Nearly missed posting today because I was on a writing spree...and also watching a little She-Ra because this was the first day I got the chance to do so.

Quick heads-up - next week is...going to be a tad weird. Just a tad. Because I'm working Black Friday, so I won't be posting then. I plan to post on Thursday instead, but no promises. It'll happen sometime that weekend if I forget.

Chapter 37 – Summer Preparations

About a week after the Stans and Fords turned a year older, the summer magic that normally accompanied vacations away from school turned into the tension one might feel when preparing for an important event.

In this case, war.

Static rippled across the town in the early morning air.

"All right! We're gonna run a drill with the Shacktron 2.0 and I need all my pilots up here stat!"

Fiddleford's shriek from the loudspeakers he'd apparently built into the mansion served as a wake-up call once a week. Considering that the whole town and the forest could hear it, it only served as a warning towards the impending doom that was coming at the end of the summer.

Maria simply groaned and turned over in her sleep before glaring at the open door as Dipper and Mabel scrambled out of the house, Stanford and Stanley right behind them. "He gets everyone up at sunrise for apocalypse training and doesn't let me get in on the piloting. Really wish that I could, but 'yer fire magic don't work with my machinery'!"

Maria huffed and pushed herself to her feet, then wandered into the kitchen to get some coffee and whatever remains of breakfast there were that the Pines had left behind. That done, she stepped out of the Shack and into a quiet early morning, just after sunrise.

Vash and Knives stepped out after her.

"We're heading over to Fiddleford's to—"

"I know; we've settled into a routine by now." Maria waved Vash and Knives on. "I'll be working with Sixer again today. Don't get squashed if the Shacktron missteps."

"Don't intend to!" Vash replied cheerily.

Maria watched as the two of them ran off, but she didn't smile at Vash as he passed her. Their eyes told far more about the current situation than they were willing to say to each other face to face.

While Vash smiled in order to lighten the situation, the grim spark in his eyes said that his thoughts were on anything but being lighthearted.

Maria's smile-less expression was very much the same.

Except that she was already thinking about the chaos that was coming at the end of the month, and thinking about it like a war.

"I've lived through dimension-ending chaos once before," Maria muttered. Memories flitted through the back of her mind – dark skies, destroyed city-scapes, people with their brains turned off while they walked around, taking orders from the dark, horned monsters that lived up in their tower in the middle of it all.

"I don't intend to let this time last as long as the last one."

Another door opened, and Sixer stepped out onto the lawn. Maria saw him start to approach, and he paused when he saw the look on her face.

"The others have already gone out," he said. "What's the plan?"

"They're running through drills so that they can get used to how Fiddleford's Shacktron works," Maria replied. "And maybe figure out how any abilities anyone has could be used against the Henchmaniacs when they get here." She paused. "There's something that I still want to do, and I'm going to need to head over into the next town in order to do it."

"What is it?"

"Journal suggested that holy items would be enough against…a certain Henchmaniac," Maria said carefully. She didn't need to say who – Sixer got the message almost immediately, judging from how his tails stiffened. "I was planning on getting as much holy water as possible from the nearest cathedral, but I'm going to have to go to the next town over in order to get any."

Maria paused, then added, "I wasn't going to ask you to come with me because I don't know how well-adapted any other towns outside of Gravity Falls are with what lives in the woods in this valley. I'm gonna get looks for flying in there on a hoverboard – you'd definitely get looks. I didn't…want to make the town get more attention than it already has."

Sixer frowned. "I've been in places where I have received stares before. I am not afraid of receiving more, if you require my aid."

Maria frowned. "Are you sure?"

"My counterparts see me as nothing more than the horseman of death and a harbinger of chaos, Maria. I think I can handle whatever looks I may receive outside of Gravity Falls."

Maria hadn't heard Sixer speak that frankly about how his counterparts saw him before, so it caused her a little surprise.

"Really?"

Sixer nodded. "I've faced worse insults and stares from my counterparts and those affected in other dimensions by…by what Cipher has done. I think I'll be okay."

Maria raised an eyebrow. Sixer really was serious about this.

"Well…all right. But I don't exactly have room on my hoverboard for two."

"I can keep up on foot."

Maria blinked. "How?"

Sixer lowered himself into a crouch…and then started to change. The fur that covered his tails started to take over his clothes and what bare skin he had. His head elongated slightly into a proper snout.

In moments, Sixer was no longer in a humanoid form, but in the form of a six-tailed fox.

