Happy Halloween, Everybody! Funny story, I actually meant to have this up last night, but I got distracted by COZI TV's Munsters marathon while I was editing. That Herman Munster just tickles me. I managed to get halfway though it before it was time to hit the sack, so I decided to finish up on Halloween as sort of a treat for you all. So I get home after work and I started editing again, only to get distracted by TCM's showing of The Bride of Frankenstein. The Dr. Pretorius is suck a delightful knave. Anyway, without any further delays, here's chapter four. Steven Universe is owned by Cartoon Network and Gravity Falls is owned by Disney. Enjoy.

Chapter 4: Bubble Buddies 2.0

(A short time later)

It felt like forever, but eventually Steven and Mabel had their fill of chatting with the Fairy Folk. Not that Dipper was in a hurry or anything, but there were several questions he wanted to ask their new friend and it would've been difficult to do so while his sister was squealing at the top of her voice over how cute she thought they all were. At any rate, when the two of them returned, still covered in pixie dust, the young mystery hunter was ready to pounce.

"Sorry about that." Steven said to Dipper as he shook some of the sparkling dust from his hair. "Once Queen Titania starts talking it's really hard to make her stop."

"No, it's cool. I understand." The young sleuth replied casually. "But now that you're back, there's something I've been meaning to ask you."

"Okay, what's on your mind?"

"I was just wondering, who's the Boar…"

"Steven Quartz Universe!" roared an unfamiliar but imposing voice from somewhere close by. "What on Earth do you think you're doing here?"

From out of a nearby patch of shrubbery emerged a bizarre creature of hecatoncheirian proportions. It was obviously supposed to be some kind of bear, but it resembled one only in the vaguest sense. For its entire body seemed to be composed of bear heads with only the occasional arm or leg to break up the monotony. The amorphous brute slowly lumbered towards them, the eyes on what was presumably its main head never straying from Steven for even a second, until at last it loomed over them like some kind of monstrous Lovecraftian nightmare.

But of course, Steven wasn't the least bit frightened.

"Hi, Multi-Bear." The strange lad said cheerfully to the terrifying abomination. "What brings you down from the mountains?"

"Never mind what I'm doing here, what are you doing here?" the 'Multi-Bear' asked disapprovingly. "Why aren't you at home where it's safe?"

"Well, that's kind of a long story, but basically I'm showing my new friends around and…"

"Then you have put them and yourself in terrible danger." The amorphous beast interrupted sharply. "Have you forgotten that the Boar King wants you dead?"

"Okay, that's it." Dipper jumped in, having had quite enough of all this foreshadowing. "What the heck is this Boar King everyone keeps talking about?"

"So, Steven didn't tell you, eh? Figured as much. Otherwise you'd be running for the hills instead of chatting it up with the pixies." The Multi-Bear said, his voice dripping with seriousness, before bending down to look the twins in the eye. "Listen well, Children of Adam, the Boar King is an unrelenting Avatar of Rage and Destruction, forged by the chaos of an ancient war long forgotten by man. Its hide is nigh impregnable, its hooves can shatter bedrock and its tusks can pierce the hull of a battleship. Even the Manotaurs, in all their toxic masculinity, quake in terror at the very mention of its name."

"Whoa…" said Mabel, sounding totally awestruck. "How did you know our Dad's name is Adam?"

Ignoring this, Dipper turned to their new friend and asked him point blank.

"Something you wanna tell us?"

To which Steven replied,

"Well…"

XXX

(Twelve days earlier)

"Okay… I have several questions for you, Amethyst." Pearl said sternly from her position at the base of the massive redwood. "Why are you a balloon? Why are you suspending Steven thirty feet off the ground? Why is he covered in mud? And why… just why?"

"Oh, don't act all surprised, P." the Amethyst-Balloon replied casually. "This whole thing was your idea."

"What?"

"You told us to go get you some more honey for your precious tea party with Multi-Bear." The transformed Gem said, using her eyes to gesture towards the beehive hanging from a branch mere inches from the muddy Steven.

"I meant go to the store in town, not… whatever this is!" the taller Gem shouted angrily before letting out a deep breath and rubbing her temples. "Never mind, just bring Steven back down this instant."

"But Pearl, we've almost got the honey." The muddy Steven said pleadingly; highly invested in this latest zany escapade.

