticking out. He landed right into it, letting out a scream of pain before pulling away, the hissing sound of burning flesh lingering in the air.

Stanford's eyes widened in a panic. "STANLEY! Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!! Are you o- OW!" He flinched back as Stanley punched his face, causing Stanford to drop the journal yet again.

"Some brother you turned out to be," Stanley began. "You care more about your dumb mysteries than your family?! Well then you can have'm!!" He pushed the journal back into Stanford's chest, but that made Stanford stumble back over a line that had been drawn on the floor.

A line that divided being too close to the portal.

Stanford immediately began to hover, both of the twins' eyes widening with fear as he got closer to the swirling circle in the back. Stanley at his brother, confused, hoping he'd tell him about the off switch. "Whoa whoa, hey, what's going on?!"

"W-whoa- AH!"

"Hey, hey, Stanford!!"

"Stanley, Stanley, help me!!"

"Oh no, what do I do?!"

"Stanley, Stanley, do something!!" As Stanford got closer to the portal, he threw his journal at Stanley as one last resort, the panic in his face too obvious to look away from. "STANLEY!!"

Then he was through, and the machine turned off with a bang, smoke trailing from its side.

Stanley sat up from the daze of the explosion, looking at the now dark circle in the middle. "Stanford..?"

But he wasn't around, not anymore. The only piece of him that remained were his square-shaped glasses, the one he'd had since childhood.

Stanley ran to the portal, starting to punch it. "STANFORD, COME BACK! I-I didn't mean it!!" He started pushing the lever in the middle of the room, but it wouldn't budge. "I just got'm back, I can't loose him again!!"

"I'd lost him," Stan continued his story. "I didn't know if he was dead or alive in some distant galaxy, but I knew his journal must have the answer to getting him back, somehow. I didn't get much sleep that night, or the night after that. I tried for weeks to turn that dumb machine back on, but without the other two journals, it was hopeless. Finally I ran out of food, I had no choice but to go into town."

A tired Stanley walked up to the cashier at the bubbly Dusk2Dawn convenience store, placing a bag of bread on it.

Ma, one of the owners that was currently working register, looked at him with a warm smile. "Just the bread then, there, stranger? That'll be 99 cents."

But when Stanley checked his pockets, he grew pale. He didn't have enough for that, hell, he didn't have anything at all.

"Hey, that's no stranger," he heard a woman say, a younger Lazy Susan. "That must be the mysterious science guy that lives in the woods!"

People began to gather around at that, making Stanley feel uncomfortable. "N-no, no, you got the wrong guy-"

"I've heard strange stories about that old shack," commented a young Toby Determined.

A young Blubbs was there too. "Yeah, mysterious lights and spooky experiments!"

Pa, the other owner and Ma's husband, walked over to her with a smile. "Gosh, I'd pay anything to see what kind of shenanigans you get up in there!"

"Oh, me too!" Lazy Susan added. "Do you ever give tours?"

"No, really, I-" But he quickly stopped himself from declining, looking back at the junk in his pockets. Then he let out a sigh and tried to put on a smile. "Yes, I do give tours! Ten-, no no, fifteen bucks a person!"

For a few seconds, people stared at as if he was crazy, but they all pulled out the money he mentioned was needed and he smiled to himself.

Lazy Susan placed a hand on his shoulder. "Sir, what did you say your name was, you man of mystery?"