And for a fox, he was huge.

Maria stared, a little wide-eyed. "Whoa." She walked around him, taking a wide berth because of his tails. "You're…you're about the size of a Ninetales, Sixer. And you can go fast like this?"

Sixer nodded.

"Okay." Maria backflipped, her red and orange hoverboard appearing underneath her almost out of nowhere before her feet could hit the ground. She landed on the hovering machinery instead of the dirt, then looked over at Sixer. "We've got a bit of a trek ahead of us, so let's get moving while we still have daylight."

Sixer nodded again and made a noise that sounded almost like a bark. Maria took that to be an affirmative – maybe he couldn't talk like a human in this form.

Maria turned and started down the driveway and out onto the road before turning and heading away from Gravity Falls. While she stayed on the edge of the road, Sixer stuck to the trees while he kept himself in her peripheral. He was just as fluid in his movements in this form as he was in his human one, which Maria found interesting.

He must have spent quite a bit of time in his fox form if that was the case.

The two of them kept up a decent pace that matched a car driving through a civilian area, which resulted in the two of them spending a good hour among the trees before they reached the next town over. Maria didn't bother to look at the town's name as they passed the sign, but she did slow down when they started to hit the buildings.

"We're looking for a big, old cathedral," Maria said. She stepped off the hoverboard as Sixer came to a stop next to her. "There can't be that many out here, although I once knew a town that had four different churches in it at once."

Instead of letting the hoverboard vanish, Maria grabbed it and tucked it under her arm like a skateboard. It almost looked like it could pass off as one, except that it was metal and definitely longer than a regular board. She hoped they weren't going to get too many stares.

Sixer shifted out of fox form as they walked, rising up from a crouch as the fur receded and was replaced with his more human form. His tails twitched as they settled behind him in their usual appearance – hanging straight down, curling up around ankle-height just to make sure that they didn't drag on the ground. There was a good five inches at the tip that was held up that way.

As they walked through the street, Maria kept her eyes above the roofs of the buildings, in order to catch sight of the cathedral's spires. It didn't take her long.

"There we go." Maria nodded to a spire that rose into the skyline, off to her left. "Now to get over there and see if they'd be willing to part with any of their holy water."

She started towards the spires, cutting across the road. Sixer stuck to her side, keeping in step just a little bit behind her.

A few cars driving by had their windows down. A few people gaped openly at the two of them, but Maria ignored the stares. She knew that they were coming – Sixer's features were difficult to hide, and the hoverboard under her arm didn't look normal, either. It was probably going to be only a matter of time before someone stopped them on the sidewalk and asked what they were doing and why Sixer looked like that.

Maria started running scenarios through her head and frowned when she found that most of them asked if Sixer was into animals at an almost unhealthy level.

Nope. Gonna nip that one in the bud if it ever comes up.

Thankfully, they weren't stopped. It seemed as though Maria and Sixer were lucky and arrived in this town on a day when there wasn't anything going on out in the streets. Or maybe it was so warm out that not many people wanted to be out and about.

"Looks like we managed to catch the town on a better day for us," Maria commented.

"Because there aren't many people out?" Sixer guessed.

"Yeah. It means we're not being stopped and people aren't asking tons of questions about what we're doing or why I've got a metal board or why you look like that."

Sixer considered that, then nodded. "I…can see how that would be advantageous."

"I just hope that we don't get sprung on when we get to the cathedral."

Thankfully, they arrived at the cathedral without any incident other than stares from a mother and her child across the street. Maria was about to turn her head to look at them when the mother hastily pulled her son further down the sidewalk and away from the two of them.

She had only been thinking about asking why they both had their phones out and were swiping their fingers across the screens. A game of some kind?

As Maria walked up to the doors of the cathedral, Sixer lingered at the base of the stairs. Maria paused halfway up and looked at him, frowning.

"Everything okay?"

Sixer fidgeted. "I…something about this place feels like I shouldn't go in." His tails twitched, making him look more agitated. "I-I don't know why ,but it just—"

The doors opened behind Maria, and a man with graying hair and wearing a basic black set of priest's robes stepped out. "What's all this? A living demon on my doorstep?"

Maria whirled sharply and glared at the priest, her gaze harsh. "Sixer isn't a demon. He may look like something from out of Asian folklore, but he isn't a demon."

The priest frowned. "And how do you know that? The creatures of Asian mythologies are clearly spirits that are tricksters by nature – they can lead you down a darker path that—"

"There's a lot more at stake than my faith in this situation!" Maria snapped. "He didn't ask to be changed! He didn't ask for his dimension to be destroyed!"