"Steven, forget about the honey. Your safety is more important." Pearl replied, her voice still dripping with seriousness. "Besides, this plan was never going to work anyway. Especially if it was Amethyst's idea."

"And just what is that supposed to mean?" Amethyst asked incredulously. "Are you saying all my ideas are bad?"

"No, I'm saying you're an impulsive, irresponsible lunkhead."

"Oh yeah! Well, you're a…uh… you have a big nose!"

"Saying factual statements like they're insults doesn't make them insults."

"Yes it does."

"No it doesn't."

"Yes it does!"

"No it doesn't!"

"Come on, guys. Please don't fight." Steven pleaded, hating to see two of his surrogate mother figures behaving this way. However, his discomfort was quickly forgotten once he noticed that one of the bees had landed on Amethyst's balloon-like surface, looking poised to sting. "Uh… Amethyst?"

"Not now, Steven. I'm about to win the argument." The purple Gem said dismissively before turning her attention back to Pearl. "Yes it doooAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

As the air emptied from the tiny puncture mark left by the bee, Amethyst's balloon body flew all over the place, taking Steven along for the ride. Eventually, the young lad hit his head on something sturdy enough to break the rope that attached him to the purple Gem and he fell straight down. Fortunately, Pearl was there to catch him just in the nick of time.

"Oh, my poor sweet baby." The tall Gem said, sounding out of breath from panicking. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I think so." Steven replied. "But my head really hurts."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHH!" yelled Amethyst as she fell to the ground a few feet away from them; finally back in her normal form. "Ugh… That looked a lot more fun in the movie. I don't feel so good."

"Yeah, well you deserve it." Pearl said sharply. "Steven could've been seriously hurt, Amethyst. What in heaven's name were you…"

"Uh, guys, what happened to the bee hive?" Steven interrupted, diverting everyone's attention upward.

Sure enough, the bee hive and the branch it had been on had completely vanished; evidently that had been what Steven hit his head on. But the question was, where had it landed?

The trio got their answer a few seconds later, when they heard a great roar of angry buzzing coming from a large bush across the way; followed swiftly by a deafening squeal of pain that shook the very ground.

Naturally, they were all too scared to move, let along speak, but fortunately Amethyst managed to articulate the general feeling of terror they were all experiencing in a simple but eloquent way.

"Uh-oh."

XXX

(Back in the present)

"Wait, I'm confused." Mabel said upon hearing the end of Steven's story. "Why were you covered in mud?"

"I was camouflaging myself to look like a storm cloud so the bees wouldn't bother me." Steven answered matter-of-factly, before apparently realizing just how ridiculous that sounded. "It made more sense when Amethyst said it."

"Okay, putting that aside for the moment, what I'm getting here is that there's a gigantic, semi-indestructible boar monster running around the forest trying to kill you." Dipper spoke up as anger and panic churned within him. "Why didn't you warn us about this earlier?"

"Oh relax, Dipper. Multi-Bear's just being a worrywart." Steven replied dismissively. "Do you have any idea how huge these woods are? I'm in here almost every day and sometimes I go months without seeing the same people. What are the odds we'll run into the Boar King today?"

Just then, the air was shattered by a gut-wrenching squeal so loud that it shook the trees and nearly burst Dipper's ear drums. A few moments later, the awful din died down and the clearing fell deathly quiet.

"Dang it." Steven muttered to himself as the blood drained from his face. "Why'd I have to go and jinx it?"

BOOM!

BOOOM!

BOOOOM!

The ground shook over and over again, as if something very large and very heavy were repeatedly striking the earth. Only two possible explanations came to Dipper's mind; it was either a meteor shower or gigantic footsteps. The young mystery hunter desperately hoped it was the former.

"Run! Everybody run!" shouted a hobgoblin nearby. "The Boar King's coming!"

Almost instantly, every magical creature in the clearing darted off in any direction other than where the footsteps were coming from. Even Multi-Bear fled in terror, but not before advising the children to do the same. Unfortunately, none of them heeded his word. Either from fear or other complex psychological reasons, all three of them stood there like statues; waiting for certain doom.

BOOOOM!

BOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOM!

The footsteps were so close that pine needles started falling from the trees in heavy clumps. Their chance to flee was long gone. A split-second later, the Boar King arrived on the scene, tearing through the dense foliage like cheap tissue paper. It stopped mere inches away from the group, seemingly to catch its breath, allowing them all to take in its full, hideous form.

