Do You Believe in Fairytales?

DIMENSION: APOCALYPSE SUN'S

Place: Dimensional Investigations Unit (DIM)

Guyver picked up a screwdriver and handed it to his partner, Nathan. Guyver wasn't a mechanic by trade, and he wasn't part of DIM because he was intelligent. It was a secret organization with most members grandfathered in from its original members. Guyver made up for it by going on missions into Dark Water, a dimension they helped behind the scenes. He had a special pair of goggles that covered one eye that made him look frightening, but they were only used for communication with the other dimensions. Without knowing the dialect or language, it used the voice to translate from the brain inward and outward.

Nathan had been working on the dimension hole that allowed their department to come back and forth between dimensions. It was waving around like the energy wanted to disappear. It would be best to get the team members back, but their head boss said no. While Nathan worked, Guyver was trying to assist as he could. “Is Dumas back yet? He's been out for weeks. He should at least get to come out.”

“He'll stay gone for who knows how many more. You've got something besides this thing?” Nathan waved the screwdriver. “Don't want to strip the screws. Lose this and we are in trouble.”

Guyver handed him a smaller screwdriver. Stripping the screws would be major trouble; they'd lose control of the open dimension hole. The portals didn't stay open in one spot eternally without aid. “I thought he was up for a break? I need him to fix my car.”

“There are mechanics. I could do it.”

“He charges the least. Anyhow, what happened to his break?”

“Met himself someone that survived a town. Decided to let her ride before she died, so it put him behind.”

“Damn, that sucks. I hate paying you guys to fix my car. I swear you geniuses are the ones that screwed it up.” Guyver just heard a chuckle from Nathan. He would have said more, but he watched his boss, Mitch Callister, coming their way. “Sir."

“Got something you need to check out, Nathan.” Mitch gave Guyver the papers to give to Nathan, but ignored him after that. “A small town in Kansas just disappeared overnight, Nathan. There's nothing left except a few outer houses. No one is believed to have survived.”

“A dimension hole?” Guyver took the papers, ignoring his boss' rebuff. His grandfather was the one who ever saw a new dimension hole, but Guyver never had. They had been known to crop up here and there, but they never stayed long enough to do damage. “Where does it go?”

“Don't know, short lived,” his boss said. “Extremely short lived, this wasn't random. Something must have disrupted the flow.”

“Something came through.” Guyver understood that. It could be good or evil, but they would have to track it down. There could be traces of what happened out there. He would have to look into it. “Are you coming too, Nathan?”

“Just Nathan,” his boss said, “you can't go with him. This is serious, no time for an upcoming rookie.”

“What? Guyver’s been here almost two years, he’s good enough.” Nathan brought his head out from beneath the hole he had been working on. “I am busy as all hell trying to fix the dimension hole, and Guyver's got nothing to do. Send him.”

“Guyver can't go, this is for the most experienced only,” their boss said. “Just get ready to go check it out, Nathan.”

“This is bullshit.” Nathan came out from beneath the dimension hole.

“No doubt.” Guyver was as stumped as him. Nathan needed to fix the dimension hole. If they lost control of it, it could close forever. All of their comrades on the other side of it would be lost. “We don't have time to mess around with you gone.”

“Yeah, but you're not supposed to go,” Nathan said as he grabbed a rag to clean his hands. “Everyone else is busy.” Nathan looked back toward the portal. “Still, its nuts that I don't fix this thing first. Do they even care about out team members?”

“I'll go.”

“Boss said no.”

“Screw him.”

“Your bonus is toast, man.”

“Yeah, but when someone says I can't do something, I want to do it even more.” Guyver shrugged. “He probably won't even know, and besides, you need to take care of the hole. He doesn't care so much if everyone's trapped in another dimension, but you and I do. There's only one portal left if this goes away, and it's in the experimental room.”

“Yeah, you couldn't pay me to figure out that room. Alright, man, it's your paycheck.” Nathan let go of the rag and sunk back down to get back to work. “See you.”

“Yep.” Guyver grabbed his overcoat and slid it on. He took off his goggles and placed them safely inside its pockets. He probably wouldn't even find anything if the entire town was sunk under, not to mention there was bound to be press that might be hanging around. DIM couldn't do too much with others around.

According to the location though he wouldn't put it past anything. It was the original Dorothy's town.

The only thing of the town that had survived was a simple bar and a few country houses that were far out of the limits. So far, none of them had known what had caused it. The people left had been nervous and had already talked to other police or the press. The press were all around too, reporting it as 'the next Roanoke'. A town completely disappeared overnight, how could anyone hide that attention?

He was onto the last house. Guyver knocked on the door where a woman answered. “Good evening.”

She moved brunette tendrils out of her face. She was young but obviously tired. “No more press,” she answered, trying to close the door. Guyver had stuck his foot into the door before she closed it.

“I'm not the press,” he countered. “A few minutes of your time?”

“The town was there, and now it's not,” she answered roughly. “I don't know anything and I can't help.”

Guyver wasn't a cop, but he knew when someone was hiding something. There was a hidden sense of urgency behind closing the door on him. “Did you see something that night?”

“I didn't see anything, and I don't know anything,” she said curtly, “so please leave us alone.”

“Us?” Guyver stuck his hands in his pockets. “Did the mister of the house see anything?”

“There is no mister, only me and my brother. Please, go. How many more of you are there? I am not a newspaper article!”

