N/A: Hey guys, how's it going? Today, I'm going to show you something that probably you never expected you thought I, or someone, would do that. As you see the title, it's a crossover of Gravity Falls and Uncharted. I believe you never saw that coming before, didn't you?
One thing I want to say before you'll start reading, please. I seriously love Gravity Falls, I mean, I FREAKING LOVE THIS CARTOON! I've never chose a moment to watch an episode of this show, but when many people started to talk how awesome was this series, I finally decided to check out and eventually watched too many episodes before the second season would end.
I couldn't work on my other fanfics because I was so distracted of how amazing was this cartoon and I wanted to write a fanfiction. However, I couldn't come up an original plot. I spend for weeks trying to find the answer until an idea came to my mind. How can you imagine when supernatural mysteries are mixed with historical? That's when I decided to make a crossover with Uncharted. I never played this videogame because I don't own PS3 (At least I'm thinking to buy the Nathan Collection once I get the PS4) but I watched the walkthroughs and I became so interested on the story, the characters, and the historical myths they were talking about. Therefore, I thought it would be a good idea to feature Nathan Drake and Victor Sullivan in an adventure with the Pine twins and the others.
I understand if some of you have any doubts of this concept, but if you check out I'm sure you're gonna like it.
One thing you should know about, this story is a non-canon, that means it can't be a prequel or sequel between the three titles of Uncharted and you will see only one difference on Nathan Drake's appearance. And what about Gravity Falls? Well, I'd say the story sets around the first episodes of the second season, maybe before Stan's lost twin brother appearance.
Anyways, hope you'll like what I did. I don't own Gravity Falls and Uncharted, all rights are reserved by its own creators.
Uncharted: Faces of the Damned.
Chapter 1: Greatness for small beginnings.
It was a hot and sunny day upon the blue quiet and crystalline freshwaters of Klamath Lake, Oregon; surrounded by widespread marshes and wetlands before going further into the land covered with trees. With the horizon showing a high tall mountain far away that anyone could see it from that distance.
Some people from Klamath Falls spend their time on the lake for fishing around or to embark for a trip across the water and enjoy the beautiful environment, mostly on canoes or kayaks. Currently there was a sailboat, as the strong wind blows to the sailcloth, providing enough movement towards the south of the lake. The sailboat was already between the East side of a small island, which was partially covered by forest trees, and a dike which divides an irrigated field and wetland beside.
The person who's in charge at the wheel of the boat was a Caucasian grey-eyed man around forties, pretty wiry build despite his current age, with a regular moustache and his recent shaven beard; his dark hair was slicked back, without any sign he had used any product of gel like these days. Wearing with a light green Havana shirt with the sleeves rolled up, which was unbuttoned that reveals his white cotton shirt and a chain necklace around his neck and a pair of beige cargo pants with a belt buckled up.
He was not alone, however. He has a partner.
There was a teenage boy, with an average build and doesn't seem he could be the son because his facial features don't match as the middle-aged man. He's around fifteen-years old, with thick dark brown hair and blue-grey eyes. And he's wearing a blue navy sleeveless jacket with a white shirt underneath, with the red sleeves rolled up as well; and jeans, but he also wears a lanyard around his neck with the silver ring, which has an inscription of three Latin words engraved in it, also there was a date of 29th January 1596 inside of the shank. He also was carrying a leather messenger bag with the adjustable strap wrapped around his torso.
The young boy was at the bow of the boat while focusing on a printed photograph, which it was taken from a satellite and shows the South zone of Klamath Lake, with a red circle which marks the exact position he and the man are currently standing in. Therefore, it appears they were looking for something which is found around the spot as marked on the picture.
"Are you sure this is the right place, kid?" The man at the wheel said with a deep voice and a very distinctive accent, probably must be from New York.
The teenager took his eyes off the photo as he turned to his partner. "This must be it, Sully. I'm not sure if what we're looking it's right under our feet, though." He replied. His voice didn't sound a little older despite his current age, didn't sound childish either. Nevertheless, he was acting like a mature one with confidence. He kept the printed photograph on his messenger bag as he leaned himself forward against the rails to continue watching the beautiful natural color of the water. This is like it's the first time sailing through a lake that somehow feels refreshing, even though that's not the reason why he's here.
"Well, better go get the wetsuit and get ready to go underwater." The man, now named Sully or Sullivan since it must be his real name, stepped away from the steering helm before going towards below deck where he's keeping the diving equipment to change his clothes.
"It doesn't look very deep. Don't you think you can just jump into the lake right now without that suit?" The young boy asked humorlessly with a grin, feeling ready to hear the obvious answer from the old man, who turned to him with a frown of disagreement when he knew his partner was just joking.
"Are you crazy? There's no way I'll swim in that friggin' cold water and get my underpants wet! So no, thank you." Ignoring the laugh from the teenager, the 40-year old man went inside.
