Blood of the Forgers
Chapter 3
Traverse Town
Dipper's POV
Ugh… what hit me? I felt a strange weight on my back as I came to. What happened? The last thing I remember was fighting the same black monster from that dream I had the other night… and then…
Wait… what happened to the others? I pushed myself off the cobblestoned ground, and I noticed I was in an alleyway of some strange town I didn't recognize. There was a barred-off waterway at the far end of the alley, and I noticed the back of a hotel to my right. I tried to stand up, but something threw me off-balance, and I nearly fell back down. My shirt and jacket fell to the ground around me in pieces. When I looked back over my shoulder, I saw why…
I HAD TWO MASSIVE WHITE WINGS GROWING FROM MY SHOULDER BLADES!
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
After screaming my lungs out at this insane discovery, I fell onto my hands and knees, the weight of the wings pressing down on me.
Why did this happen to me? What did I do to deserve this? I looked at the remains of my upper garments, ruined by the growth of these wings. I sighed heavily before gathering them up, slipping my Dream Crystal into the pocket of my jeans, and walking down towards the waterway I saw.
As I got closer, I noticed an offshoot leading to the backdoor of a large house. I knocked on the door a bit, and when no one answered, I let myself in. The room I was in was well furnished, with a nice television set in the corner, but otherwise completely empty. I walked right through that into the next room, which seemed to be a dining room, from what I saw, after which I came across a living room. Both of these rooms were as empty as the TV room. As I walked into the next room, I noticed a grand piano in the corner, but at the side of the room, I saw a pair of adult Dalmatians, one male and one female based on the colors of their collars. They seemed very sad or some reason, so I went over to them, kneeling down to their level.
"Hey…" I said softly, both of them looking up to meet my eyes. "…is something wrong?" The male dog raised an eyebrow at my question. He seemed pretty intelligent… he must be confused as to why I was asking him, a dog, if something was wrong. Mabel must have rubbed off on me.
A frown returned to his face as he pointed his nose at a picture on the wall. It was of the two adult Dalmatians, along with nine rows of eleven puppies. Ninety-nine puppies and both parents… one-hundred and one dogs to look after!? Jeez, their owners must be loaded. But at least I could see why they were bummed out.
"I see… you miss your puppies, huh?" They both seemed to sigh in despair, hanging their heads again. "Hey… I'm trying to find my family too… you two must feel terrible… so…" I paused to read their name tags. "…Pongo… Perdita… if it means anything, I'll see if I can find your puppies while I'm at it, okay?" They both perked up slightly at the gesture, and Pongo, the male Dalmatian, nodded in thanks. Happy with this promise, I left the house, entering a large, two level plaza with a fountain at one end, and a massive building with a bell on the roof at the other. I felt the wings bristle slightly in a small breeze… I don't know how the heck I'm supposed to get used to these things. I noticed a tailor's on the upper level of the plaza, so I made my way over, wondering why the place seemed to be empty. What I was even more startled by was getting dragged into the tailor's store before I could even knock.
It was only now that I could get a good look at the guy who dragged me inside. He was a blonde haired young man, probably eighteen or nineteen years old and very short for his age (I was just barely taller than him, and I'm six years younger than him). He was wearing a green silk vest with no undershirt, white gloves, and long blue pants that lead to a pair of brown leather boots. He looked up at me with a sort of scalding expression.
"What in the name of all that is holy were you doing outside!?" He asked hotly. "It's not safe to be wandering around the Second District all alone!"
"Second District?" I responded. "What are you talking about?" He looked at me with a sympathetic expression all of a sudden.
"I get it… you're new here, aren't you? Well, let me be the first to welcome you to Traverse Town, a safe haven for those whose homes have been lost."
Those whose homes have been lost… Gravity Falls was gone… What happened to…?
"Wait… what about… what about my friends and family!?"
"I don't know… I just don't know… not many people have the strength needed to survive their world's destruction."
"Then… My friends… and my family… my sister…" I stared at the floor in despair, falling to my knees, ready to cry. I felt a hand on my shoulder before I actually could, and looked up at the short man.
"Hey… you just said you had a sister, right?"
"Yeah…"
"Then there's a good chance she survived as well, if she's anything like you."
"Thanks. I bet the other seven Dream Keepers survived as well. I have to keep looking for them." My eyes landed on the remains of my shirt and jacket. "Uh… but first…" I looked up at the older shorty. "Do you think you could repair these… while accommodating it for…?" I trailed off, glancing back at the wings on my back. The older boy took the tattered remains of my clothes from me, nodding in confirmation.
