Paranatural: Chapter 6

Stephen and the Suspension of Disbelief
Description
Suspended from school, Johnny's friend Stephen flies solo for the day. But will he fly too close... to the truth?
Information
Start date:	12/31/2018
End date:	2/28/2020
Preceeded by:	Paranatural: Chapter 5
Followed by:	Paranatural: Chapter 7
Transcript:	Paranatural: Chapter 6/Transcript

The sixth chapter of Paranatural, titled Stephen and the Suspension of Disbelief, began on 12/31/2018. It was preceded by The Activity Club and the Insidious Infiltrator and followed by Mr. Spender and the Activity Club.

Chapter 6 showcases Stephen and his adventures in Mayview happening on the same day as Chapter 5, as he busts out of his room after being grounded and embarks on a quest to find the owner of a lost dog.

Summary

The chapter opens on Stephen and his family at breakfast, with he and his mother in the middle of a tense argument regarding his recent suspension. He's soon grounded and quickly decides to get out of his grounding by discreetly climbing out his bedroom window. Before doing so, he turns on his radio where The Fever is beginning to play; the show and its hosts, DJ Mothman and Professor Bigfoot, serve as narration throughout the rest of the chapter.

Stephen wanders Mayview aimlessly until he hears a commotion happening underneath a bridge. Investigating, he finds Ritz Price-Lee kicking around a stray dog, for no other reason besides it not having any money. Stephen, wanting to both protect the dog and teach Ritz a lesson, opts to fight her and proclaims that he's fought high schoolers before with no difficulty. She responds by asking him how many he can handle and revealing that he isn't fighting one high schooler, but four, with the Delinquent Trio hiding in the shadows watching the confrontation.

Surprised but still determined, Stephen offers to take on all four of the teens at once. Paige, amused and impressed by Stephen's moxie and implicitly to test whether Ritz is worthy enough to join their group, decides the two can have a one-on-one fight. He wins the fight with the help of the dog, and while Gage attempts to fight him next Paige restrains him so that Stephen and the dog can escape. Once they've made a safe distance between them and the bridge, Stephen realizes the dog is uncollared and decides to help them find their owner.

Stephen begins the search at the local mini-mall, hoping that the dog's owners will simply be able to spot it in the crowd. Noticing the fortune-telling shop Crystal Clearance nearby he decides looking into the future to "peek ahead" would be much easier. Due to not having any money the owner doesn't give him a reading, but sympathetic to his plight gives him a pair of dowsing rods for free instead. Despite looking all over the mall and surrounding area (including an intrusion on Agent Day and Mina Zarei's lunch meeting from the previous chapter) he is unsuccessful. Eventually Stephen is confronted by the mini-mall's mascot (a facsimile of its owner Dave Jones) who points him towards a wall of "lost dog" posters and specifically towards one depicting the same dog he's caring for.

The dog is soon returned to its owner, a woman living in a high-class mansion. She initially declines to reward Stephen for returning the dog (claiming that the "Cash Reward" promised on the poster is actually the dog's name) but is guilted into giving him some spare change. Stephen then heads to the lakeside to lament the loss of a new friend, looking at Cash Reward's wanted poster and (upon closer inspection) realizing that the photo on the poster could only have been taken at Crystal Clearance earlier that day. Rushing back to the mini-mall and the board of lost dog posters he soon discovers that the same number he used to call Cash Reward's supposed owner has been taped over every lost dog poster and obscuring their actual phone numbers.

In the basement of the high-class mansion, Cash Reward's false owner (now revealed to be named Lavish Price) monologues to her henchman ("Davie", the costumed mascot Stephen met earlier). She details their plan to use the stolen dogs to power a bitcoin-mining scheme, secure her own source of wealth, and distance herself from having to rely on the fortune of her ex-husband (revealed to be DJ Mothman), and does so without realizing Stephen is listening in from a basement window nearby.

Stephen bursts in to confront the two, and Lavish attempts to sic Davie on him, but Davie reveals himself to be a double agent working with the Mayview Police. Having been forced to expose his cover so early, he explains this undercover job has been going on for nearly a week but can now come to a close after capturing Lavish giving Stephen monetary compensation for bringing Cash Reward to her. While he explains this Lavish attacks him, knocking his costume's hook hand free and hurtling towards Stephen. At the last moment Cash Reward takes the blow for him, acquiring a scar similar to his own. Stephen flees the premises, dog in hand, once the rest of the police force storms into the basement (his mother among them).

In the aftermath of the raid, Davie removes his costume to reveal he's actually the real Dave Jones (and implicitly the chief of the Mayview Police after an officer refers to him as "chief"). Officers at the scene inform him that, with Lavish's crimes now brought to light, they'll be able to make arrangements for Dave to acquire the property and assets as part of his ongoing effort to own the full circumference of both of Mayview's hills. Lavish manages to escape (thanks to Stephen's mother using trick handcuffs instead of real ones) but before Dave can question the officers further he feels Cody's heartbeat race due to events happening in the previous chapter and heads to Mayview Middle School.

As dusk descends over Mayview, the perspective quickly shifts to various characters.

• Ritz, having spent the day under the bridge with the Delinquent Trio, complains of being tired and hungry before Gage and Youth Culture reveal themselves to be vampires and start approaching Ritz to eat her.
• The owner of Crystal Clearance gives herself a tarot reading before donning the skull mask and robes of the hooded cultists seen in Chapter 4.
• Boss Leader watches over an enormous abstract door in the Consortium's dream base.
• The Activity Club, having left school, are confronted by the Sphinx of Games and another Sphinx. While the two feline spirits are unable to best the Club, the Sphinx of Truth's power over truth heavily suggests that Isaac will eventually be successfully eaten by the Sphinx of Games, that being eaten won't kill Isaac, and that Mayview will be destroyed by the end of the summer.
• Alex being (apparently) abducted by an alien.
• Cody picks out an outfit to wear while a bifurcated, but still living, Hijack confusedly watches on.
• Mina searches for the Ghost Train's lantern while Hijack's siblings mourn his apparent demise. Meanwhile Penny Spender, having swiped the lantern during Mina's lunch with Agent Day, delivers it to Mr. Guerra's antique shop before a lecture and sparring lesson with him (during which she is revealed to have white spirit energy).
• As DJ Mothman and Professor Bigfoot close up the radio station for the day, Mothman asks Bigfoot out to dinner, which he agrees to.

On his way home, Stephen recognizes that his search for Cash Reward's owner has hit a dead end and decides to adopt the lost dog for himself (with the dog's agreement). He sneaks back into his room just as his mother comes in to apologize for their earlier argument with a gift of a child's magician kit. Upon seeing him, multicolored escape rope in one hand and pulling a dog out of a hat with the other, she bursts into joyous tears.

Trivia

• The chapter's cover depicts the following:
  • Stephen's head, with a shocked expression on his face
  • Various cryptids and conspiracy theories inside Stephen's head, including:
    • Bigfoot
    • The Loch Ness Monster
    • Two aliens and a UFO
    • A pyramid with an eye on it, a symbol for the Illuminati
    • A government agent
    • The moon with the word "FAKE" stamped on it
    • The Earth as a flat disc
• The Corgi that trips Stephen on Chapter 6, Page 36 is based off of a dog Zack temporarily owned.