A few moments later, Sullivan came out from below deck now fully dressed with the complete scuba set, included the small bailout cylinder of oxygen on his back. He walked with his towards the young teenager, still watching the surroundings through Klamath Lake in silence, as a sign he was clearing his mind to feel the refreshing weather.
"Are you sure you don't want to tag along, Nathan? There's another wetsuit with your size and maybe I'd need some help to find what's found at the bottom of the lake." He asked like he was deliberately offering the boy some moment of fun doing a scuba diving.
Nathan took a moment to stop staring at the Lake to turn his gaze at Sullivan with a small smile."I'd like to come with you, but someone has to stay in this boat and make sure if we are alone. Remember that time a couple of thugs almost stole your car when you left your keys inside?"
Sullivan suddenly let out a chuckle, how could he ever forget the most carelessness thing he did not too long ago back in South America? He didn't bother to be reminded, since he's not a warily person who can finish a job properly, that's why he find it funny to laugh. However, he felt a tingle of disappointment at the kid's answer; he was pretty sure Nathan would like to scuba dive with him after he saw the boy never look away from the water. In fact, he never felt they were being followed, and there's no any one more person in sight. Maybe Nathan just wanted to take precautions in case of an imminent problem, but he just need at least have a moment with fun to remove the concerns on his mind. Unfortunately, Sullivan got no position to boss him around because he doesn't have a higher level of authority, not to mention they don't share the same blood.
"Very well," He said after letting out a sigh. "I won't take too long down here. If anything happens, try to make a sound as loud as you can if you need my help." Then, he stood on the edge and as he prepared to make a jump into the water, he put the pressure regulator on his mouth and placed the mask over his eyes. Afterwards, he took a dive, splashing the surface while some drops almost splattered on Nathan's face. He grumbled under his breath as he dried himself with his hand.
Fortunately, it wasn't necessary to bring a flashlight because thanks by the brightness of the sunlight that illuminates upon the water, he can see perfectly clear beneath the surface. So Sullivan began to descend towards the bottom of the lake, while looking around only to find a bunch of salmons swimming around him and the green aquatic plants on the floor. Normally any person would feel amazed because this was the first occasion someone would venture underwater, but Sullivan just ignored the view and continued with his search.
After swimming away from the boat for several feet, when he turned his gaze to his left, his eyes finally caught that he knew all along what he was gonna find. A small square chest partially buried under the dirt, surely this was left not too long ago because it should be practically buried a little deeper and covered with some plants. Though the texture of the wood's natural color has changed into darker and the steel was also rusted.
Sullivan went closer to the chest before he dusted the dirt off, then he picked up the chest, before he almost went surprised because the moment he carried the chest, he felt that the weight was incredibly lighter than he thought. That just made to ask himself what's inside, somehow he thought this might be empty, and he did not like that theory because this is the only that makes sense. But instead of jumping the conclusion, he placed the chest under his arm and swam up towards the surface on his way back to the boat.
Nathan was reading a comic book to entertaining himself, rather than watching all over the lake like a guard in a watchtower from a prison, before recently noticed Sullivan comes out of the water and saw he was carrying a small chest. "Wow, you found it really quickly?" He asked with a surprised tone. And he thought Sully would take an hour and spend a boring day doing nothing.
Sullivan took out the regulator of his mouth to flash a grin. "I told you to never underestimate the older treasure hunter, kid." He replied with a proud tone, as he handed the chest to Nathan before he climbed up into the prow, with a little help from the boy after he placed the chest beside him.
Afterwards, Nathan decided to check out the chest before opening it, while Sullivan removed the oxygen tank off his back and the mask. Then he ruffled his hair dry so he'll comb to his usual hairstyle.
"Hmm, that's strange… This doesn't seem very old as I thought it would be. Maybe this was left in the water for decades." Nathan said out loud like he wanted to talk himself so he could help him to gather some answers by his own.
"Who cares how old is it? Let's just open it and let's get this over with. I hope the waste the half of our goddamn summer vacation has better be worth it after you dragged me into this." Sullivan said.
"Hey, I'm sorry I didn't give you the chance to go to the beach in Acapulco, but you have to learn the fun side of our first adventures together! Besides, once we finish this simple job we'll get the enough money to survive for the whole year." Drake replied.
"That's why I signed the contract, so I guess you're right."
Nathan struggled to open the chest manually, without success. "Dammit, I think it's locked with a key." He turned to his partner with a smile as he motioned the "Would you do the honor?"
Sullivan grinned. He went to the below deck and moments later he showed up with a crowbar before he walked back to the chest, as Nathan stepped aside with his arms crossed.
"I like when you need my assistance just because I'm the muscle." He said with a small tease in his tone, before jamming it into the keylock as he gripped the handle with both of his hands to find the moment for a struggle.
