AN: This chapter was a bit of difficult for me to write. i also have jobs to work. I tried my best to write down this chapter. I was a bit a little delay while working on other stuff, like a short story.

Anyway, here's chapter four. Hope you enjoy it.


Chapter 4: Odd introduction and message

Almost an hour had passed since the raid. Participants were interviewed by the police to report the incident. Some were mourned for the loss, including staff and students of professor Shaun.

Over at Hilton hotel downtown is where the Lumity, Mollibby, Starco, Dipcifica, Marcanne, and others reside for their stay. The cars just pulled in the parking lot, near the hotel, some on the sidewalk and at the garage parking lot.

Each cars had our heroes excited. Molly and Libby came out from a dark Green electric Honda car from the hotel parking lot. Libby and Molly are puzzled regarding what Captain James stated. Libby turn to Molly, worried

"Molly, what does he mean 'your time at figarden'?" Libby asked. Molly was in deep mind, puzzling the statement. It's almost like she heard of the name before.

"I don't know," Molly replied, "but the name feels familiar to me. Not sure why." Molly had her mind conflict or two. On one hand, she doesn't know where this Figarden or who the other two ladies she stood against. On the other hand, she begins to feel a little throwback like she took a quick memory lane, only blurred. Libby can see through Molly's eyes that something about this makes her worry for Molly.

Anne, Marcy and their friends got out of the white ford van from garage parking. As they had foods in a bag, like full of chinese foods, snacks of potato chips, sodas like regular/diet Cola and some modelo beers.

"HOW DID THAT DANG-DARN FELLA KNOWS ABOUT US?" Hop-Pop surprisingly asked, "WE HARDLY EVEN KNOW HIM!"

"I dunno," Sasha said.

"He must have these thermal vision through Sprig's disguise," Polly theorized.

"Thermal vision?" Lady Olivia said, "How can this be possible? Even our technological advance is far superior."

"Yet, it's nothing like that before," Yunan said, "I don't remember seeing this tech during Andrias' region."

"It could be possible that he stole our frobots' parts!" Grime added, "Or maybe this guy invented it with inspiration."

"Let's not jump to any conclusion," Sasha said, "we don't know much about him so far. Although, I am concerned about the statement that guy said."

Everyone turned to Anne, who was confused as hell. She didn't have a clue regarding this "Figarden."

"I don't remember going to this city," Anne said, "except only today. How can I possibly know of this, right Marcy? Marcy, sweetie?"

Marcy, however, had a major conflict within her mind. She was silenced through the day since today's incident. She was about to have go panicking if only she felt like her hand was holding another hand. She looks and saw it was Anne.

"Marcy, are you okay?," Anne asked worryingly. Marcy didn't want to give an answer to Anne. She didn't want to bring anything that she might know.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Marcy said, "I'm just a little shaken since that convention attack. I'm fine."

Sasha noticed Marcy's facial expression. She can tell that Marcy is hiding something. On one hand, she wants to ask Marcy why she was acting weird. On the other hand, she didn't want to force her to spill the beans. Otherwise, she would remind of her old self. So, she'll let it slide. For now.

Luz and Amity got out of their rented Chevy mini-car on the side of the hotel. They both carried bags of anime stuff, like plushies, plastic toys, pop-heads and such.. On the way to the hotel, Amity noticed Luz, who seemed to be troubled like mentally troubled.

"Are you okay?" Amity worried, "you're been quiet since the convention."

Luz didn't want to speak about the statement. Although, within her mind, she had a memory regarding of James' statement. She had a memory of her childhood, but it was almost faded away for her almost years ago. She wished to share more with Amity, but she didn't want this single statement to ruin her weekend with her lover.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Luz falsely said, "it's just a little headache. That's all. Let's head inside to rest."

Amity can tell Luz is lying. They then headed to the hotel.

Star and Marco got out of their red Lamborghini. Dipper, Pacifica and Mabel got out of their Toyota white sedan on the other side of the hotel parking lot.

"This was something today," Dipper said as they headed to the hotel.

"Other than what we witnessed, yeah," Star said, "but at least we had fun though."

"Yeah, but still," Mabel said, "those ladies over there look familiar to me. Do you?"