The creature known as the Boar King was unlike anything Dipper had ever seen before. Based solely on the 'King' part of its name, the young lad had assumed it would be humanoid, but it was in fact just a very, very, large wild pig; roughly the size of an adult elephant. Its body was a dark, almost regal shade of green, with a stripe of fluffy white hair running all the way down its back. Its massive, drooling maw was full of presumably razor-sharp teeth, with tusks that were weirdly bent in such a way that they resembled lightning bolts. It had a big snorting nose, but beyond that it was strangely devoid of features. It had no eyes, or ears or even a tail. But by far the strangest thing, at least from Dipper's perspective, was the large green jewel embedded in its forehead; it looked like an emerald.

"H-H-H-Hey there, Boar King." Steven addressed the monster, lacking any of his usual confidence. "You're not still mad about that bee hive thing, are you?"

The Boar King said nothing, presumably because it couldn't talk, but instead let out a deafening roar-squeal that showed off just how ridiculously wide its mouth truly was; fully opened, it took up over 2/3rds of its entire body, just in case you were wondering.

Steven quickly spun around to face the twins; his eyes wide with terror and his whole body as white as a sheet.

"Yup, he's still mad."

XXX

(Roughly one hundred and eighty-six seconds later)

Our three young heroes ran as fast as their little legs would allow them; leaping over rocks and weaving around trees as needed. By way of contrast, their pursuer moved in a perfectly straight line; plowing through trees and boulders as if they were made of nothing but air. Even with his joints aching and his lungs burning, Dipper couldn't stop his curious mind from percolating. He found it odd that three human children of average size and stamina could outrun such a beast for so long. He considered the possibility that the Boar King was just toying with them, prolonging the chase for its own amusement, but that would mean it was capable of complex thought and from the looks of it, the hulking swine couldn't produce any thought more complicated than 'I'm hungry'.

Almost as if it had heard Dipper's unspoken insult, the Boar King left out a sickening roar-squeal and summoned a sudden burst of speed. Within seconds, the young mystery hunter felt the beast's hot, rancid breath on the back of his neck. He knew for certain that unless something changed within the next few moments, he, his sister and their new friend would be trampled, gored or eaten, or some horrific combination of all three. So he was willing to accept whatever ridiculous, improbable miracle the universe was willing to give out in order to stay alive.

And that's exactly what he got.

The Mega-Swine let out yet another hideous squeal, indicating that it was about to charge, but just as it was about to make contact, there was a sudden flash of pink. Then, instead of being trampled or impaled, Dipper's back slammed against a hard, flat surface and he was launched into the air at highspeed. It sort of reminded him of a carnival ride he'd gone on with his Dad last summer, or at least it did until whatever he was riding started ricocheting off everything like a super bouncy ball.

After about five minutes of this, the world finally stopped moving and Dipper was given the chance to catch his breath. He was so disoriented and so nauseous that at first the young lad couldn't tell where he was or what had happened, but as the minutes ticked on and his senses returned he began to slowly put the pieces together. Somehow, someway, he, his sister and Steven, had been incased in a large, translucent pink orb, which had shielded them from the Boar King's attack, but the force of said attack had propelled them like a football high into the air. Then, after bouncing off several dozen trees like some sort of giant pinball, they finally came to rest on the sturdy branch of a massive redwood about thirty or forty feet above the ground.

It sounded ridiculous, sure, but the young mystery hunter couldn't argue with his own eyes.

There wasn't much room inside the bubble, so it didn't take long for Dipper to find his two companions; in fact, they were laying right next to him. Both of them were looking pretty groggy, but after a few more minutes, they too regained their senses.

"Wh-Whuh… Whuhzah… Whuhzda fafa…" Mabel babbled, seemingly trying to reteach herself how to talk. "H-Hu-Hu-Human sized hamster ball. At last, my life is complete."

Well, at least that ruled out brain damage.

"Ugh… giant pinball… not fun." Steven groaned, still looking quite nauseous.

"Is everyone okay?" Dipper asked his compatriots concernedly. The others nodded, and once he was satisfied that they were alright his compassion quickly turned to indignation. "Good, because one of us needs to start explaining things. Starting with what the heck this thing is."

