Pinesquest 2D, a Romance of the Second Dimension

This is a trigger warning for a panic attack. Most of my knowledge of these comes from Batman: Wayne Family Adventures. Please let me know if anyone reading this has advice I can use to improve my depiction of this sensitive topic.

Ch.9

Dipper once again flipped open his journal to the first page and began decoding it.

"Look's like it's the same cipher as last time. This won't take long."

And indeed, it didn't. After only three minutes, Dipper had the code cracked.

"Where did Melody Work at the Gravity Falls Mall?"

Soos then raised his hand and began waving it.

"Oh, Oh, pick me! I know the answer!"

Dipper chuckled and pointed at him.

"Yes, Soos?"

"Meat Cute, spelled M-E-A-T." Soos's eyes then widened. "Hay, I just realized it was a play on words."

Dipper then wrote down the answer, making sure it was spelled correctly. The box rumbled, the chains disappeared, and Dipper opened the box to reveal the reward.

"Looks like we got some gold earrings. Wanna look at them, Mable?"

Mable then immediately rushed forward and ripped them from his hands so fast that Dipper could barely see her.

"Oh! These are so shiny! They would go great with my outfit!"

After holding them to her ears, her expression fell a little bit.

"I don't think their abilities would work with me, though."

The other two looked at her in puzzlement as she explained.

"These let the wearer's weapon and spell both do more damage. Since I don't have any spells that deal damage, I would only be using half of the item's abilities."

Soos then gained a thoughtful expression.

"Ok, so the gold necklace increases defense against both magic and weapons, the earrings increase the damage of magic and weapons, and the towel increases the damage of weapons and protects against weapons. Is that right?"

The others nodded as he continued to think and speak.

"Ok, and I am the tank. Mable stays in the back while using her hook to shoot foes, and Dipper darts around me to hit with his spear normally and is empowered with magic. Sounds fair?"

With one more nod, Soos then tied it all together.

"With that, I would probably benefit most from the necklace while Dipper wears the earrings and Mable wears the towel. That would have the people who use the most abilities from the items wearing them. Though I could wear the earrings while Dipper wears the necklace and Mable the towel since I use both magic and physical attacks."

Dipper grimaced as he shook his head.

"I don't like the idea of wearing earrings, but I hate the idea of the person on the front line taking more damage and going down even more. I also already have the gnome hat granting my protection. I'll wear the earrings, but if Mable gets damaging spells, she can have them."

Mable nodded while resting a hand on Dipper's shoulder.

"I promise not to make fun of you for them and to shoot or refuse healing to those that do. And best of all, they are clip-on earrings, so we don't have to worry about that."

Dipper smiles at her. "Thanks, Mable."

The group then shuffled around the items.

"Everybody ready to move on?"

With final nods from the others, they turned around to head back up the way they came.

The first thing they saw was Testosteraur standing behind them.

"Hello test-subject-aur. Let's see how this setup works."

As Testosteraur delivered two quick jabs into Soos's guard, his arms began to glow slightly from his neckless. As this happened, Dipper gave a Wind Strike to his chest, which seemed to blow harder than his previous ones. Mable followed that up with a grappling hook to the face, with the hook gaining a slight shimmer as it soared through the air.

Their combined assault was enough to turn Testosteraur into mist, but he was able to quickly pick up and throw a rock at Mable before he completely dissipated.

"MABLE!"

Both boys quickly turned around and looked at her in a panic, but a faint forcefield surrounded her and muffled the rock before it struck her.

"I'm fine, guys."

With a few sighs of relief, the group headed up the side of the tributary to rejoin the path.

As they walked up, they noticed a Bag of Mysteries they had missed in their tunnel vision of the puzzle box. Within was a Pitt Cola, which they quickly stowed before they went on their way.

As they rejoined the main path, mist condensed before them. from the mist emerged a large and familiar foe.

The Multibear.

At the sight of the one that had almost killed her not even an hour ago, Mable's eyes widened in shock. Her arms fell limp at her side. A dull thump could be heard as her grappling hook fell from her grip and landed on the floor. A louder thump came when she fell to her knees.