"I don't need the strength to open it. I'd just try to pick-locking right now if we've never met in Colombia. And enjoy your last ten years being Hercules while you can, but soon or later your muscles will start to deflate like a balloon running out of air." Drake taunted him with a grin that made the 40-year old man twitching by realizing the sad fact.
"Oh, shut up! Your jokes are starting to make me feel too old."
Sullivan took a breath before he pushed down the crowbar with all his might before the chest snapped open with a loud crack like a sound of hitting metal. After that, Nathan went to check the now opened chest in excitement to see what kind of discovery they just found. But suddenly, his smile just disappeared.
"What the…" Nathan's eyes were widened in shock at the most unexpected and probably the strangest plot twist he could ever experience.
There was nothing inside. Except that there was a glass bottle and nothing more.
Sullivan noticed his partner's reaction before he suddenly realized his theory was sadly right from the beginning.
"I knew it! Since the moment I grabbed that chest I've know this would be empty! God our boss is gonna be so pissed about this!"
"Sully, wait! First of all, relax man; and look at this." Nathan grabbed the bottle before he showed it to Sullivan. The old man saw there's a rolled paper inside. "Maybe this will give us a reason behind what's going on, there must be a reason behind this." Nathan replied as he pulled the cork out, before bobbing the bottle up and down twice until the paper fell into his hand.
Then, he unrolled it and reveals it was a message. Fortunately, the ink pen didn't seem worn by the years, so it's easy enough to read. Nathan began to read it out loud as Sullivan was beside him, listening attentively. Even though sometimes he's not particularly interested they just found a message, but what he really needs is an answer.
If you're reading this is because you somehow found out about the chest and right now you're wondering about why I left a message inside. To answer your important question, I hid what you're looking for in another place that no one, but me, knows where it is.
However, I won't simply gonna tell you exactly where it is because I don't trust you. I don't know what are your reasons you want to find it, but I have to warn you to stay out of this. Unfortunately for me, I'm sure you wouldn't listen to me.
If you are seriously willing to continue your investigation, then I'll challenge you to solve a puzzle that will test your intellect. If you succeeded it, you'll have my attention.
9 – 13 20 – 18 – 1 – 16 – 16 – 5 – 4 9 – 14 – 19 – 9 – 4 – 5 20 – 8 – 5 9 – 14 – 6 – 9 – 14 – 9 – 20 – 5. 5 1 – 13 19 – 21 – 18 – 18 – 15 – 21 – 14 – 4 – 5 – 4 2 – 25 1 – 14 5 – 14 – 4 – 12 – 5 – 19 – 19 4 – 1 – 18 – 11 – 14 – 5 – 19 – 19, 2 – 21 – 20 20 – 8 – 5 12 – 9 – 7 – 8 – 20 18 – 5 – 13 – 1 – 9 – 14 – 19 23 – 9 – 29 – 8 13 – 5. 20 – 8 – 5 12 – 9 – 7 – 8 – 20 15 – 14 – 12 – 25 23 – 9 – 12 – 12 2 – 5 6 – 15 – 21 – 14 – 4 23 – 8 – 5 – 28 – 5 9 – 20 – 19 19 – 3 – 5 – 14 – 5 – 18 – 25 15 – 6 7 – 18 – 5 – 5 – 14 8 – 1 – 18 – 13 – 15 – 14 – 25, 8 – 9 – 4 – 9 – 14 – 7 1 – 23 – 1 – 25 20 – 8 – 5 13 – 25 – 19 – 20 – 5 – 28 – 9 – 5 – 19 6 – 18 – 15 – 13 20 – 8 – 5 15 – 12 – 20 – 19 – 9 – 4 – 5 23 – 15 – 18 – 12 – 4. 1 – 20 20 – 8 – 5 5 – 14 – 4, 20 – 8 – 5 23 – 9 – 12 – 12 23 – 9 – 12 – 12 6 – 12 – 15 – 23 9 – 14 – 20 – 15 20 – 8 – 5 7 – 18 – 1 – 22 – 9 – 20 – 25 15 – 6 23 – 8 – 5 – 18 – 5 23 – 9 – 12 – 12 2 – 5 20 – 8 – 5 – 9 – 18 12 – 1 – 19 – 20 13 – 5 – 5 – 20 – 9 – 14 – 7.
"What the hell is this?" Sullivan asked with his bemuse expression when he read the numbers.
"I don't know… It looks like some sort of a secret code…" He trailed off when his eyes went more focused on the strange series of numbers. "Wait, I think I've seen something like this before!" Nathan said in surprise.
"You're sure?" Sullivan asked with an eyebrow raised.
Nathan gave his partner a nod. "When I was in the orphanage, I read a book about the cryptograms. It's a type of puzzle that you have to decipher the text in order to decode a hidden message. There are other types of crypto puzzles and most of them are really, I mean, really complicated. But fortunately this one is simple. I learned that the numbers of one to twenty six follows the alphabet. It's easy enough to decipher this code."
