#3 Fancy Dresses and Alternate Dimensions: Fabric

Fall is seriously the most ambiguous and annoying season out of all of them. It can never decide if it wants to be hot or cold, so you're always stuck with the choice of wearing warmer clothes and overheating or cooler clothes and freezing. Honestly, the whole thing is worse than a middle school girl deciding whether or not she likes that boy in class that she's never talked to before.

I was walking around town on one such day. The temperature was actually okay for the most part except for the occasional breeze that would suddenly make everything cold. It was a little bit annoying, but I didn't have anything better to do. I planned on hitting up a few shops just for kicks. A fair amount of other people were out and about, including some high schoolers who thought it was a good idea to wear their skimpy summer clothes in this weather. Seriously, what possess people to not dress properly for the season?

Suddenly a familiar blue tint washed over everything. I instantly knew what was coming, and the strange part was that I was getting used to it. No one in their right mind should get used to a lacy, dimension traveling girl unzipping the sky and floating down in front of them.

But there was Molly in all her lacy glory, stepping out from the dimensional opening and zipping it shut before slowly floating to the ground underneath her parasol. She must've been cold wearing that dress, but if she was she never showed it.

"Hello, Amber," she said in her usual serious tone.

"Hey there. What brings you to this side of the dimensional universe?"

Molly cocked her head and twirled her parasol. "Both of our worlds are on the same side."

". . .Right. What I meant is what are you doing here? Are we going on another ridiculous adventure or something?"

"No. I realize that I do that too much. I always take you away from your home to come help me and there is never any time for you to ask questions."

"I kind of take things as they are, really."

"So, I wish to spend the day with you in your world and be friends and perhaps explain a few things. You must be confused."

Molly always had such a strange way of saying things. "I guess so. I don't really have any plans, though."

"That's fine," said Molly. "We can visit the stores you have here."

I figured I'd take her to the grocery store. It's honestly one of the most interesting places in town (which is really pathetic, actually). At least it's kind of fun to wander around in there. The layout makes you feel like you're shopping on a market street and there's an upper level with chairs and tables. Anyway, I figured Molly would be interested in something like that. She struck me as the kind of person who'd find the most mundane things intriguing.

When the automatic doors slid open, it didn't occur to Molly to close her parasol as we stepped inside. She simply kept it resting on her shoulder and twirled it once every minute or so. I felt bad for the old people who literally jumped back at the sight of her, but none of them got heart attacks so I guess everything was fine. The store wasn't really that crowded and as long as Molly didn't do anything weird, no one would call the police.

We first came to the fresh produce section and my notions of Molly being easily fascinated proved to be true. She spent a long time considering the tomatoes while I looked at the different kinds of instant salads.

A few minutes later, I felt her tugging my wrist and she dragged me over to the tomatoes.

"This one is Natasha," she said, pointing to them.

Then, she took me to the cucumbers.

"This one is Anastasia."

And then the blueberries.

"This one is Melody."

Then the eggplants.

"Let me guess," I said. "Queen Victoria."

Molly looked at me as though I had just spoken a prophecy. "How did you know?"

"I think the real question is, why do fruits and vegetables remind you of people who are trying to take over your city?"

Molly stared off in the distance for a few moments and placed a finger on her chin. "It is a bit more. . .complicated than that. Natasha doesn't understand what she's doing."

"You mean someone's controlling her?"

"No. She doesn't particularly believe in the things I tell her, so she doesn't understand the consequences should she actually take over as queen."

"What sorts of things?"

Molly took a deep breath and turned to face me. "I am one of five people in my world who can travel between dimensions."

"Really? I thought everyone could do that since you all have weird powers and stuff."

"No, there are only five of us. There are supposed to be a few in every dimension with this ability, so one of the goals we wish to accomplish is to make contact with them. So far, we have such connections with ten other dimensions."

"Huh. So, besides running around to each other's worlds, what do you do?"

"Dimensional Guardians are supposed to protect the balance and separation between the worlds. We can maintain stable relations with each other without upsetting the order of where we live. We can't have everyone knowing the details of what we do, but they do know that we exist and that our role is vital. At least, they are supposed to know that," Molly lowered her gaze and furrowed her brow. It was the first time I'd seen her concerned or sad.

"But Natasha has to know. She was with us when you got us out of Jives' secret lair."

"She doesn't doubt my position or my abilities, but she doubts my advising. She wishes to take over the city and impart her own will upon everyone for reasons that are justifiable but misplaced. The problem is that if she succeeds by her own methods, the Fabric will rip and a Direct Link will form."

"A what now?"

Molly paused and thought for a moment. "A long time ago, Natasha traveled to another dimension and spent time in that world. Since she is not a Dimensional Guardian, a piece of the world latched onto her, although she doesn't realize it and she doesn't believe me when I tell her this. Therefore, if she causes a huge disturbance in our world, such as overruling the government, she'll rip the Fabric and link connecting our world with the one she visited will form, but she will die in the process."

Suddenly, this whole thing no longer felt like fun and games. I never thought about Molly having such serious issues to deal with. I mean, to me she was just a girl who literally fell from the sky one day and whisked me off on an otherworldly adventure. Now I felt like a jerk for making jokes about her, even though she never understood them.

"So, if stuff like changes in the government rip the, uh, Fabric, then how does your world change?"

"All dimensions have Fabric. When a regular person makes a change, the Fabric is stretched or altered in some way to accommodate the change. This is normal and healthy. There is only a problem when the Fabric rips. Fabric only rips if a normal person who has visited another dimension makes some sort of radical change in their own world. That invisible piece from the other world weakens the Fabric around that person, making it much easier to tear. When the Fabric tears, the invisible piece attracts the world it came from and something called a Direct Link forms. The two dimensions bond to each other and things can travel between them much faster."

