Returning his A.V. to the Beetle Battle Base, Stingerborg rushed back around to the front of the Hillhurst. There he found Dipper waiting at the base of the front steps with Jo and Roland, who were out of their armor.

Flabber had already cleaned up the battle damage; Hillhurst and its surrounding property was back to its old dilapidated self as the Beetle Battle Base sank into the ground via lift. Like before, no evidence of the climactic battle remained.

“Hey guys!” He called out, running up to them. “Back Blast!”

In a flash, the Stingerborg armor was gone. Looking down at himself then at Roland and Jo to make sure everyone was intact, Drew smiled. “We won.”

Dipper smiled back. “You guys did great.”

Roland walked up and patted Drew hard on the shoulder. “Man, wishing for the Beetle Battle Base was a power move. I can’t believe we have the AVs now!”

“Well, if the Magnavores are gonna keep coming here, having the Beetle Battle Base around means they won’t come here without a fight.”

Dipper had read enough of the comic books over the last few days to know what he was talking about. “Here’s hoping that it can really protect against them teleporting here like it does in the comics.”

“If it can’t, it has other defenses that are probably all around the vineyard now,” Drew replied, “We can head inside later and have a look at the systems.”

He clapped his hands together. “But let’s worry about that later? Is everyone else all right?”

Dipper looked back at the house. “No one else is hurt. Star got a bump on the head and Mabel is checking to see if it’s a concussion.”

Jo turned her head and looked at Dipper, her eyebrow raised. “She can tell?”

“Yeah, she spent a whole year studying first aid after we got back from Gravity Falls, because we have a tendency to get into situations like this.”

Roland regarded Jo with a mild glare for her disbelieving tone. “Wow, that’s a useful skill for us to have.”

Jo let out a snort and disengaged, heading up the stairs to the door. “This I gotta see.”

Drew watched Jo walk into the house, then turned to Dipper and Roland. “Okay, what was that?”

Roland glowered after Jo. “She came to school with a bug up her ass about you, and got into it with the girls at lunch.”

A grimace spread across Drew’s face. “Ugh, I’m sorry for any trouble she caused…”

“You don’t need to apologize for her,” Dipper assured him. “We’ll sort it out later.”

“Relax, cuh,” Roland added. “We got more important things to worry about right now than some teen girl shit.”

Drew stopped, and then realized something. “Yeah, we do.”

In the organ room, Star was already sitting up and being examined by Flabber–dressed in a blue TOS-era StarFleet uniform. In his hand he held a series-accurate recreation of the original Tricorder, which beeped and flashed as he held it near her head.

“Ooh, it’s beeping,” Star cooed, “So cute.”

Marco, sitting beside her, looked back and forth between her and the device. “Is that safe to be waving near her head?”

Janna, behind the couch and leaning against it, spoke up next. “Yeah, and I thought you couldn’t pull things from stuff that worked.”

Flabber looked over at her. “I’m a cosplayer Jan, not a doctor.” He tossed the device over his shoulder, Drew catching it soon as he crossed the threshold. “But I do know a thing or two about medicine.”

He spun around, creating a tornado, before stopping–now crossdressed as a candy striper nurse, his pompadour joined with a paper nurse’s hat. In a husky voice he spoke. “I was Dr. Hillhurst’s chief assistant during all of his examinations, surgeries, emergency follow-up surgeries, and subsequent autopsies…”

Star looked up at him. “Am I going to die?”

“Well, four out of five Flabbers recommend…” Four more Flabbers appeared next to Flabber, all of them wearing suits and labcoats like stuffy medical professionals. “… That you just need some rest and relaxation for a few days to recover from that bump on your noggin.”

Three of them rabbled amongst themselves in agreement while the fourth gazed off into the distance with a glassy-eyed look and drool running from the corner of his mouth.

Mabel, sitting on the other side of Star, looked at the fourth copy. “What do you think?”

“Uhh… she got the fibromyalgia,” the fourth Flabber droned, “And she should buy lots of pain-killers.”

Dipper repressed the dark laugh that earned. “But she is going to be fine, right?”

Mabel kicked her feet up and sprang off the couch onto them. “Flabber was just checking my work, she’ll be fine.”

Dipper looked at Star and Marco. “I’m glad you’re okay. That was really scary when Jara got serious.”

“We’ve had worse,” Star assured him.

Marco nodded. “Way worse.”

An opportunity to ask some real questions sprang up, and Dipper would not be denied his chance. “If we can talk about that later, I’d appreciate that.”

“Of course,” Marco replied.