All of this was missed by Dipper and Soos, who instead reacted with rage and protective instincts.

"GET AWAY FROM HER!"

"YOU WON'T HURT THESE KIDS!"

Soos immediately slapped Dipper's shoulder to grant his spear a flaming addition to its attacks. Dipper then proceeded to use what he had learned earlier to immediately dive down and stab his spear deep into the eye of the leftmost leg-head. With a deafening roar, the head and the corresponding limb fell limp.

As the multibear began to turn its attention to Dipper, Soos delivered an electric shock to one of the heads, which immediately chard and died.

The multibear then became indecisive, torn between which of the two he should attack. Eventually, he decided to have the heads facing Soos deal with him, and the heads facing Dipper do likewise.

Though the other leg-head bit Dipper's arm and held him in place, Dipper used that to his advantage and rammed his still-flaming spear into one of the head's eyes, permanently removing it from the fight.

With all the legs now uncontrolled, the Multibear began to collapse.

"DIPPER!"

With a tackle that any good football player would be proud of, Soos shoved the falling form of the Multibear over in a direction away from Dipper. The remaining claws of the Multibear attempted to take advantage of this by tearing and rending him, but with the help of the neckless and a few good hammer hits destroying another head, Soos disengaged himself.

The arms continued to reach towards Soos, leaving them wide open to Dipper, who quickly took down the remaining two shoulder-height heads.

The two then stood above their vanquished foe, looking down at the still-snapping head on top.

"You wanna do it, Dipper?"

Dipper looked at the head for a moment before shaking it.

"Not yet, Mable should get dibs on-"

As Dipper turned around to look at his sister, he realized she was kneeling on the floor and staring forward into nothingness.

"Mable?!"

Dipper dropped his spear and rushed to his sister to check on her. As he reached to touch her, Soos stopped him.

"Bad idea, dude. Don't touch people having panic attacks. You need to ground them first."

Soos then knelt next to Mable and began speaking in a soft voice.

"Hay Hambone? Can you hear me? If you can, then tell me something you can see in front of you."

Mable remained kneeling on the ground, her eyes dead. Eventually, she was able to speak.

"The cave wall."

Soos smiled encouragingly at her.

"That's right, Mable. Now, what is something you can hear?"

Mable was still staring forward with a blank look on her face, but she answered quicker and surer this time.

"Running water."

"Yes, there is a river, tributary, or lake beside us. What is something you can touch?"

Mable's eyes began to un-glaze as she gripped her sweater.

"My wool sweater."

"Hun, I thought it was made of yarn. Anyway, what's something you can smell to wrap this up?"

Mable let out a small giggle before overacting, sniffing the air, and miming gaging.

"Dipper after not showering for a week?"

"Hay! We only recently got the plumbing working again in the Shack, and I spent a lot of time roaming the wasteland of Gravity Falls! There wasn't a lot of opportunity to shower."

Soos chuckled along with Mable at Dipper's outburst before giving her a small smile.

"You back Mable?"

She turned to Soos and gave him a small smile.

"I'm back. Thanks, Soos."

Her eyes then landed on the crimson gashes on Soos's chest and her brother's arm.

"Your hurt! Don't worry, I'll patch you two up in a jiffy."

Mable then laid her hands on both of them and healed both of the injuries from the Multibear with a flash of light. She then gained a sheepish look.

"Sorry for not getting involved in the fight."

Dipper shook his head furiously. "No, Mable. You are completely in the right not to get involved in fights with the Multi-bear. Having a panic attack upon seeing him is completely understandable."

"Yeah, Hambone. If anything, I'm sorry for not noticing you were having a panic attack."

Dipper then scratched the back of his neck nervously as he continued. "To be fair, we were trying to prevent it from hurting Mable again, so I guess you could say none of us were thinking or acting rationally here."

Mable chuckled at that, slightly smiling as she stood up.

"Thanks for that." Her eyes then moved over to the Multi-Bear, still wiggling on the ground with a sudden spike of fear.

