Chapter 23: Beginning of the Great Hunt and Creation of Artificial Devil Fruit (1)

Dipper's POV

[ A ghost? ]said GIFfany clearly skeptical.

"Follow me and you'll see," I said, leaving the bunker with all my equipment which, I admit, is slightly cumbersome.

"It seems the jetpack and anti-ghost equipment are really not practical to use at the same time," I muttered while flying, surrounded by cleaning drones.

I created these devices with AM's help to manage the supernatural in Gravity Falls. Before, it was the Society of the Blind Eye that handled this task.

Now, it has become one of my responsibilities.

But I should also let AM plan to quickly develop a stealth mode for them for more efficiency.

"Maybe I should more often suggest things for AM to do instead of almost doing everything myself," I muttered, my thoughts concerning the next update for my drones.

It didn't really take me long to arrive in front of an abandoned-looking convenience store.

"Is this it, AM?" I asked my drone next to me.

[ Affirmative, Master. According to online rumors, this store is haunted, ] AM declared.

Before, I had trouble locating myself during my flight, but with AM's assistance, things are simpler now.

Once arrived in front of the store, I could feel the atmosphere was icier than outside.

"AMV2, can you switch me to thermal vision?" I mentally asked the nanomachines.

The vital signs detection option includes thermal vision capability, it was designed to track nocturnal or particular adversaries.

[ Affirmative, ]she replied directly into my mind.

At the same moment, I switched from regular vision to thermal vision, which is a unique experience.

"I can see you both," I said to the two silhouettes floating around me.

They were both the source of the cold reigning in the store.

"Oh, this teenager seems able to see us, darling," said the silhouette that seemed to be a man.

"Indeed, but I don't want any teenagers around our place," she responded in a clearly hostile voice.

The two didn't really seem to consider me a threat but more of a nuisance.

"Excuse me for intruding in your home, but..."

As I tried to be civilized and resolve this situation through conversation, objects in the store began floating and I had to dodge a refrigerator.

"Calm down for a minute, I'm not officially a teenager since I'm 12 years old for now," I said using the amulet to restrain the objects controlled by the ghosts.

"What do you think, darling?" the male silhouette asked.

"I think, my dear Pa, that this teenager is mocking us," the female ghost silhouette replied.

"You're right, my dear Ma. It's impossible for a 12-year-old kid to exude that much virility, ha ha!" he said laughing towards the end of his sentence, but his laugh wasn't an innocent one, rather an unsettling one.

[Alert, alert, alert! Temperature dropping abnormally. It is recommended Master Dipper move away or find a countermeasure.]

AMV2's announcements resonated in my mind, but I didn't pay too much attention to them since I was facing slightly annoying adversaries.

"Damn, it seems impossible to resolve this through discussion between civilized intelligent creatures," I said preparing my tools.

"We've already tried discussing with teenagers, but they never listen to adults. So why should we try again?" the ghost named Ma questioned.

The ghosts in Gravity Falls are ranked from 1 to 10 according to Ford Pines, and the ones in front of me shouldn't be weaker than the ghost that will haunt Pacifica's manor in the future.

"AM, monitor the projectiles around me and keep me updated in real-time thanks to AMV2," I said slicing the objects thrown at me using my laser sword.

I currently had a vision similar to Pain in Naruto Shippuden and this was made possible by combining AM and my nanomachines.

This time, I'm facing something very unusual, so I must be cautious and use this method to avoid possible possession.

Ghosts are extremely dangerous beings in the Gravity Falls universe. They have strange and unusual powers such as soul absorption, possession, telekinesis, nightmare creation and others.

The list of their abilities is long.

*Noise* of laser hitting a ghost.

"Aaaah!" Pa screamed going through the wall.

"Darling!" Ma screamed watching her husband get pushed back by my laser.

"Don't worry, he's not dead since he already is," I said joking a bit.

I was currently behind her, I couldn't miss this moment of inattention Mr. Pa had offered me at the cost of a blast from my laser.

"You... *cough*", she muttered with difficulty.

She couldn't say much since I had decapitated her.

"Sorry, madam, but the conversation hour is over," I said watching Mrs. Ma's head fall to the ground.

I was in the air thanks to the amulet.

"I know how durable you ghosts are. So excuse me in advance, but I'll have to cut you up a bit more," I said wanting to finish the job.

*Noise* of a blow on steel.

"You brat, how dare you?" Pa yelled attacking me again despite the failure of his last attack because of AM who took the hit thanks to a drone.

"Sorry gramps, I just wanted your cooperation for my experiments, but you refused to cooperate," I said deactivating the amulet's effect to fall and dodge Pa's attack.

As I had predicted, Pa, too angry by my action against his wife, pursued me in my fall towards the ground.

"Have you ever heard of Ghost Busters?" I asked activating my anti-ghost equipment created for this encounter with Ma and Pa.

It was something that had been created using the technology from the Ghostbusters movie, but also Danny Phantom as a base.

It resembled a mini portable vacuum and I had made two for this encounter. Seeing the action unfolding before me, I had a great idea.

"NO NO NO!" Pa screamed before being absorbed.

"I should give this thing a name," I said looking at my machine with a greenish liquid inside constantly changing shape.

"Why?" a voice asked.

I turned around and saw a head floating and looking at me with tears.

"I don't understand," I said frowning.

"What did we do for you to do this to us?" she screamed before charging at me in turn.

I didn't know if she was overcome with emotion from the loss of her husband or if she simply wanted to join him, but I didn't care.

"There are two useful subjects for creating an artificial Mythical Zoan," I said activating my second machine to absorb her inside.

"I should just call this thing 'the ghost vacuum', it's better than the name from the Danny Phantom world, ha ha!" I declared leaving the store in a good mood.

"So GIFfany, was it like the show?" I asked in a teasing tone.

[ It was INCREDIBLE, I never would have thought my future boyfriend was an excellent ghost hunter! ] she declared enthusiastically.

"Happy the fight pleased you, we still have plenty of dangerous creatures to get samples from," I said heading towards the lake.

"This time, I'm hunting the real monster."

================================

Author's Note: Hey guys, yes it's your shameless author.

As you may have guessed, I'm still sick (even currently), I'm having a relapse so my last treatment wasn't good enough to cure me.

I'm saying all this because there won't be many chapters this week, but I'll officially start the new arc (the future one which will likely be the last of the Gravity Falls universe).