"What the Hell are these things Star!" Star and Marco had been ambushed by these flying eyeball bat creatures almost immediately after raising the barrier. To make matters worse was that they couldn't lose them. The bats always seemed to know their exact location.

"How am I supposed to know! They're from a collapsing realm that I've never seen, just keep fighting Marco!" This was just not her day. First, she found out her royal lineage was a lie, something she still hasn't had time to fully digest because of what came next. A banned member of the Magic high commission was planning the escape of his dimensional prison. Worse, he seemed to be targeting Earth, one of Stars favorite planets. To top things off, she came just in time to see Bill succeed in his prison break and now the town was encased in utter madness. And now they were surrounded by these giant flying eyeballs that could turn things into solid rock.

There's no way they could keep this up for much longer, she realized. Star could tell Marco was tiring, his karate chops were slowing down and he was just avoiding the bat's stone gazes. What they needed was a miracle.

"BAAA!" A giant, furry leg stepped on an eye bat. Marco screamed as the ground shook for the third time that day. Seizing the miracle, Star grabbed Marco and pulled him from the chaos.

"Move Marco! This is our chance to escape while they're distracted!" The eye bats didn't take kindly to the killing of one of their own and were trying their hardest to turn a fifty-foot goat into a statue. They managed to run away, forgotten by the eye bats momentarily.

The distraction appeared to work, although Star wanted nothing more than to ride that ginormous goat. She could almost feel how soft the fur would be, and what a way to ride into battle! Bill would be quaking if they showed up on him. Going back wasn't an option though, she needed to get Marco to safety so he could regain his energy.

They ran by a beaten down shack as they made their way to the town. They thought about stopping but were afraid that they hadn't put enough distance between the bats yet so they decided to keep going.

(Line Break)

The town was coming into sight at last and as Marco looked around his heart sank. The place was in ruins. Walls were crumbling and fires could be heard in the distance. Bill had only escaped a few hours ago and society had already collapsed.

As the duo took in their surroundings a man came scrambling out of a nearby appliance store. He had gray hair that was covered by a straw hat and fatty cheeks that made him appear jovial, as if all was right with the world.

"What are you two doing outside, can't you see the sky? Come on inside, get some food in you." Star and Marco looked at each other, this could be an excellent way to get some more information on what exactly happened. They silently agreed that Star should do most of the talking. She was the expert on talking to people after all.

"Thank you, sir. Would you mind telling us what happened here?" Star decided it was best to play innocent. After all, if Bill had been haunting people for a while like the High Commission thought, they may not be entirely clueless.

"Well, I'll be honest, I don't know too much. I was inside when that big ol' X was put in the sky. Now everything has turned sideways and upside down. The name's Dipper, by the way." Star shook his outstretched hand. She noticed the way his eyes watched her and how he smiled, and not in a warm way, when she accepted his handshake. It was like she missed some sort of inside joke that he had been testing her with. "I've seen a thing or two, but nothing like this. I really couldn't tell you exactly what's happening here. You young folk always have theories though. What do you think this is all about?"

Star and Marco hesitated. How much should they reveal? This man seemed nice enough, but looks could be deceiving and they didn't want information getting in the wrong hands. On the other hand, if Dipper was an honest man, they could use someone who was familiar with the town. If they didn't trust anyone then nothing would get solved. They needed to play their cards right, they decided, not hide them away. Nothing risked, nothing gained.

It was crazy how that entire conversation happened within a single glance, almost like twins. Well, Star was hoping for more than that one day but that was neither here nor there. She couldn't fantasize about the future when the present was at stake.

"We think a sleep demon has been using humans to bring himself into this reality. That tear in the sky was him and he's residing in that giant stone pyramid." The man's eyes widened and he smiled that same, creepy smile again. He was happy, way happier than he should be for what Star had just told him.

"My my, you two sure do know a whole lot about this situation – more than anyone else in this stupid town would. You also don't know that brat of a kid named Dipper so you're not from around here. There's only one way you could know all this so hand it over."

"Umm, hand what over?" Marco replied. He could feel something wasn't quite right anymore. He may be dense but he wasn't blind.

"The journals!" He stood up and his body started shaking in rage. Maybe it was more than rage, Marco thought, because his body was changing. His eyes blinked sideways as his body became see-through. "You mortals know too much! You must have found the journals, so HAND THEM OVER!"

"Journals!? This is all over someone's diary!? I hate to ruin your day but we have no idea what you're talking about!" Marco was not having this. Some man invites them to eat and then turns into some transparent freak over a stupid book. Too bad Star couldn't blast him with her magic wand or else the eye bats would be able to track them. Apparently, his best friend was almost thinking the same lines because she pulled out her wand and hit him right in the face with a narwhale blast. Oh right, he'd never told her his theory about that. Idiot.

Instead of getting hit, the monster transformed into a small human with a red hat to avoid the spell and then took the form of colorful narwhale. He'd transformed into one of Star's spells!

"What is this, some new creature? Did you create that? With that wand I could manifest any form I can imagine. Give it over before I take it from your corpse." Star and Marco regrouped as the shapeshifting freak was monologuing. They watched in horror as it turned from a cute and cuddly narwhale into another massive creature. It was dark green with biceps bigger than Marcos head with mushrooms growing on his shoulders. The worst part was the face, though. It had a gaping mouth with huge tusks and glowing red eyes that made Star whimper in fear.

His menacing laugh turned into a snarl as he advanced.

AN: I realized that I haven't had a cliff hanger in this story yet so I decided to fix that. Hopefully it's a decent one. Also, for those that are confused, the Shapeshifter was calling himself Dipper to see if Star and Marco would recognize it. Since they didn't, he knew that they weren't locals and deduced they must have found one of the journals to get the knowledge they had.

On a side note, who are some of your favorite authors? I really enjoy reading books by Neal Shusterman, Orson Scott Card, and Michael Grant.

I'll see you guys (and gals) next Friday.