Marco and Dipper thought for a moment.

"Come to think about it," Marco said, "I think they were. It feels like we know from somewhere before. Maybe at Figarden?"

"Hm, Perhaps," Dipper said, "but we might need some more memory."

"Uh, you boys sure got into this theory," Pacifica said, "but maybe we'll pin this for tomorrow."

Dipper agreed as they headed towards the sliding door.

As they gone inside of the hotel, they all got to the lobby by the bar. All of them seem ignore each other. They all seem to have their usual business. At least until…

"I'm just sayin' that maybe that fella might know you and….oh hey, ain't those the same women from the convention?" Hop-pop said as he noticed two other people in the bar. Anne and the gang looked at Hop-pop's pointing at. It was Luz, who was with Amity and Molly, along with Libby, that caused Anne to be surprised, just as they were. Dipper and Marco, along with Star, Pacifica and Mabel, were shocked by everyone they saw from the convention, just right in front of them and in the same hotel. Everyone was too stunned, at least until an employer broke the silence.

"Uh, hate to break this…um, this shocking moment," said a hotel employer, "but maybe try to have this over at the garden perhaps?" Everyone thought for a moment and nodded to the employer.

Just outside of the hotel, they found themselves in the garden. They admired the garden for its peaceful environment for a moment at least until…

"This is very nice garden, I'll them credit," Hop-pop said, "And now-"

"YOU!?" Anne, Luz, Molly, shouted surprisingly, pointing at each other..

"YOU THREE?!" Dipper and Marco said together.

"WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE!?" Hop-pop shouted. Libby then noticed Marcy, who was surprised to see her. Pacifica sees Sasha and Amity. Dipper and Marco see Anne and Sprig. Molly sees Star and Mabel. Luz and Amity see Marcy. They begin to overlap each other, like they were all talking at once. It lasts a moment before Anne stops the commotion.

"Everyone, QUIET!" Anne shouted out loud, causing everyone to be quiet. She breathes in and out. "Okay, let's figure something else here," Anne said, "since we met together over there and here, why not we try to talk one at a time?"

"Yeah, were you guys okay today?" Luz asked.

"I know, I was," Molly replied, "although I was a bit scared over there."

"Same with me," Anne and Luz said together, "okay this is weird."

"Okay, so I have a question: Have you guys heard of this Figarden before?" Anne asked.

"That's an old elementary school, just further down on northwest of Fresno," Dipper replied, "I know because me and Marco went there."

"You did?" Molly, Luz, and Anne asked.

"But then, why did he mention the location to us?" Anne asked.

"Uh, guys," Sprig said, "I don't mean to bring this up, but why are your necklaces glowing? Including those two nerds there"

Everyone looked at Luz's, Anne's, Molly's, Marco's and Dipper's necklace. It was glowing red and bright. As they were glowing, the necklaces begin to shake, unattached from their owners as they hit the ground. It then gone to the center where the necklaces begin to shift form, (from a moon-like shape, a royal butterfly symbol, a triangle in a circle symbol, a frog foot-like symbol, and a ghost-like symbol), to a cube-like metallic box, with dark gray and red color. Every electricity around the hotel, the garden lights, begin to flicker as lights are flashing. It then goes off, going to blackout. While everyone inside was panicking or complaining, everyone in the garden were in shock.

"What is this? Is this an ambush?" Hop-Pop panicking asked. Soon, the metallic box begins to glow bright red as it begins to transform into a small camera-like leds. It then projected a screen above and a beam to the sky, showcasing what it seems to be a symbol. It was a Pandacon. The symbol begins to form as a rectangle display. The gang were confused until they see the footages

It showed a footage from:

an old news report of protestors against a masked-man in black clothes in handcuffs. Both sides, conservatives and woke groups, shouting at him as a murderer. A reporter made a statement.

"Behind me is The man, who's in handcuffs, is being taken into custody for his crime in Fresno, including the death of Pastor Jackson," said a male reporter in the background as it glitches.

Images of dead victims, (being shot, slaughtered, beheaded, or burned) displayed. Fire coming from damaged police cars. A female reporter made a statement in the background

"Multiple bodies as you can see here are dead because of The Dark Minder," a female reporter said, "Many more are counting as we get more info soon.." It then began to glitched.