That got an odd look from the priest. "His dimension?"

Sixer's ears pulled back a little. "Maria, is it wise to tell him?"

"I was going to have to tell him anyway when I asked for holy water." Maria made a huffing sigh of irritation. "I just wasn't expecting to do it out in the open like this."

The priest's eyes narrowed. "Come inside, young lady. I would like to speak with you in private."

Maria blinked in surprise, then looked over at Sixer. "But what about—"

"This place has been blessed against beings such as himself. He can wait in the gardens on the grounds, but that is the closest he will ever get to the sanctuary."

Maria frowned. "But all that's happened to Sixer is…he was changed from being human; why would that make him—"

"If he was changed, then it is likely that demonic forces were involved," the priest replied briskly. "He will not be able to set foot in a church until he has been cleansed of that demon's touch."

Oh.

Maria's mouth pressed into a straight line, and she looked over at Sixer. He looked a little uneasy; he'd been listening to the conversation.

"I-I'll be all right," Sixer said. "You go on."

Maria hesitated, but then the priest put a hand on her shoulder.

"Come. I'm sure he can take care of himself."

Maria didn't move until she saw Sixer start to walk around the cathedral to find the gardens that the priest had mentioned. Then she let the priest guide her inside and into his office.

"So. You are a believer of alternate dimensions." The priest steepled his fingers.

"Not a believer, per say." Maria let go of her hoverboard; it dropped, then started to fold itself up into a square the size of a small backpack. It disappeared a moment later, causing the priest's eyebrows to raise. "Sixer's dimension was destroyed by a triangular demon resembling the All-Seeing Eye symbol on the back of the one dollar bill. That's why he looks like he does. And he's coming to this dimension, but the disaster is going to be confined to Gravity Falls for a little while before it's unleashed on the rest of the dimension. We intend to stop him there."

The priest stared at Maria, saying nothing. Then he walked over to a bookshelf at the back wall of his office and started looking over his books. "I thought there was something familiar about you the moment I laid eyes on you."

Maria frowned. "What do you mean?"

"You're Katie's daughter, aren't you?"

That caused Maria to freeze. "What?"

"I'd recognize that look in your eyes anywhere." The priest pulled a volume off his shelf. "And judging from the look currently on yours, she never told you that she had a brother in the ministry, did she?"

Maria blinked in confusion. It took her a moment to find words. "I – It never came up. Mom never said that she had a living brother."

The priest blinked. "A living brother?"

"Yeah. She said something about an accident that her brother Martin had gotten into while studying to be a catholic priest, but she never went into any details about it from what I remember." Maria rubbed the back of her head.

"Hm. Well, here, we keep up rather regularly, so she's come to me a few times about things she and her family have gotten up to. Apparently, her eldest son is gone again for some strange tournament that apparently happens yearly." The priest frowned. "Did you ever go to something like that?"

"Once. But then I kinda got kidnapped and pulled into something else. I haven't attended since."

Smash Worlds had been…an experience. Considering that Wily had tried to take her back under his control pretty close to the end.

Being her first use of the Protocol, it had been…something that Maria wasn't about to forget anytime soon.

But still. Matthew going to the tournament, and not her?

"Ah." The priest – no. Technically, she should be calling him Uncle Martin, shouldn't she? – opened the volume in his hands. "How old are you, child?"

"Older than the 600-year-old kitsune outside." Maria sighed when he shot her a look. "I'm not lying about this. Look, there's an apocalypse coming at the end of the summer, and if we don't prepare ourselves in every way possible, Gravity Falls is going to basically explode and pull this entire dimension into an armageddon of weirdness and chaos that only barely resembles Lovecraft. And by that I mean that it starts there and goes off in its own direction. Sixer and his family were caught up in it in their dimension, and now it's coming here."

"I see." Martin frowned. "While that sounds impossible, considering the stories that Katie has told me, I doubt that it's completely…and what do you need from me?"

"Holy water," Maria replied. "There's one demoness in particular who has caused Sixer trouble, and I think that might be able to help against her."

"Caused trouble how?"

Maria looked uneasy. When Martin continued to stare at her, she stammered out a quiet answer that caused him to turn red in the face.

"I see." His response was terse. He slammed the volume in his hands shut, then put it on his desk. "Come with me."