"I'll see what I can do, kid."
"I have a name, you know. It's Dipper. Dipper Pines."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Zidane Tribal, master tailor, and part-time thief."
Part-time thief? That worried me a little. He turned away from me to get to work repairing my clothes, and I noticed that he had a golden monkey-like tail sticking out of a small hole in his pants. At least it explained why he didn't ask me about my new wings. Ugh, that still sounds weird… and I should be used to weird after spending three months in a place like Gravity Falls.
"You know…" I heard Zidane mutter under his breath as he started taking my measurements. "With those wings, you kind of remind me of someone I knew from back home."
"Who?"
"My friend's girlfriend." He just left it at that, and said nothing more until he noticed me staring at him questioningly. "Don't tell Leon I mentioned her."
"Okay… uh, Zidane… mind telling me what the heck is going on here?"
He sighed heavily as he started sewing my shirt back together. "Dipper, you're a smart boy, aren't you?" I nodded in affirmation. "You've probably figured out by now that there are other worlds out there, besides your old home and this town, right?"
"That's pretty obvious… but no one is supposed to know that, am I right?"
"Exactly. The secret could be kept, because the worlds were blocked off from each other… then the Heartless appeared… and everything changed."
"The Heartless? You mean those black monsters I saw when my world disappeared?"
"That's right. Those without hearts, devoid of emotion… they are beings born of darkness, attracted by the darkness in people's hearts. And there is darkness… in every heart."
I just stood there, bare chested with wings growing from my back, contemplating Zidane's words. We lapsed into silence for a while before Zidane spoke again.
"Hey… do you know anything about a man named 'Ansem'?"
"Ansem? No, can't say I do… who is he?"
"A wise man who studied the Heartless. He recorded his findings in a detailed report. I'd show it to you, but its pages were scattered."
"I assume you mean they were scattered to numerous worlds?"
"Bingo."
I thought back to my world's destruction, namely, the innumerable fights with those Heartless things. I remembered a small observation I made at the time.
"Conventional weaponry is completely ineffective against the Heartless," I mumbled loud enough for Zidane to hear me. I took my Dream Crystal out of my pocket, activating the ethereal blade formed from it. "…but magical weapons like my Dream Crystal can slice clean through them."
"You know what's even more effective? The keyblade."
"The what-now?"
"The keyblade… it's the only thing that can truly destroy the Heartless. But possession alone is a double edged sword, sense the Heartless can use the keyblade to track down strong hearts. Whoever is chosen by the keyblade will be the only one capable of fighting the Heartless on a level field. You want to find your friends and family? You need to find the wielder of the keyblade first."
I adjusted my hat as I nodded in understanding. Zidane handed me my finished clothes, and after a lot of struggling around the god-forsaken wings, I finally got my shirt and jacket on. They both now had slits cut in the back so that the wings could be allowed out. I sighed heavily as I remembered this new burden I had to bear. "Anyway… how much do I owe you?"
"You know what? It's on the house this time."
"Really? Th… wait a minute… you stole my wallet just now, didn't you?" Zidane handed me my wallet with a sheepish look on his face. Man, he's good.
"It's useless to me, anyway. We only take munny here."
"You wouldn't happen to know where I can find a currency exchange place in this town, would you."
Before Zidane could answer, he gasped in shock, and pushed me to the ground as something flew over our heads. I looked up in time to see a tall, armored monster with a symbol on its chest, of a heart with a barbed X going through it. A Heartless, no doubt about it.
"Dipper, run!" Zidane ordered, pulling a pair of daggers from his sides. "Their leader must be around here somewhere. You head to the Third District, and start looking there! I'll catch up with you!"
Before I could say anything, Zidane charged the Heartless, slashing at it with his daggers. Reluctantly, I nodded in understanding, whipping out my Dream Crystal and Jumping out the smashed window of the shop.
Outside, there were a large number of these things gathered around the shop, so I lunged at the closet one, opening a gap in the wall that I immediately dashed through, rushing down an alleyway behind the tailor's and lead to a set of doors with the words "Third District" printed above them.
I dashed through the doors, and ran down to the large plaza at the bottom of a set of stairs. I glanced around the area, taking not of the fountain in the corner of the plaza, the broken electrical wire off to the side, and the weird door with a fire symbol on it at the opposite end.