"So are you telling me that you can turn these numbers into letters?" Sullivan inquired.
"To be honest, this is the first time I'd do something like this, but I guess I can do it." Nathan replied with a nod of confidence.
Sullivan let out an irritated sigh. "Great, now we have to solve riddles like in the movies? This is gonna take us forever."
"Oh come on, I think this is gonna be awesome!" Nathan said with enthusiasm as he rolled the paper and kept inside the pocket of his jeans. "But I suggest you have to tell him about this."
Sullivan turned to Nathan with incredulity on his eyes. "Wait just a second, why it has to be me? Do you have any idea how he's going to react if we'll say there's nothing in the chest? He's gonna act like Yosemite Sam!"
"It's better than keep this in secret. You know he doesn't like we won't keep him in touch for details. Besides, I'll be busy deciphering the hidden message once we hit the land." Nathan replied with a smug grin.
Sullivan narrowed his eyes resentfully. "You are a brat, you know that?"
Nathan smiled in response. "I've always been, Sully. I've always been."
"Listen, we're doing what we can to get the bottom of this, but I can't assure we can find the artifact in no time."
Sullivan was on the pay phone, outside of a small two-story hotel across the street where it's 15 miles from Klamath Lake to the Southwest. He was talking to the contact who apparently is the one who sent him and Nathan to the lake to find that chest. And as Sullivan knew it, the news didn't please him for the fact they found nothing.
The treasure hunter man suddenly frowned, his presumably client started to scowl at him, that he just made a call to bring the bad news.
"Now you listen to me! I'm also in a bad mood because we'll have new puzzle games in the future that could slow down our progress, but if you try to blame this on me, I'll-" He was suddenly cut off, when the stranger answered his complain that actually shut him up.
Sullivan sighed exasperatedly as he rubbed his eyes. "Alright, I'm sorry, sir." He hissed on the last part, since it's pretty annoying for him to call him like that person's actually a boss who deserves to have respect from his employees. "Just leave me and Nathan to take care all of this and we'll let you know once we find the artifact for real. That's all what I'm asking you, okay?"
There's been a brief silence when the other line answered.
"Thank you, goodbye." He hanged up the phone before he let out a sigh of relief. "Thank God this is over."
Sullivan then crossed the street, without the need to look to the sides before because the street seemed a little quiet since the sunset was coming, as he made his way towards the hotel before going upstairs and went into the room "6".
The size of the room wasn't very small, it has two singular beds and a nightstand with a lamp on top stood between them against the wall painted in beige. To the other side there was a wooden cabinet with a small TV and beside it a small refrigerator.
Sullivan found the young boy Nathan sitting on a table, still working on traducing the numbers from the message by writing the hidden letters with another paper. It appears to be more focus since he was containing the excitement to resolve the easiest puzzle.
"How did it go?" Nathan asked after he noticed Sullivan's arrival; taking a little break from traducing the numbers for a moment.
"He agreed to give us more time to find more clues, but that jerk almost pissed me off for reminding us why he agreed to hire us. He just got lucky we're not in person so I could just shut him up." He shook his head as he decided to change the subject. "So, how you're doing with the puzzle?"
"This feels like I'm studying for history exam." Nathan replied with a smile. "So I'm almost done, just give me a minute." He continued to write down the other paper while taking the brief look at the last numbers.
Sullivan nodded as he laid down on his own bed with his arms behind his neck. He can't help but feel thankful that boy knows how to pull this off, otherwise they'd be stuck forever without Nathan's knowledge about the cryptograms. However, he also felt a little jealous of the fact that a teenager like Nathan's the one who can fix a problem, he's thankful though, but sometimes he wished he could be useful forsome things. Well, he knows how to fight, shoot armed and dangerous people, even he can make escape plans, but sadly that doesn't help with the puzzles to continue with the investigations.
It's like he's out of the case.
"Done! I made it!" Sullivan snapped out from his thoughts when Nathan exclaimed as he stood up from the chair with the paper now completely written as he walked up towards to Sullivan.
"What did you find out?" Sullivan asked.
"It seems we have ourselves a riddle." Nathan cleared his throat to read what it says. "I'm trapped inside the infinite. I am surrounded by the darkness, but the light remains with me. The light will only be found where its scenery of green harmony, hiding away the mysteries from the outside world. At the end, the falls will flow into the gravity where will be their last meeting."
Sullivan snorted in response "I bet that guy tried to be poetic, but now the question is: How the hell can we find out what does that mean?"
"I don't know, but I think the second and third sentence is talking about the next place we should go to find the next clue. I don't know if it's somewhere else or right here in Oregon."
"What's the point to hide a lost artifact to another state he wouldn't know where could hide it? I mean, if he knew where he could hide the chest in the lake, then he's probably from this state. Don't you think that's obvious?"
Nathan remained speechless for a moment. "Yeah, you're right." Nathan admitted, much to Sullivan's agreement, but pleased that he just made a good point. "But still, we need to find out where."