"Why is it not dead yet?"

Dipper then picked up her grappling hook and handed it to her.

"I thought you should be the one to put it down."

Mable looked down at the grappling hook Dipper was handing her with a blank expression. She then silently picked it up and slowly walked over to the form of the Multi-bear, still gashing with its single working head atop an unmoving body.

She stood near the head and aimed her weapon between its eyes as it continued to attempt to bite her without being able to move close.

CLANG

POOF

With a single shot, the Multibear was gone. In his place was a pile of coins.

Mable then let a single tear fall in response.

"I have no idea what I am feeling right now, guys."

Dipper walked over and patted her on the shoulder.

"It's ok, sis; I don't know what to feel now either."

The group stood over where the multi-bear once stood for a minute while they processed their emotions.

Eventually, they decided they had to move on. However, as they did, both kids realized something.

"Hay, I gained another level and learned a new spell."

"Me too! What's yours?"

Dipper concentrated before answering.

"I can increase one person's defense against normal attacks for a short period of time. Yours?"

Mable's grin expanded as she realized what she had got.

"I finally got a damaging spell. It zaps people with light. Like that weapon, Dad showed us in his game, Euclide C-Finder. The one that worked by using a giant mirror called Archimedes in space to burn large areas?"

Dipper and Soos nodded in understanding at the reference to one of the best games ever made.

"That sounds good. Though we should probably test to see how much damage it does before we see how much we use it compared to healing."

Mable shrugged. "I was just going to stick with healing except for the perilous enemies. I think that's a better use of my magic for now. Though we can change that when we fight some tough opponents."

With a shrug, the group formed up and walked down the road.

Almost immediately to their right was the massive gong Dipper had seen when he first came to the cave. Soos smiled when he saw it.

"Yo, watch me bang this gong with my hammer!"

Dipper immediately reached for Soos's arm to stop him.

"Wait! That'll probably just attract more Manotaurs!"

Soos reluctantly lowered his hammer with a sheepish look on his face.

"Aw… good point, dude."

The group then headed down to the door to the next room. On the path down, mist emerged from the ground to reveal Chutzpar and Testosteraur.

"Looks like we can take these for a test drive now."

Dipper immediately pointed his spear at Soos while drawing up his protective instincts about his family. Soos began to glow as a forcefield formed around him. Testosteraur immediately tried to strike Soos, but Soos barely reacted to the strike as his lairs of protection muffled the blow.

Soos then immediately capitalized on this by smashing Testosteraur upside the head with his hammer.

As for Mable…

"Time to see the light!"

BOOM

A massive pillar of light emerged from the cave's roof and struck Chutzpar, instantly reducing him to a pile of gold.

As the group was distracted by this show of force, Testosteraur then tried to hit Soos in the face with two quick jabs. These succeeded in knocking Soos back but not in doing any meaningful damage. Dipper retaliated by immediately ramming his spear into Testosteraur's armpit before releasing a wind strike that quickly took him down.

As Testosteraur turned into mist, everyone took stock of the new spells.

"Ok, so I'll cast that boost spell on Soos at the start of every fight, and we'll save Mable's new spell when we deal with dangerous foes like the Multibear or Gobblewonker. Sounds fair?"

With a chorus of agreement, the party moved to the next room.

Hello Gravity Falls and PinesQuest2D fans! Last year my new year's resolution was to upload a 2k word count or greater chapter of any fanfic a week. This year my goal is to upload a 2k word count or greater chapter of the SAME fanfic a week.

I really like Nova Starlyght's fan game PinesQuest 2D, and was disappointed when real life convinced them to abandoned the project. After finding all the notes they posted about where the game would have gone, I have decided to try and novelize it. I have no idea how good or bad this will be, but as of January 30th, I have 48 chapters prewritten for the story.

If you want to suport Nova Starlyght, please check out their works on the Disclaimer page.

If you want to support me, please check out my work on the Disclaimer page.

Thank you for reading this and see you next week. I will be posting either very early Fridays or very late Saturdays, depending on my schedule for Friday.