Another footage of witnesses and survivors give statements of their encounter with a murderer. It then showed childrens. It was them at a younger age.

"It was a very scary experience for me and my friends," said a younger Luz, "but it was scary to see my daddy being hurt by that man. I thought I was gonna lose him, but he spared us. He mentioned that he was looking for a different target."

"It was very meanie that someone like him hurt my friend's dad," younger Molly said, "it was scary, but meanie."

"Why would anyone want to hurt Officer Noceda?" younger Anne said, "Not cool, man."

The gang were shocked.

It then showed footage of a crowd with red and black clothes, rooting and praising the masked man. One of the last reporters made their statement.

"What you're witnessing here is an extraordinary yet controversial moment," another male reporter said, "as many supporters for the Dark Minder came out here for the man as they claimed he brought 'peace' to the city."

It glitches to a place, a school appears. The statue name of school appears in shot. It then glitches out to something weird.

"442315 23453344 231114 1215224533 21243314 442315 24423433 123453 113314 4215444224155115 442315 12151132 155344421113443442."

Marcy then pulled out her phone and snapped a pic of the message.

The weird numbers begin to glitches out. Beams and lights faded out. The lights in the hotel begin to turn back on. Everyone were stunned and shocked to witness whatever that was.


Not Far from downtown, over at Tower district theater, this was a hideout for the Pandacons. They were on the roof, refueling themselves. The Dark Minder and captain James noticed something on the sky. They witness a red beam, coming from downtown. They saw it as if they knew it's coming.

"It's here," The Dark Minder said as he aimed the Locator towards the beam, like a solar panel. The device begin to glow as it was charging. It lasted for a while until the beam gone out. Yet, the device is fully charged up. The Dark Minder looks at the locator and saw a signal from it. It pinpoint a location over at Clovis school. This made him and other happy.

"Tonight," said The Dark Minder, "we hunt!"


Back at the hotel, everyone in the garden were putting the pieces together after that weird mystery box and videos of stuff.

"Okay, so those guys are followers of this killer?" Anne asked.

"The Dark Minder," Luz said, "why were we in these footages?"

"And how did we encounter this guy before?" Molly asked.

"I don't remember seeing you guys there, did you?" Dipper asked.

"I think they were there, but I don't remember it though," Marco said. "Maybe it's time to recall our memories."

"It's actually time to hunt," Marcy said, earning a confused expression from everyone. She turned and saw them.

"Those numbers from that weird box," Marcy adde in, "Those numbers were polybius code."

"Polybius?" Dipper stunning asked, "you understand ciphers?"

"Yep, I've been study ciphers and codes," Marcy said, "I'm basically a nerd, part-time and part-time writer."

"Nice, so am I!" Dipper and Libby said simultaneously. They stared at each other like they were shocked. Although, Libby sly away with embarrassment. "I'm sorry," Libby said, "I'm also a nerd for stuff."

"No kidding, kid," a voice said, startling everyone. Turns out it was Scratch. "It's surprisingly well-known you're too much fo a nerd, Libby, like writing some show fanfic."

"SCRATCH?" Molly and Libby shocking asked. "What are you doing here?" Molly surprisingly asked.

"Well, it's simple actually," Scratch, "after the news I heard from the ghost world, I decided to check in to see if-". Before he can finish, he noticed some of the folks had their frightened expressions on him. It didn't took a while for him to realize he was visible. "Uh," Scratch awkwardly said, "hello everyone." He nervously waved his hand.

"A GHOST!?" The planters scaredly said, "GET AWAY FROM US!"

"Stay back," Dipper said, "I'll get rid of this ghost." He pulled out a hand-handle mirror to aim at the ghost. The mirror begin to glow as it pull Scratch towards the mirror, begging for mercy. Luckily for Scratch, Molly pulled him back towards her, alongside with Libby. They successfully pulled him out, causing the mirror to shattered.

"Look, Scratch isn't a threat," Molly said, "he's our-"

"HE'S YOUR ALLY?!" Dipper asked, "but ghosts aren't friendly, you know?"

"Not all of them are," Molly stated, "only some of them were bad, but don't worry about them. We took care of them before."