Sullivan sighed irritably as he sat up on the edge of the bed "The bad news is that we mustn't take this much longer, we have to take the first and last attempt. It's now or never." He pointed out.
Nathan bit his lower lip as he sat beside him, as he decided to repeat the parts of the riddle what brought him attention. "The light will only be found where its scenery of green harmony… The falls will flow into the gravity…" He turned his gaze off the paper to Sullivan. "Maybe we have to search to a place where has in common what describes in this riddle."
"In common? What do you mean?" Sullivan inquired with a raised eyebrow.
"The green harmony may refer to the nature. It must be a forest where has waterfalls. Do you have the map of Oregon?" He asked.
Sullivan nodded with his head. "It's still on my backpack over there." He pointed it where it was laid beside the TV stand.
"Good, let's start to find the forest areas around." Nathan said as he opened the backpack and took out the map, before he unfolded it, revealing the whole coastal state of Oregon with all the names of the cities, and stuck onto the wall by putting a couple of tacks on the corners.
Sullivan sighed as he shook his head at the boy's unstopping effort of looking for answers. "Nathan, I understand why do you think it's important, but can't you just take a little moment of break?"
"I'd need that, really. But the friggin' intrigue is killing me. If I don't do something about it right now to clear my head, maybe I won't get some sleep." Nathan replied frankly.
Sullivan stood from the bed as he stood behind of Nathan. "No mean to disappoint you kid, but what you're doin' isn't going to help us. How about we can start it by tomorrow?" He said, trying to be subtle as long as he could convince the boy.
Nathan kept focusing on the map, like Sullivan's words didn't reach to his ears. However, as he was struggling to solve the riddle fast, the more he was running out of ideas. Eventually, he was forced to give up because he already knew they don't have enough information to find the right location. In fact, what would happen if they pick the wrong place and start again? Or maybe they'll do the same mistake?
Sighing in defeat, he decided to quit the puzzle for now. "I guess you're right. I think I should do something else instead." Then he walked towards to the door.
"Where you're going?" Sullivan asked.
"I'll just go to the store across the street to buy a drink, do you need something?" Nathan asked as he opened the door.
"No, thanks. Just be careful out there." Sullivan replied.
Nathan nodded before he walked out of the room, as Sullivan turned on the TV to just see if there's something entertaining.
After buying a bottle of soda, Nathan just exited the convenience store and walked through the sidewalk back to the hotel, for a couple of blocks from here. The light illuminated the deserted street since it was already night, though Nathan didn't have the good feeling of being alone. He went through many years as a homeless orphan until he was saved by Sullivan when he was pursued by black suited men from an unknown organization in Columbia not too long ago. Afterwards they agreed to form a team and eventually became friends. Thanks to his partner, Nathan learned more things to have more possibilities to survive if he was on his own. Nevertheless, he should always watch his back for any unexpected moment.
Just before he decided to take a sip of his soda as he was about to turn around the corner, he didn't notice a person nearby before they bumped each other. Nathan stumbled before his back hit on the wall, as his shirt got stained when the soda splattered and fell to the ground. Nathan turned his head to the person, who turned out to be a man, just walking away like he didn't see Nathan on his way.
"Hey, at least you should apologize!" Nathan yelled angrily, only to be ignored by the stranger before he was now out of sight. "Jackass…" He grumbled.
He was about to continue his way, but then he stepped something that made him stop. Nathan looked down as he raised his foot and saw some kind of a travel pamphlet. Raising his eyebrow in curiosity, he decided to pick it up as the light shone upon him to have a better view.
It was indeed a travel brochure, but he couldn't help but feel kinda confused when he read the name of a suppose town, Gravity Falls. He unfolded to read some information about the place, its history, attractions and even the natural beauty, while he continued to walk. One of the images shows the view of a valley in the sunset, with two rocky cliffs facing each other and a rail bridge connecting between them, but one strange detail he suddenly noticed the cliffs is oddly shaped like an UFO. Anyways, the far side of the right cliff, there was a waterfall which flows down to a small lake. And on the bottom of the valley, it could see the small town with a trail of river surrounded by the great pine forests.
Nathan thought this place seemed very nice to visit if he and Sullivan weren't busy right now. However, he was still puzzled about the name of the town."
"So Gravity Falls, huh? I wonder how someone came up that name and…" He trailed off, when his mind began to analyze the detail that made him stop his tracks. His eyes never took off the name as he heard something like this before. And so, he looked back on the next words he read it moments ago.
The falls will flow into the gravity…
He checked the image of the town in the valley again, before he gasped
"Holy crap! That's it!" Nathan exclaimed before he took a run.
When he reached the hotel he took upstairs quickly and when he was facing at the door of his room, he opened abruptly by ramming it like the wind broke it down.
"Sully!"
Sullivan jumped from his bed by surprise when he was still watching the TV as he turned to Nathan.