Maria followed him into the sanctuary. The quiet pews and occasional people kneeling in prayer did nothing to lower Maria's unease and need for what she had come there for. Some looked up as they passed, but not all of them.

Martin led Maria to a back room behind the altar that contained a number of refrigerators. "Now, holy water isn't something that most people outside of the faith consider as an actual liquid. Considering your words, I assume that you believe otherwise?"

"I've seen things that people can and will consider impossible," Maria replied. "Right now, the debate over whether or not holy water exists is not something I'm concerned about."

"…right." Martin turned and opened a refrigerator, then pulled out a plastic water cooler that looked like it could hold five gallons. "Now, how much do you need?"

Maria opened her mouth, then paused. "…depends. The demon in particular I'm going after is named Pyronica. She's a henchie to the big bad who wants to cause the end of the world, and she is highly proficient in fire. I can probably even the ground in that regard because I've gained access to a few things, but I'd rather not put myself in front of a wall of demonic flames if you know what I mean."

"Hm. What sorts of things do you have access to?"

Maria summoned a fireball, causing Martin's eyes to widen sharply.

"My goodness…."

"I can do a lot more than that, but the fire's what I rely on the most." The fireball dissipated. "And I can't do that against a demoness who can use it herself."

"I suppose you hope then that the holy water won't turn into steam on contact with her." Martin looked Maria over.

"I've had my powers dampened by water before. I don't see why I can't at least try." Maria shrugged.

Martin considered that, then nodded and handed the water cooler over. "When will it happen?"

"Sometime around the end of August. It's gonna be confined to Gravity Falls first, and if we don't stop it in time, then it will spread to the rest of this dimension."

Martin nodded. "You're going to need more than that, I think. Expect me next week to come by with more. I will be looking for a proper explanation from you then on what you have been doing, young lady, because the Maria I know isn't capable of something like that."

That was a little surprising. "She hasn't unlocked her ability yet?"

"She hasn't left this dimension for any reason."

That wasn't something Maria had been expecting to hear. "Oh."

When Maria and Martin walked out of the cathedral, Maria hid the cooler under her jacket, sending it off to her subspace pocket. When her hand came back empty, Martin raised an eyebrow.

"Now, what—"

"What do you mean, he's coming here?!"

The Ford-like voice yelling from somewhere to their left caught Maria's attention and cut Martin off.

"Sounds like there's something going on." Maria dashed down the stairs and started to run around the building. Martin shouted in surprise after her and quickly followed.

The gardens were easy and clear enough to reach – just run around the building and there it was: a small collection of arranged flowers and trees, arranged nicely.

And Sixer was backed up against the cathedral's wall, a counterpart of his keeping him there with an arm across Sixer's chest. The counterpart also had a gun in Sixer's face.

"Hey!" Maria started over, getting their attention.

Sixer, who had been looking nervous, relaxed visibly with a sigh of relief that caught his counterpart's attention.

"That's the one?" the Ford hissed. He was in portal garb, so clearly he hadn't returned home yet. Considering his hair was brown with the beginnings of a gray stripe, it looked like he still had some years to go. "She's just a kid, how did she—"

"Don't let her appearance deceive you," Sixer replied with a knowing gleam in his eyes.

"Yeah; his Cipher has a bounty on my head." Maria walked over to the two of them. "Come on, Ford, drop your weapon. Sixer's not gonna do anything."

Ford looked between Sixer and Maria, then gritted his teeth in frustration and stepped away. "You need to get out of here, kid. If he's coming here—"

"I'm not leaving." Maria folded her arms across her chest. "We rescued Sixer and his family from Cipher. I'm not about to force us to start dimension hopping in order to just barely stay ahead of him. That's only going to cause more dimensions to fall apart, and since this one's a Gravity Falls 'verse, I doubt you want that to happen, either."

Ford snorted. "You think you can stop a Cipher that has destroyed countless dimensions before this one, and remain alive by the end of it?"

"Yes. Because Cipher did something that was incredibly stupid." Maria grinned. "He merged four Gravity Fallses together. And he gave us plenty of time to prep. You should see what Fiddleford's built – the Shacktron 2.0 looks like it could punt the Fearamid right into the cliffs and leave it stuck there."

Maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but Maria was pleased when she saw the surprised look on Ford's face and the flicker of a smile on Sixer's.

"Fiddleford did what?" Ford said.

"These four dimensions have also defeated their respective Ciphers before the merging," Sixer spoke up. "Everyone in Gravity Falls knows what's at stake."