"Oh, Stan-" He paused and thought for a moment, then answered, "Ford. Stanford Pines."

~~~back in the present - Your POV~~~

"So I came up with a plan. I couldn't leave my brother's house until I figured out how to save him, but I needed to pay his mortgage somehow. For once in my life, people were actually buying what I was selling! And so the Murder Hut was born, later renamed the Mystery Shack. Finally I found something I was good at. For once being a liar and a cheat paid off.

"The old me was dead, and I faked a car crash to prove it. By day, I was Stanford Pines, Mr. Mystery! But by night, I was down in the basement trying to bring the real Stanford back. I couldn't risk anyone learning the truth and sabotaging my mission, so I lied to everyone. The town, my family, your parents, even you kids.."

"So all this time you were only trying to save your brother," Mason repeated, shrinking with guilt. "Grunkle Stan, I'm so sorry I didn't believe you.."

Stan gave him a smile. "That's okay, kid, I probably wouldn't have believed me either.."

"I heard talking!!" We all flinched at Power's voice from upstairs. "It was coming from downstairs!!"

"We're too late, the agents are coming for us!!"

Mabel held onto my arm in a panic. "What do we do?!"

"Oh man!! I was so spellbound by your dramatic tale I forgot all about those dudes!!" Soos said, which frankly, so did I.

But then an idea came to my mind. "Wait.. that's it, forget! Maze, the pistol!"

Mason's eyes widened as he realized what I was saying, taking out the memory gun we got from that Blind Eye cult adventure we had a little while back.

The brother looked at it with shock, but not in a bad way. "Of course! I don't know how you got a hold of one if these, but this is perfect! If I can just amplify the signal to a radio headset frequency.." He took the gun and adjusted a few wires here and there, then pointed it to a glass nearby. "There! Now everyone plug your ears! Get down, now!!"

We all did as told, kneeling down as he plugged our ears.

Nothing seemed any different, but something must've happened, because when we went back upstairs and out to the porch, all ththe government agents seemed awfully lost.

Powers especially. "What? Where am I? Why am I standing in some sort of goofy fun knick knack house?"

"Stand down, gentlemen!" The man with Stan's face stood tall on the porch, " reading" some papers Mabel drew earlier. "I've been sent with the latest intel from Washington. According to this very real report, the power surges of Gravity Falls were actually due to radiation from an unreported meteor shower, a total embarrassment for your whole department. Luckily I'm here to take this mess off your hands, but I'll need all of your.. floppy disks and uh.. 8tracks, right?"

"Uh, everything about this case is contained on this drive."

At Powers' explanation, Trigger handed the flash drive to the man.

He then raised an eyebrow. "Well, what are you waiting for, a kiss on the cheek?! Get out of here before I have your butts court-martialed!!"

"Uh- y-yes, sir. Apologies, sir." Powers then e around and whistled. "Falls alarm, everyone!"

Once all the agents got into their vehicles and left the man gave the flash drive to Gompers, who happily ate it up.

Mabel then ran over with a smile. "Great uncle Stanford, that was amazing!!"

Stan just rolled his eyes. "Let's not go crazy, it was serviceable."

But the man seemed pleased with her with her reaction, letting out a chuckle. "Thank you, kids. But please, call be Ford."

"Sure, thanks great uncle Ford!" Mason then pulled out a notepad and a pen, excitedly smiling up at his new great uncle. "So uh, would you mind if I ask you a couple billion questions about Gravity Falls?!"

"Um, well, I-"

But Stan started to gently shove Mason back to the door. "Alright, kids, it's been a long day, and me and my brother have a lot to talk about. Why don't you hit the hay, huh?"

"But it's the author!!" Mason pointed at Ford. "I've been waiting so long to ask questions about-!!"

But the look in Stan's eyes clearly said he didn't want this happening, at least, not right now. So I placed a hand on Mason's shoulder and smiled down at him. "Maze, he's your uncle. You'll have plenty of time to question him later, but we've been through ten lifetimes today, so let's get some rest first, okay..?"

Mason looked up at me, then at Ford, then let out a heavy sigh. "Okay.."

He let me drag him back to the door, clearly looking defeated, when Ford's new but booming and demanding voice called out. "You.."

Mason and I both turned back, seeing Ford's eyes on me. They were narrowed with a hint of suspicion, as if I was a subject he was studying. It made me feel uneasy. "Who exactly are you? You're not another one of my new family members, are you?"

"He's one of my employees," Stan replied. "And if things go well, possibly your new nephew-in-law."

I felt myself grow hot in the face. "Mr. Pines, please stop that..!"

Mason also felt flustered, glancing away as he shuffled his foot a bit.

But Ford wasn't focused on that last comment, he didn't laugh or feel awkward. "Right. It's nice to meet you."

"Yeah.. you, too."

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

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