"Son of a- What's goin' on now?!" Sullivan yelled because he almost got a heart attack after the unexpected action from the boy.
"Sully! I think I know where we're heading!" Nathan exclaimed excitedly as he walked up to him, completely ignoring the question.
Sullivan blinked twice before he placed his hand across his face and shook his head. "Are you serious, right now?" He groaned as he rubbed his eyes.
"I know! I know this is very soon I came up a conclusion, but just listen to me for a sec'!" Nathan pleaded as he handed the pamphlet. "The clues from the riddle match with the information about this small town! Remember that sentence about the falls flowing into the gravity? It's talking about Gravity Falls!" He pointed to the name from the cover. "You may think this is just a coincidence, but another reason Gravity Falls might be our destiny is because it's also surrounded by harmony of nature, just like the riddle says. Everything fits and there's no way another place share the same description!"
Sullivan went completely speechless after Nathan's explanation, he just stared at him before he looked back at the pamphlet, after an awkward moment of silence he finally spoke.
"Okay, before I'll give you my answer, I want to know where you'd take this." Sullivan asked.
"When I got out from the convenience store, a man just bumped into me and this pamphlet must fell out of his pocket and he didn't notice." Nathan replied.
"And you didn't even return it to him?" Sullivan said with a frown, almost as a scowl.
"That jerk didn't say sorry after he spilled my soda." Nathan retorted, pointing to his wet shirt. "He doesn't deserve my generosity." He shook his head to go back to the subject. "Look, the point is our next clue finds somewhere in there. I know this may sound crazy, but you have to trust me."
Sullivan turned around and made a few steps forward while reading the content of the travel brochure, he was still perplexed that he couldn't decide to say to Nathan yes or no. So many different questions are filling up his mind and he had to choose the only one before he'll make a decision.
He turned around to face Nathan with a serious expression. "Are you really, REALLY sure that this is where we have to go?" Sullivan asked.
Without thinking straight, Nathan responded. "Sully, I give everything I have, even my soul on the bet that this is the exact spot!"
Sullivan took a breath and let out a sigh. "Alright then. Tomorrow we'll go in there after breakfast. But for now let's take a rest for Christ' sake, I'm already tired." He walked back to the bed.
"Sully." Nathan spoke.
"Yeah?" Sullivan turned at him with a reluctant tone.
"I just want to thank you for listening to me, for the moment I thought you would disagree, but I knew you wouldn't." Nathan gave him a smile as he also gave Sullivan a friendly pat on his shoulder.
Sullivan just blinked before he shrugged. "Don't mention it, hope you're not wrong about this though. But let me remind you for the last time so you can stick it in your head. This is our first and last try because our client doesn't allow mistakes, or we're done."
Nathan crossed his arms and nodded with his head in understanding, but with reflection on his face. "Yeah... I hope so too."
On the next day, Sullivan was driving on a four-door grey sedan across a deserted highway, following the directions with the map to the eastern zone of Oregon, where they'll find the town of Gravity Falls. Nathan was beside him on the passenger sit, and he was asleep because he gets easily bored when he's in a trip without doing anything for hours, even though he was enjoying listening to an 80's song on the radio.
He was getting a nice dreaming about being the most known explorer who was born to find secrets behind the historical legends that are not yet resolved and hidden treasures. Also he was very excited to imagine what kind of discovery he'll witness once he'll find the lost artifact the client talked too much about. Unfortunately for him, it was interrupted when Sullivan shook him to wake him up.
"Hey, wake up, kid. We arrived."
Nathan groaned as he rubbed his eyes before cracking them open. One thing he suddenly noticed to his right was a wooden water tower, with the name of Gravity Falls engraved in it. Once they just passed it he could also notice the water tower was spray-painted by behind. It seems like a mushroom cloud, but Nathan thought this looks definitely like a giant muffin. Someone should need more practice with the spray painting.
Nathan recently figured they're about to get inside the town, after he saw a small but abandoned convenience store surrounded by a fence with barb wire. He began to look around the group of houses and shops.
"Huh, this place doesn't look bad at all. And apparently I don't see many police officers around here, that's good news." Nathan said.
Sullivan snorted. "Is it because you want to become a wanted criminal in here?" He only joked when he remembered Nathan used to be an insignificant thief once he stole his wallet.
Nathan scoffed. "Look who's talking, an old man who one time went into the women bathroom when he was drunk and puke on a sink instead on a toilet." He laughed.
"That was not a crime, it was just an accident!" Sullivan defended with shame as he stopped the car at the red light from the traffic light.
Nathan decided to leave him alone, but it was really funny to remind him that incident, though he should seriously control his alcohol consumption.
While Sullivan was trying to forget that memory, his stomach began to rumble. They didn't eat too much this morning and haven't grabbed a bite during the trip. After he crossed the crossroad when the light was green, he began to survey around the street, looking somewhere to have a nice meal this time. Then he noticed a place which could be a restaurant as he talked to Nathan.