"That doesn't sound so bad, except for the whole dying part."

"Direct Links are not only dangerous for the person who becomes one, but also for the entirety of both worlds. There are hundreds of what we call dead dimensions. Direct Links were created between them and they sucked the life out of each other until they were both barren."

"Sounds intense. But if you're a Dimensional Guardian or whatever, then can't you just get rid of the invisible pieces and Direct Links or something?"

"We have been trying for a very long time to find ways to do that, but nothing has been successful. We can't see the invisible pieces, so we don't know where they are on the person's body, how big they are, or even what they are. We only know they exist because of Direct Links and the fact that they form on the person who has visited the other world. As for severing Direct Links, that is very difficult to do because the Fabrics of each world change so much the moment they're created. Doing it safely while keeping the Fabrics in tact would take the careful work of all Dimensional Guardians from both worlds."

"I see. . ." I looked at Molly, unsure of what to say. I wasn't sure what she expected me to do or how she expected me to react. Heck, I wasn't even sure why she was telling me all of this in the first place. Although, the fact that I was finding out probably meant that I was involved somehow.

Great. Most people my age have to balance school and work. I have to balance school and inter-dimensional adventures. When did this become a Saturday morning cartoon?

We finally made our way out of the produce section, but as we passed the irrigated vegetables, something caught Molly's attention and she stopped cold. I also stopped to see what she was looking at.

They were leeks.

"These have a very interesting shape. Maybe this one is Anastasia," she said, picking one up and examining its disproportional Y-shaped structure.

"How is she a leek?" I asked, giving her a strange look.

"Oh, so this one is called leek." She paused and stared at the leek. "Leek and Anastasia are both green."

I wanted to smack my forehead, but I didn't. For someone who had a fancy title like Dimensional Guardian, she sure sounded like a five-year-old when she said that kind of stuff.

"Well, just the leafy part," I said.

"Hmm." Molly continued staring at the leek and then she started spinning it in her hand.

This was absolutely ridiculous to watch--a girl with blonde pigtails and a lacy black dress holding an open parasol in one hand and a spinning a leek in the other while in a grocery store. I really hoped that no one would turn the corner and see this.

"Molly, why are you spinning the leek?"

"It somewhat resembles the cane my friend William has. He's also a Dimensional Guardian. He spins his cane like this a lot." She caught the leek firmly and put it back with the others.

Next, we wandered over to the snack aisle and Molly was instantly captivated by all the colorful wrappers. I half expected her to start associating them with people she knew. Instead, she turned to me and said, "There must be more you wish to know."

Her statement threw me off guard for a second. I thought we were done with the exposition for now, but I guess she wanted to tell me more.

"Um, well, it's all kind of weird and confusing," I said, scratching my head. "If you guys know Natasha's gonna die if she makes a Direct Link, how come she doesn't listen to you?"

"She has never seen a Direct Link for herself. Natasha is the kind of person who believes that things only exist if they are sitting right in front of her. Since no one can see invisible pieces, no one can hold one in front of her so she can see it. So, no matter how many times I tell her about it she asks me to show her proof and I cannot show her proof because the formation of a Direct Link is the only proof," she paused and stared at a bag of barbeque potato chips. "Usually, we don't tell normal people about invisible pieces and Direct Links, but I had to tell Natasha since she became involved with them."


"So, she won't believe you even though you know what you're talking about and everything? That seems pretty childish."

"Well. . .there is more to it than that. I don't wish to get into it right now."

That was fair enough. Like everyone, Molly probably had things that she couldn't talk about very easily, but suddenly, something struck me.

"Wait, you said any normal person who goes to another dimension gets one of these invisible pieces. So, does that mean I'm gonna die if I do some crazy revolutionary thing in this world?"

Molly stopped staring at the chips and faced me. "You are special."

Way to sound like a kindergarden teacher raising her kids' self-esteem. "Care to explain that one?"

"Whenever a Dimensional Guardian arrives in a new world, everything in that world freezes except for other Dimensional Guardians until we close the opening. But you do not freeze and you're not a Dimensional Guardian. Furthermore, you are able to use abilities from my world even though you do not live there."

"Yeah, but I can't use them here. I thought they only worked because they're real and possible in your world."

"Not even Dimensional Guardians can use the powers of the other worlds we encounter. We can use our own abilities from our own worlds in those places, but that's all. However, you've done just that." Molly's eyes lit up and she looked at me with the same sense of urgency that she always had whenever she needed to take me somewhere. "I have a theory. There's a legend about one person in all of the dimensions who can adopt the abilities of any dimension. It says that they can get rid of Direct Links, heal Fabric, and even heal the people who become Direct Links." She scurried up to me and grabbed my hands. "Your name is Amber!"

"What does that have to do with anything? Plus, I thought you knew that already." Her excitement was starting to scare me a little.

"Jade and Jasper were the last two. . .yes. Yes, this is all making sense!"

Actually, it's all getting more confusing, but keep telling yourself that, sweetheart.

"There are no Dimensional Guardians here, but you do not freeze when I visit. Your name is Amber and you can use our powers in our world. I need to test this!"

Suddenly, Molly dragged me out of the grocery store before I could protest. Wasting no time, she produce the giant zipper and tossed it in the air where it attached itself to a random place in the sky. Everything turned blue and froze again, and a second later we were floating up to the zipper.

"Where are we going?" I asked as Molly unzipped the opening and we stepped inside.

"To the dimension where they keep the legend. We're going to see if you're the next Fabric Healer."