Drew stepped up alongside Dipper. “Well, if everyone’s okay, we need to talk about something I heard from the Magnavores before you guys showed up.”

When everyone looked at him, he continued. “The Magnavores don’t know how they ended up here, but they want one of us alive to bring to Vexor–probably so they can figure that out.”

Flabber’s teeth chattered as he turned a shade of blue. “Brrr!”

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Dipper weighed on that. “Okay, that confirms that the wish brought them here, I guess… and that Vexor G is here too.”

The Phasm went rigid, like someone had poured ice water down the back of his suit. “GAH!”

Roland swallowed audibly. “Ah, shit.”

Misao looked at him. “How much worse is he?”

Jo sniffed and narrowed her eyes at Misao some. “Well if the Magnavores are somehow stronger in real life than they are in the comics, then Vexor is probably on a whole different level if he’s in charge of them.”

“Ahhh!” Flabber wailed, and everyone looked at him.

“Hey, are you all right?” Marco asked.

“N-no!” Flabber wrapped a blanket twice as large as himself around his body. “Every time you say that name, I get a nasty chill!”

Dipper pointed at Flabber. “That’s weird, why?”

Flabber shook his head. “I wish I knew. I just feel the cold down to my b-b-b…”

His head suddenly became a pompadour-adorned skull inside of a block of ice. “… Bones!”

His head popped back to normal. “Which is even crazier because I’ve never met the guy until you guys introduced me.”

Dipper let out a contemplative hum. Is there a connection between them? Or is Flabber reacting to what he thinks is a predator?

Mabel hugged Flabber. “Don’t worry, Flabber! We won’t let that jerk get his hands on you.”

Flabber looked at Mabel, then at the others. “Really?”

“Someone with your powers would be bad in the wrong hands,” Dipper said. “We’ll protect you and the house.”

Drew agreed with a sharp nod. “Hopefully we won’t have to worry about the Magnavores coming straight here anymore. The Beetle Battle Base will protect you from them, and besides… the Magnavores will be gunning for me, since they know I was the one who brought them here.”

Jo gawked at her brother, her eyes widening the only warning they had before she flew into a rage. “You self-hating moron! Why would you tell them that?!”

“Jo!” Roland snapped at her.

Drew weathered the sting of Jo’s insult. “I did it to buy time for the rest of you to get here and save my worthless hide–and more importantly to keep them from going after Flabber and Janna when they were done toying around with me.”

“And the gesture is not unappreciated, Sad Kid,” Janna chimed in.

“Besides, they only know that the Blue Stingerborg was the one who brought them here. They haven’t seen my face or know any of our identities. So that’s safe for now.”

Jo pulled back, Drew standing his ground and explaining himself throwing her off. “Yeah, well… don’t make a habit of sacrificing yourself.”

Drew rolled his eyes. “I’ll try my best.” He turned to Dipper. “Anyway, we should actually go inside the Beetle Battle Base so we can make sure its anti-teleportation field and other defenses work.”

Dipper agreed. “We’ve got nothing to do for the rest of the day, so we may as well get started.”

He looked over at Flabber. “Is there a way for us to get there from here?”

“There sure is,” the Phasm answered and pointed over to the Organ, which swung out to reveal a long curving ramp with a futuristic stone and metal design–lit with fluorescent lights that clashed sharply with the otherwise Victorian interior of the mansion.

“Okay, that is clean,” Roland said.

“That tunnel will lead you right to the Beetle Battle Base. I was originally going to do it Batpole style, but it’s a long way down there.”

“Is there a chance we can have a pole installed?” Mabel asked.

“Seconding this request,” Janna added.

“No,” Dipper, Marco, and Drew said in unison.

“One of us would inevitably fall to our deaths,” Roland added.

Flabber gave the outvoted Mabel and Janna a sympathetic look.

“Anyway,” Drew said, “We should be able to access Beetle Battle Base’s central control center from here. There we can figure out how to operate its systems.”

Misao raised her hand. “I can help with that.”

“Really?” Jo asked, with a slight smirk that leaked condescension.

Misao looked at her out of the corner of her eye. “I could program computers when small children were learning to ride bikes, ja? Give me time with the computers there, and I will figure out how they work.”

“Huh, neat,” Marco said.

She got up. “In fact, I would like to go down there right now and get started. We have the whole day ahead of us now, don’t we?”

Star looked at Marco. “Hey, you’re good at computers too, go help them!”

That drew Dipper’s attention. “Really?”

Marco held up his hands. “Whoa, using a laptop and military-grade supercomputers are two very different things.”