"Hey, are you hungry? We can stop to that place over there and grab something to eat." He pointed to a small building which literally has the shape of a big piece of redwood log. There was even a stump on its right that could probably mean the tree was cut down before turning into an establishment. Three windows and the entrance door with red and white awnings above them, and underneath the main sign which has the name of the restaurant, "Greasy's Diner" was a smaller sign with the slogan "We have food". The restaurant was on a train cart with steps that leads the entrance and the back door as well, and it's labeled "Gravity Falls 1883", which probably means the date when this town was established.
"Sure, why not?" Nathan responded with a shrug.
Sullivan parked the vehicle in an open space from the parking lot. Afterwards, they went into the restaurant. Everything in the interior was practically made of wood, even a row of ten booths with square tables and ten stool chairs sorted across the long countertop. There were a few decorations like the round lamps hung above the tables, some plants on the shelf, and pictures of the outskirts of the town on the walls, even there was a jukebox machine to the far side.
Nathan and Sullivan took one of the unoccupied tables and wait until a waitress showed up to serve them. She's around fifty years, with gray hair in a beehive style and wears pinkish mauve lipstick. The old lady has a hint of double chin, and her fingernails are long and painted in red. Her uniform was a grayish rose dress and a white apron around her waist with a brown stain that surely it's from a coffee. However, the only one thing she got their attention, was that one of her eyes was permanently closed, it would look like she's winking but doesn't seem like she's doing it.
"Good afternoon, sunshines! Would you like to check out our menu before I take your order?" The waitress asked.
Sullivan blinked a few times before snapping out of staring at her lazy eye. "Oh, y-yeah, we'd like to. Thank you, miss."
After the waitress went for the menus, Sullivan turned to Nathan. "Dude, is it me or some people here are pretty strange than we ever found?" He asked.
Nathan could understand what he was meaning. Aside for the waitress, the moment when they entered Greasy's Diner, he also saw a big, bearded and muscular man who wears a stereotypical lumberjack outfit. Suddenly, and old, deranged hillbilly was running to the exit with a raw turkey under his arm.
"You ain't gonna eat this innocent soul while I'm still alive! Long live to the headless peeled chickens!" The hillbilly yelled to Sullivan and Nathan, holding his fist into the air like he was declaring a new revolution.
"Hey, give it back you wild geezer!" A worker came out from the kitchen while holding a spatula.
"You gotta catch me first!" The hillbilly laughed insanely as he went through the door as the worker continued to chase him down.
Nathan only blinked what he just witnessed. "Yeah… At least nobody is giving us a glare just for being strangers." Nathan replied, as Sullivan nodded in agreement.
Moments later, the waitress has delivered their foods since Sullivan has ordered a country fried steak and Nathan a hamburger with French fries. However, Nathan didn't take a single bite because he spent staring at the message they've found on the lake, mostly on the numbers from the crypto puzzle he traduced. Sullivan barely noticed what he's doing before he let out an irritated sigh and shook his head.
"Kid, would you stop staring at those goddamn numbers and at least eat? Your food is gonna get cold."
Nathan went back from his reality and he decided to keep the paper on his pocket. "Sorry, it's just that I can't understand the reason why a person who hides an artifact left us a hidden message and gave us the clue to help us to continue our search." He said as he grabbed a ketchup bottle and poured to his French fries and his hamburger.
"What am I suppose to know? Maybe there's something special that nobody, but us, must not know about it." He just assumed as he continued to eat his steak.
"That's probably the case, but why helping us what to do?" Nathan shook his head to clear the questions off his mind. "Maybe we'll get the answer if we find more clues."
"So what do you think we should do first?" Sullivan asked.
"Very good question, I think we should start exploring to know about this town and we may find something that could give us a hint."
"Sounds a good plan to begin. In the meantime, let's just enjoy the meal and watch some TV shall we?"
Their gazes turned on the wall mounted television in the corner. Right that moment a commercial started with a white question mark in the dark background. Suddenly, an old man revealed himself on the screen. He has gray eyebrows and gray hair, and with tenacious stubble. His facial features were pretty weird because of his large, droopy and pear-shaped reddish-pinkish nose, and large ears. He wears a couple of rectangular glasses with black rim, but he also wears an eyepatch on his right eye. His outfit consist a black suit with the jacket buttoned close, a white shirt under his suit with a red bowtie, and a red fez which bore a yellow crescent with a dot next to it. He also was holding a cane, the only different about it is that it's topped by a billiard 8-ball.
However, Sullivan and Nathan noticed his figure was evolved with green screen parts, maybe from the Chroma key that it wasn't cut off the background. Talk about poorly edition.