“Mm, so someone has been bothering you personally too.” Guyver didn't move his foot, but he relaxed his body. “I am not pushing anything through papers. I only want to know what happened.”

“So does the rest of America.” Those were her last words as she shut the door harder against his foot.

After an unmanly 'ow', he tried not to hop around on his foot. That woman knew something.

Digging around for what happened to the town wasn't easy, but when he asked about the woman herself, he found the gossip. Her real name was Cheryl Deeks, and she had been living with her brother since she was eighteen. She was a first class student, all A's, no boyfriend and never got into trouble. When her parents were lost in a car crash, her family strangely abandoned her and her brother. The only contact was her aunt and uncle on her father's side that now paid for her expenses.

Guyver found out she had no friends, and her brother Dominic was supposed to be a little odd. He couldn't see the world in colors, he only saw it in shades of blue. He was cited as a heavy daydreamer, and he had no friends, just like his sister.

Two people that were shunned by their family, living in the same town that had disappeared into another dimension?

Guyver wasted no time going back to Cheryl's home. “Cheryl Deeks, open up. I need to speak to you.” She didn't answer. “I am not whom you think I am. I want to know the story about Dominic.”

She opened the door slightly. “What now?”

Guyver held his hand between the door harder. “I'm not the cops, and I'm not the press. I am here to help you, just tell me what you know.”

She didn't slam the door on him this time. “Who are you?”

“Someone who knows about what happened more than the average person.” Guyver couldn't say much more than that. “Cheryl, let me help you?”

“How could you?” Her eyes had already betrayed the fact that she wanted to know.

Guyver watched her eyes, knowing any sudden movement might change his chances.

She held her breath. “Do you believe . . .in fairytales?”

Oh yes, she knew something alright. “You are living in the original town of the real Dorothy. Yeah, I believe in fairytales.” Her whole body relaxed all at once with a deep breath as she opened the door.

Guyver stepped inside and looked around. The house was small and quaint. In the corner, there had been a kitchen table where her brother had been drawing. Dominic lifted his head to look toward Guyver.

“Hello,” Dominic said. “Guyver.”

He knew his name? Guyver moved closer, believing he must have overheard his sister. His hair, it was short and blonde, a little wiry. “You must be Dominic, hello to you too.” He looked back toward Cheryl. “Thanks for letting me in.”

“If you had been someone bad, Dominic would have known.” Cheryl moved toward Dominic. “What are you drawing now?”

“Santa.” Dominic looked toward his sister. “The new Santa soon.”

“You forgot the beard,” Guyver said as he sat at the table. “Don't want to mess up drawing that, he might not leave presents.”

“He doesn't leave presents, not for me.” Dominic continued to draw. “The new Santa won't have a beard.”

Weird kid. Guyver looked back toward Cheryl. How could he get her to open up more about what happened? How did she know about the fairytales? “Would you like to talk in private?”

“What happened to my town?” she asked him out of the blue. “Where had everyone been sent to?”

She knew about the dimensions, but she didn't know what had happened either. “How do you know about them? How are you so sure about dimensions and fairytales?” Guyver asked her.

“I see it, not her.” Dominic stopped drawing and looked over at him. “I don't see everything, just certain things. I can't see where everyone had gone.”

“You see it?” Amazing. Guyver leaned over the table. Dominic had the ability to see into other dimensions. No one on Earth could do that. The only dimension they could ever access they had nicknamed the Dark Water dimension.

Supposedly, it was the dimension from the fairytale of Snow White. The evilness of the queen after Snow White had married her prince had created a curse. Time had moved by, but the evil ex-queen's vengeance kept her alive for a thousand years. Records showed that the dimension had grown much like their own, and even the real magic had faded to almost nothing.

Before she had died, that queen had merged her evil soul with her looking-glass, causing a curse. It moved through water and through reflections. It was never everywhere at once, but it was always somewhere. Their team had learned how to track when the 'dark water' moved, as well as the monsters that had been created by being exposed to it.

The first time they understood what they were seeing, most of them wanted to scoff. How could some other dimension be of a fairytale they had known? From there, things had changed.

Learning, while at the same time trying to save the people, became priority. They weren't strange aliens in that dimension, everyone had been as human as anyone else. There was no indication they had magic powers, or were any different from the humans in his dimension.

The decision was divided on how to continue. The ones who knew were at the top of the government, and didn't want others to come into their dimension. Others believed it was only right to give them shelter in their dimension. The group almost broke into two factions, but a compromise was created.

They helped the other dimension, but they wouldn't allow them to interfere in theirs. A compromise was reached, and the group DIM (Dimensional Investigative Missions) was officially born. They helped the other dimension, swore to study new dimensions and situations that came across, but never uprooted anyone from another dimension.

Being a part of DIM, Guyver thought he knew everything, but this boy? How did Dominic see into other dimensions? “Do you have a great, great grandma called Dorothy?” Enough evidence had been gathered to prove that she had been real. How it was that the author had written a story while, close to the same time, Dorothy had actually been going through her adventure had amazed everyone at DIM.

The nod was all he needed. This boy was a direct descendant of Dorothy. Guyver moved back toward his own chair. It still didn't explain how he had such a gift. His sister clearly didn't have it. At around twenty-two, she looked tired for her age. He knew women that still acted like teenagers in their thirties, let alone at twenty-six. Figure wise, she wasn't bad either. Beauty he wouldn't expect hiding in a small Kansas home.

“Do you really believe my great grandmother was the actual Dorothy?” Cheryl asked him.