Although he may have acted like a fool, it was clear that Steven understood that Dipper was talking directly to him. But judging from the uncomfortable look on his face, this was a conversation the strange boy had been hoping to avoid.

"Well… you see, I'm… kinda, sorta… magic." Steven replied awkwardly. "Well, half magic, on my Mom's side."

"Okay, so you made this thing?" Dipper asked, already suspecting the answer.

"Yeah, but I can't really control it yet. Otherwise, I would've brought it out a lot sooner."

""That's good to know, and it answers my second question. So here's my third one, are you sure you're not hurt?"

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"Are you really, really sure? I mean, you don't feel anything broken or… leaking inside you, right?"

"No, I'm pretty sure I'm fine."

"Good."

Then without warning, the young mystery hunter punched the mysterious boy hard in the arm. He suspected that he had done more harm to himself than to Steven, but it was more about venting his frustration than actually hurting anyone.

"Ow! What was that for?" Steven asked defensively while Mabel just gasped in horror.

"You knew that thing was out here looking for you!" Dipper yelled while pointing an accusatory finger at the strange lad. "Why didn't you warn us?"

"I… I really didn't think we'd run into him." Steven answered in a pitiful but genuine way. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry? Sorry? That thing almost killed us and you're sorry?" the young mystery hunter went off; raving like a lunatic. "Are you kidding me? We all could've died because of you! I mean, you had like a million opportunities to warn us about that thing, but you didn't! You just kept on playing the dopey little tour guide! Now there's a monster after us and we're stuck in this stupid tree and it's all your stupid fault!"

By the time he finished his rant, Dipper was completely out of breath. Mabel was looking at him with an expression of disbelief mixed with disapproval, and Steven appeared to be on the verge of tears.

Pretty much instant regret.

"I… I'm sorry." Steven replied sullenly, pausing only briefly to sniffle. "I just… I just wanted you guys to like me."

"What?" the young mystery hunter asked confusedly.

"It's just… I don't have many friends my own age, and most of the people in town aren't into magic stuff." The strange boy explained weakly. "But you guys got so excited when you saw Lion, I thought… well, I just thought that if I showed you some of my other magical friends, then you'd think I was cool and you'd wanna keep hanging out with me, even after I helped you find the lake."

A wave of empathy washed over Dipper like a sudden deluge; followed swiftly by waves of guilt and shame.

"But you're right. This is all my fault. I was just being stupid."

Oh… that one cut deep.

"Sigh… No you weren't." Dipper said sympathetically. "I… I get it."

"What?"

"I don't have many friends my age either." The young mystery hunter admitted. "Actually, back home, I don't really have any friends."

"You're kidding."

"No, it's true. I mean, there's the guys in my DD&MD Club, but we only meet on the weekends. Most of the time I just hang out with my sister."

"I can relate to that."

"What I guess I'm saying is, I get where you're coming from. And as long as we're being honest, up until the Boar King showed up, I really did think it was cool how you knew all those monsters."

"Really?"

"Totally."

And with just those simple words, the atmosphere in the bubble completely changed from bad to good.

"So… half magic, huh?" Dipper asked with a much more relaxed demeanor. "How does that work?"

"Well, It's sort of complicated." Steven replied before lifting up his shirt to reveal a large pink jewel embedded in his bellybutton. "You see this gem? It used to belong to my Mom. It gives me powers and stuff, but I can't really control it yet."

"Huh… wow, that's… that's really cool, man." The young mystery hunter said with a smile, which caused Steven to smile back.

"Aw~ Look at you two." Mabel gushed approvingly. "You guys are giving me all kinds of warm fuzzies, but there's still the little matter of us being stuck in a tree with a bloodthirsty pig monster after us."

Rats, she had a good point, and when Mabel is being the voice of reason, then reason is in serious trouble. If they were going to get out of this alive they needed to deal with the Boar King. But how could they possibly fight something so big and invulnerable?

Wait… invulnerable… ah-ha!

Acting quickly, Dipper reached into his backpack and pulled out his trusty Journal; flipping through the pages until he finally found what he was looking for.

Page 73: "Dragon's Teeth"

End Notes:

Another chapter, another smashing success. I tell you, I haven't been this engrossed in writing a story in ages. I really feel like my old self again. With that said, be sure to fav and follow the story if you're enjoying it so far and please leave a lovely review before you go.

Until next time.

Peace.