"And are those TALKING FROGS?!" Scratch asked in surprising tone. The amphibians looks surprised.

"Yes, they're our friends," Anne said to the ghost, "Oh, an introduction is in order. I'm Anne Boonchuy and these guys are my friends, Marcy, Sasha, The planters, Olivia, Yunnan and Grime."

"okay, now that these amphibian things and a ghost met," Marco said, "Now, Marcy, what code are you talking about?"

"The code that was in the message," Marcy said, "I deciphered it and it's an instruction."

"What did it say?" Luz asked.

"We have to find this iron box and get this beam extractor," Marcy said, "but where are we gonna find this box?" She is puzzled and puzzled until someone steps in.

"Wait a second," Dipper said, "The image that shows before the code. Maybe that's where this iron box is. Where's the box? I just need to-" He goes over to the metallic box, and open it. "Bingo," Dipper said as the box began to form a projector screen, just two feet above them. It showcases a man in his twenties. He was in his white lab coat. He had a black goggles with red lenses above his face. His face seems to be odd. While his left side of his face and his brown eye looks normal, his right eye was nothing but an eye of a cyborg, inserted into his empty eye with cables connected from the eye to his brain. The cyborg eyes were blue. His black hair seems to be long and puff. He wears a black turtleneck shirt. He had a lanyard with his photo idea. There was name attached, ALFRED GONZALEZ.

"Okay, today is week 5, day 19," said a scientist from the screen, "I'm working on a machine that was made for my class. I called it Project Zapper. It was meant to be a transportation to another dimension. Like, we can go anywhere, like a quick transport, but it's not part of it. It may do so more; a grand entrance to the multiverse. This project is scheduled for our CART showcase presentation. Yet, to make it work, I have just developed these few devices in order for my machine to functionally work. This is one of my side devices, like three parts. This is beam extractor. " He reaches something out from offscreen and pull in an object. It was an odd look device, like a Vase cylinder shape. Only it was gray color. It was made of iron material. Above it, four claws stick out on the sides and on each tip of the claws, it had four miniaturized satellite dish. The center of the device had a needle-like pole sticker out in the center with another miniature satellite dish. "I made this device as it may be able to pull an object in. The extractor is something I can try to pull in at least something from every universe to study it. Looks like our breaks is coming up. This is Alfred Gonzalez, signing out." The screen projector begin fade out as the box begin to power off.

"Looks like you got the location," Marcy said.

"but where is this CART school?" Anne asked. Her answers just came in.

"it's a high school, over at Clovis, next to Sierra Visita Mall," Libby replied. She showed it to everyone and they were surprised.

"Dang, woman," Luz said, "you're ahead of us."

"Yeah, Libby is the best when it comes mysterious location and clues," Molly said, side hugging Libby. Libby sly away when her cheeks gone red.

"Okay, so far this scientist made a machine to open the multiverse, yet that Panda symbol appears. What's the connection?" Marco asked.

"I don't know," Mabel said, "but I might have over heard some of the cosplayer, bearing that symbol, have mentioned that they're looking for some tech like an extractor."

"Maybe it's the same extractor that code and the man stated," Olivia stated.

"It could be the one," Amity said, "I'm sure it's the same extractor."

"So, these panda fellas are after this same device thingy?" Hop-pop asked. Everyone nodded their head.

"Okay, everyone," Luz said, "Is anyone want to go on the hunt for this extractor then?" Everyone looked at each others, and faced Luz, shrugged their shoulders, confirming. "Okay, then let's get this Extractor tech then." Luz said.


AN: This chapter took me a while to come up with this chapter. Regarding of how to set up the characters' introduction to others.

Although, while i was in process my thoughts, I did took an inspiration from Treasure Planet where the map reveals scene occur. I also did try to look for other inspiration for this chapter, like the projection, the beam charging up the locator with solar panel. Although at one point, I was thinking that the reunion could be more dramatize, yet I was inspired by the autobots entrance from ROTB, to mix up the moment here.

The short moment of the hangout of the Pandacons was actually inspired by Hocus pocus where the witches saw the beacon from the book. i thought it would be a moment that beacon would not only draw the heroes, but also for the Pandacons to launch the hunt.

Anyway, hope you enjoy this. Until next time.