The look on Ford's face clearly said he hadn't been expecting that.

"Excuse me," Martin spoke up. "Martin Vigo, the priest for this church. Why were you so antagonistic towards him? I assume from your reactions that the two of you have…met?"

Ford's face hardened. "I've heard rumors; I haven't met him before this moment." He sent a glare at Sixer, who took the glare in stride. The kitsune just looked tired in return. "He is Cipher's pet, sent out to collect Fords and destroy dimensions."

Martin looked pale.

"Because he was forced to!" Maria jumped in. "Puppeteer did something to his soul; he couldn't resist, and he still can't. Except that he's with me now, now that crazed three-sided lunatic!"

"Which I know now," Ford replied. "But you can't expect the rest of the multiverse to know that Death was actually Puppet."

Sixer winced, ears flicking back, but he didn't argue.

Maria gritted her teeth in response. "I hope to Primus that wasn't the nickname for Sixer that Stanford sent into the Council of Fords."

There was another flicker of surprise on Ford's face, but he reigned it back quickly. "If he's coming here, then I need a way out of this dimension quickly. My counterpart informed me that you would know a way for me to leave?"

Maria frowned at Ford. As much as she disliked his derogatory and accusing tone towards Sixer, she knew he had to get out of their current dimension.

So she grabbed his hand, and focused.

"What are you—"

A flash of blue from the contact cut Ford off abruptly.

"…Dimension 44-BZ," Maria said after a moment. "There we go."

"How did you—"

"I'm a walking stable portal generator, been one for centuries, now shush."

Ford shut his mouth, wide-eyed, while Sixer grinned at him, looking smug.

Maria ignored them both and her alternate still-living Uncle Martin as she brought her hands to her chest and focused.

Come on, come on…let his dimension be open this time.

There was a build-up of energy in her chest then, and it quickly rushed down Maria's arms, giving her a blue aura.

"And—Ha!"

Maria threw her arms forward and sent the energy off her arms in the process. The energy very quickly condensed in on itself, forming a flat, circular blue disk of swirling energy.

"Go on." Maria made a shooing motion at Ford. "Your dimension's wide open for some reason; your Cipher didn't seal it off."

"Of course he didn't; he's already dead," Ford huffed.

"What?" Maria snorted. "How? Did you go through Weirdmageddon already?"

"No. I was one of the ones who ran into a counterpart who was caught and escaped. He said Cipher said that someone was going out and killing Ciphers, and had gotten to mine." Ford nodded to Sixer, who blinked a couple times.

"The Breakout," Sixer said. "Which one did you meet?"

"The one in Entropy's cell." Ford shrugged. "He escaped with another Ford who had a Rick's portal gun."

Sixer frowned. After a moment, he nodded slowly. "I remember that green explosion. It's good to know that he managed to escape."

Ford blinked, then shook his head and snorted. "Just don't get yourself stuck again. I think you owe us that after so many years of trouble."

He then turned and strode through the portal without another word.

Maria flicked her wrist, causing the portal to wink out of existence. "Well, he was rude."

"…he likely has a lot on his mind," Sixer replied quietly. "I just confirmed to him that I had not made a deal with Cipher for my power, much less my current position."

He had not wanted this.

"He likely will have a lot to think about now, especially now that he has returned home and he doesn't have a Cipher threatening him," Sixer added.

Maria frowned.

"So that is what my sister and her family do," Martin said with some amazement. He gained a more determined expression a moment later. "I'll get you more holy water over the next few weeks, but it takes time to bless it. You're in Gravity Falls, you said?"

"618 Gopher Road, Uncle Martin," Maria replied. "At the Mystery Shack."

"I'll keep that in mind." Martin frowned. "And I think it might be wise to call the family you have here."

"I—"

"I know they aren't technically your family, but I think they would appreciate seeing a counterpart of our Maria, even for a little while." Martin started back towards the cathedral's entrance. "Just think about it, young lady. I look forward to the look of shock on my sister's face when she discovers what her daughter has gotten up to."

Maria blinked as he walked away, not exactly sure what to say to that.

"…you got the holy water?" Sixer asked behind her.

Maria stiffened a little, then gave a stuttering answer while she nodded. "Y-yeah. I've got some. Let's head back."

Sixer nodded, then shifted down to his fox form. He looked at her expectantly.

Maria sighed. "All right."

Her hoverboard dropped out of thin air and hovered next to her. She stepped onto it, then flew off down the street. Sixer followed after her.