Shortly, I heard someone running up behind me, followed shortly by two people screaming in terror as if falling from a large height, followed by a boy noticing said individuals about to land on him, followed by him not getting away in time. I spun around to see a boy about a year older than me with spiky, dark brown hair and stunning blue eyes piled under an anthropomorphic duck in blue clothes and a tall, anthropomorphic dog in a green turtleneck and modest hat. I ran over to the pile of bodies, kneeling down in front of the boy.
"Hey, are you guys okay?"
"I'll live…" the boy muttered in response. I was about to reach over to him and over a hand, but then I noticed that he had something in his hand; a giant, silver skeleton key with a yellow guard, and a silver keychain that resembled a mouse head.
"Is that…?"
"The key!" Both the dog and the duck exclaimed in happiness. At that moment, the plaza suddenly began to shake, prompting us to look around the area in concern. I shuddered as several massive pillars rose from the ground, numerous Heartless appearing on top of them. The three strangers immediately got off of each other, all four of us preparing for battle. I held my Dream Crystal at the ready while the other boy held that massive key, which had to be the Keyblade, in both hands over to his right side, the duck wielding a short staff, and the dog hiding behind a small shield. Between the four of us, these grunts were short work… although I wasn't exactly impressed with the other boy's fighting style. There was no finesse to it whatsoever.
There was a short calm period after the last of the helmeted Heartless, which I had dubbed "Soldiers" was defeated, so I took a moment to look of the keyblade wielder. He had a silver crown charm around his neck, and had on a white shirt under a black vest, baggy red shorts, and gigantic yellow shoes.
It was just then that I heard something, and all four of us looked up at once to see a giant suit of dark purple, disjointed armor fall in front of us, assembling itself before the helmet fell into place just above the torso. The symbol I saw on the Soldiers was emblazoned in the middle of the torso. This thing was what I would later christen the Guard Armor.
The four of us got into a battle position as the Guard Armor began to lumber forward, its feet threatening to crush us. I jumped out of the way while the other boy started hacking away at the right foot. At that moment, the arms began to revolve around the main body, knocking him away. I rushed over to try and help him, but the still spinning arms hit me as well, and I stumbled backwards in a daze. Its feet started moving forward again, almost crushing me, but the dog rushed in front of me and used his shield to block the feet.
"Thanks," I muttered.
"Yer welcome," the dog replied. I stepped around him and lunged at left foot, burying the crystal up to the hilt in the armor. I pulled it out just as a small ball of fire hit the same foot, destroying it. I looked over at the duck as he sent another fireball from the tip of his staff at the other foot at the same time the keyblade wielder finished a combo on it, their combined attack finishing the foot off.
I looked on as the dog suddenly started spinning like a top with his shield held out, slicing the Guard Armor's left arm, so I started hacking away at the right arm, just as they started spinning, knocking both of us away. Jeez, it really hurt that time.
"Don't give up!" I heard the duck shout as he tossed me a small, green bottle. I downed the contents of the bottle, immediately feeling better. I leapt back to my feet as I saw the keyblade wielder shatter the left arm, and I took out the right shortly after. With a good helping of teamwork, the torso was eliminated as well, and fell to the ground, releasing a large heart into the sky.
"So… you were looking for me?" the other boy asked a little while later, after the duck, the dog and I finished explaining everything.
"Exactly," I heard another voice speak up. We all looked towards the entrance of the district, and standing there was Zidane, along with a young man in black and a black haired girl in her late teens. "They too have been seeking the wielder of the keyblade." It was the man in black who was speaking.
"Hey, why don't you two come with us?" the dog asked. "We can go to other worlds on our vessel."
"If I went with you… could I find my friends?"
"Of course!" The duck chimed up, a bit too quickly if you ask me. But, this is also the only shot I have at finding the other Dream Keepers. I tuned out everything else for a moment as I thought over what was happening right now. I glanced at the keyblade wielder, wondering what the weapon WAS as the core of things. I snapped but to focus when the duck told us that their ship "runs on happy faces", to which the other boy pulled out this extremely forced smile, causing the rest of us to crack up.
"Well… I guess it's official now," I commented after pulling myself together. "We're traveling as a team." I held my hand out in front of me. "I'm Dipper. Dipper Pines."
"Donald Duck." The duck placed his hand on top of mine.
"Name's Goofy." The dog added his hand to the pile.
"I'm Sora." The wielder of the keyblade placed his hand at the top of the pile, finalizing our initiation as a team. "All for one, and one for all."