"Hi, I'm Mr. Mystery. Do you like to be befuddled?" The word popped up next to him, then the word "Bewildered" was next. "Bewel-Bewels… Wel-Weldered… Beweldered-" The old man named Mr. Mystery stammered for the difficult to pronounce that word.
The image suddenly went fast forward until he finally pronounced it right.
"Bewildered? Then behold!" He drove his fist down and the smoke erupted behind him, the picture froze for a brief moment until the scene was cut off to the front view of an old, pretty bad maintained two-story shack.
"Mystery Shack!" Mr. Mystery popped up, still with the green screen errors around his body as he announced. "Your one-stop shop for mysteriously cheap oddities!"
Suddenly, he was interrupted when a boom pool fell in the scene and accidentally hit on his face.
"Ow! Son of a-!"
The scene was cut abruptly to a black screen before some images appeared one after another of strange articles the Mystery Shack has.
"Gaze in amazement at wonders so bizarre, they defy the laws of nature!"
Nathan and Sullivan burst out laughing when an image of Mr. Mystery shaving his back was revealed.
The scene was cut to Mr. Mystery, standing discreetly behind of an suppose customer
"And in some cases, the very laws of police!"
Mr. Mystery just realized he's being busted by the camera. "HEY, HEY, GET OUTTA HERE!" He covered it with his hand as the screen turned black. Then, the scene cuts to a dissected two-headed wolf with the body of a bird.
"A two-headed WHAAAAT?"
The scene cuts again to a pair of glasses and a hat, hanged with stringers coming from the ceiling down to make look like a portrait of an invisible man, ridiculous though.
"An invisible WHOOOO?"
Mr. Mystery appeared again on screen, with wooden question marks falling down behind him.
"So many questions-" A couple of question marks just fell on the old man's head. "OW! OUCH! Come on!"
A new scene reveals a half-eaten popsicle on the ground with a piece of hair on it and a fly buzzing around, with a text of "SNACKS!" as an arrow was flashing on the screen.
"Plus, there's snacks to the kids! You can eat that… Try and stop "you"..."
The next scenes showed a group of customers buying something inside of Mystery Shack, before it was paused and Mr. Mystery showed up.
"But don't take it from me."
"Take it from ME." A "clone" of Mr. Mystery appeared next to the real one.
"What? Who are you?" He asked trying to act like he's surprised.
The clone remained silent for a couple of seconds.
"I'm the real Mr. Mystery-" He was interrupted by the real Mr. Mystery.
"The great deals at this place are making me see double."
"Making me see trouple! Troup- Idiot! Idiot! D'oh, just do it again!" The clone yelled frustratingly before the screen turned static.
"So get yourself down to the Mystery Shack, where the real mystery is…" There was a close-up to his face "If you can make it out alive." He finished with a low, scary tone, followed by a dramatic music. "Hahaha! I'm joking. Most of… Most folks made it out alive." Then he made a thumbs-up and pointed at his thumb with another hand.
Before the commercial would end, a large text scrolled up on screen as an announcer talked fast that Nathan and Sullivan didn't care what's saying. And before they thought it was now over, unexpectedly there was another close-up of Mr. Mystery laughing like a mad man before the screen turned static.
Nathan and Sullivan turned slowly away from the TV and stared each other with mixed reactions.
Nathan looked at the hamburger on his hands before he responded. "Please tell me this food just gave me hallucinations."
"I was about to ask you the same thing." Sullivan replied. "I mean, this was the worst commercial I've ever seen in my entire life. At least it's good as a laughing stock, I bet the scammer is regretting for showing the world how shaves his back." He chuckled as he continued to eat.
Nathan did not answer. He was now pondered about the eight ball cane he saw in the commercial. There was nothing like that he ever seen it before, but something made him wonder there's something peculiar. He took out a journal from his messenger bag and leaf through the pages to the last page which he wrote the translation from the numbers. He read the first part of the riddle attentively as many thoughts ran through his mind. It reached the moment when a bulb lit above his head.
Sullivan just saw Nathan smirking that he couldn't help but wonder why. "Did you find something interesting, kid?" He asked.
"Damn right I did." Nathan replied as he closed the journal. "There's been a change of plans. We're going to the Mystery Shack!"
To Be Continued…
A/N: Finally! It took me so long to finish this chapter. I've been a little busy with some other stuff that I couldn't finish this before the end of the month, sorry for the delay. Also I'm sorry our beloved Pine Twins didn't make the appearance, but it was necessary to start the story. But don't worry, we'll see them in the next chapter ;)
By the way I want to give credit to MischiefLily, an artist from Deviantart who made a fanart of the travel brochure of Gravity Falls, that gave me an idea of how Nathan and Sullivan go to that town. If you are reading this, I want to thank you, I wouldn't be able to continue the story without you.
Well, I hope my effort did please you with the result, more interesting things will come, and prepare yourselves for a new pairing in this story ;D
Happy late Halloween! And for my fellow Mexicans who are reading this, Feliz Dia de los Muertos!