“You’d be surprised how much that isn’t the case,” Misao said aside to Mabel.

“W-well, hang on!” Dipper said. “Even if you aren’t familiar with the hardware… having you guys here to help us sort the base out would be just fine too.”

“Even so,” Marco said, “Star needs rest and I’d like to get her home so she can.”

Dipper deflated a little. “Oh well, of course. Recovery comes first and–no offense Flabber–I don’t think she can do that here.”

“No, you’re right. The guys will pester her non-stop until she or somebody here blasts them,” Flabber agreed.

On that note, Roland brought up a more concerning point. “Drew, Jo, and I should get going too.”

“Why?” Jo asked.

“Well, besides it being better that we all go our separate ways and clear the air, most of us did skip school after being involved in a fight. We need to get ahead of that.”

Drew’s shoulders slumped. “Right… what even happened there?”

“I can explain it on our way.” Roland pulled his phone out of his pocket and frowned. “Yeah, we definitely need to go.”

He held it out; on the screen was a text message from Nano.

Big Nano said:

Boy you better get your behind to this store so I can get you an alibi. The principal just called to inform me of a fight in the cafeteria that you and your friends skipped class after.

Mabel read the message. “Nano is so cool.”

Drew grimaced now. It was only a matter of time before his parents found out. “Yeah, let’s go.”

“Then I guess we’re all splitting up for now,” Dipper looked to his sister and Misao. “Let’s head down.”

Janna pushed herself off the couch. “Count me in for exploring the secret underground base. I wanna see what other cool stuff is stashed away down there.”

Drew turned to her. “Hey, uh, Janna?”

Janna turned to him. “What’s up?”

“Before we go,” he began, “I wanted to say I’m sorry for snapping at you earlier. It wasn’t cool, I was in a bad place and I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”

He looked at Flabber. “Or you, Flabber. I’m sorry.”

Flabber brightened at Drew’s apology. “It’s okay, kiddo! I’m not one to hold a grudge about anything! Even if I do live in a haunted house.”

Janna smirked at Drew. “Well, I am. But you went above and beyond in demonstrating you’re not a prick, so… we’re good.” She extended her hand to him.

Drew took Janna’s hand and shook it, smiling slightly in relief.

Flabber clapped his hands together. “Well, if you all are heading out, I’m going to go back to watching movies and using the internet. Next time we all meet up, I will blow you away with my updated and extremely topical humor!”

Drew grimaced. “Please don’t.”

“Yeah,” Mabel added, “You’re perfectly funny as you are!”

Drew agreed. “… Yeah, you’re hilarious.”

The praise struck straight to Flabber’s heart. “Really?!”

He looked back at the pipe organ. “You hear that girls? I’m a hit with today’s youth!”

“Don’t let it go to your head,” the Pipettes called back.

Flabber, his head twice as large, wore a smug smirk. “Too late.”

Jo palmed her face with both hands as Mabel, Misao, Drew, Roland, and Star laughed. Marco and Dipper held their laughter back. Janna just rolled her eyes, but smirked.

“Well, anyway, we’re going to get out of here.” Marco pulled out Star’s Dimensional Scissors and tried to cut open a portal… only for nothing to happen. “Huh. Wow, this anti-teleport thing is powerful.”

“Hey, at least we know it works.” Roland said. “It should work out to a certain range, then you can use it.”

Marco nodded, then looked over to Dipper, Mabel, Janna, and Misao. “See you guys later. Good luck with the Beetle Base.”

“Yeah, be safe getting home, guys,” Dipper replied.

“Take care, Star,” Mabel said.

Star, on her feet, smiled back. “Don’t worry I’ll be fine.” She stopped when Marco took her arm and brought it over his shoulder, before sidling close to her. “Ah?”

“It’s better to be safe and not sorry,” he reasoned. “I’ll walk with you in case you get dizzy again.”

Star stared at Marco, her eyes darting down to look where they were all but connected at the hip, then nodded very fast. “Y-yeah, okay.”

She waved again as they began walking for the door. Drew, Roland, and Jo followed them, the former two likewise bidding the others goodbye.

Dipper watched Marco help Star out after farewells were exchanged and let out the smallest sigh.

Janna looked up at Dipper, then at Mabel and Misao. “He’s got it pretty bad, huh?”

“So bad,” Mabel replied.

“It’s very cute,” Misao added.

Dipper didn’t hear the exchange, he was already headed down. “Let’s get going?”

“Jawohl~!” Misao sang, skipping after him. Mabel followed, laughing and snorting, while Janna threw a salute to Flabber and brought up the rear.