Chaos Catastrophe
. . .
When Fate is captured by a collaboration of Agrabah's enemies, Chaos inadvertently starts destroying Reality with his lighthearted gimmicks, as there's now nobody to balance him out. Aladdin, Genie, and their friends must attempt to either stop Chaos or free Fate—before it's too late.
Chaos Catastrophe, Chapter 1: The Siege of Agrabah
"Um…Al?" quavered a voice on the other side of Aladdin's bedroom door in an all-too-familiar tone. Aladdin had been sleeping in a little later than usual at the Palace this morning, but he had good reason too.
The night before, a monstrous…thing…had risen out of the sand outside the city, and had quickly proceeded to attack Agrabah. The battle to defend his home had at first seemed hopeless to the onlookers whose homes were being destroyed by the creature, despite of all of Aladdin's past victories. However, Aladdin and his friends knew otherwise.
Not to say that it would be easy to bring down this latest monstrosity, of course. This one proved to be particularly tricky, as Aladdin, Genie, and the rest of their friends at the Palace had discovered that not only had the creature laying siege to their city come out of the sand, it was made of sand.
Each time the sand monster was sliced at by the swords of the palace guard, or blown away by the giant electrical fan Genie had momentarily turned himself into, or even beheaded by Aladdin and Carpet bringing a rope down through its large neck, the creature always reformed. It seemed indestructible—the group could separate sections of the monster, but they couldn't destroy the miniscule grains of sand that composed it.
But as it turned out, Aladdin and the others hadn't needed to. When the sand monster accidentally stepped onto some of the burning buildings that had caught fire in its destructive rampage, it had quickly leapt into the air with a yowl of pain and scorched feet. Aladdin realized the creature's weakness must be fire, and he had Genie distract the monster while he ran back to the Palace for supplies.
Genie had stalled as long as he could by dousing the sand creature in a blast of water and then turning himself into a giant bucket and plastic shovel. With his new form, Genie had proceeded to scoop up the monster into his bucket half and make a towering sandcastle with the creature's temporarily hardened and slowed-down state.
It hadn't taken long for the castle the creature had been molded into to begin shaking with rage as the sand monster furiously fought to break free of its contorted shape, but it wasn't able to liberate itself before Aladdin had returned with a cartload of the Palace's royal fireworks. Stocking the castle full to bursting with the explosives imported from Agrabah's trading ally, Pay Ling, Aladdin had dropped a single torch into the sand monster while riding Carpet from a safe height in the air. It was just as well, as the sand monster had exploded in a giant blast of flame—leaving behind a slightly dilapidated castle made of glass.
Although none of Agrabah's citizens had been happy with the monster's attack, they were delighted to see that at least some good could come from its corpse. The Sultan had declared the new structure "Agrabah's Crystal Palace," and was thrilled with the thought of all the tourism and commerce it would bring to their desert city-state.
By the time the battle was over, though, the sun was just rising over the dunes on the horizon of the Land of the Seven Deserts. This lit up the new Crystal Palace with a dazzling array of prisms, but left Aladdin and the rest of the group to face the fact that they'd lost an entire night's sleep defending the city from what would become their latest tourist attraction.
And so Aladdin and most of the rag-tag gang of Agrabah's unofficial defenders had turned in for the day. Aladdin was most comfortable at his old hidden hovel in the roof of an abandoned mud-brick building in one of the poorer, seedier, and certainly more crime-laden districts of the city—but the Palace was closer, and he had been more than happy to "make do" with one of the Sultan's many luxuriant spare rooms.
However, the sleep he was getting in the intoxicatingly comfortable bed was just now being interrupted by one of Aladdin's oldest friends, Genie. Aladdin had often wondered if Genie actually needed to sleep—he certainly seemed to enjoy it, but whether or not he needed it was something else entirely, and currently Aladdin had his doubts.
What could be so important that would require Genie—who would normally be asleep inside the lamp that was now his home rather than his prison—to wake Aladdin so soon after the night they'd just had?
"Yes, Genie?" Aladdin mumbled, not opening his eyes in a vain attempt to keep out the light pouring in through the massive window Genie had just pulled the curtains away from.
"Sorry to break the spell, sleeping beauty, but we've got a bit of a problem!"
"And what would that be?" Aladdin inquired, sitting up in his bed reluctantly and stretching his arms as he gave a loud yawn. Despite how much trust he put in Genie's judgment of danger, Aladdin had faced much danger in his time with Genie, and it always ended with one outcome: they won. Not easily, mind you—and there had been plenty of close calls—but, sadly enough, the almost daily adventures Aladdin his friends faced were beginning to seem less like threats and more like pathetic attempts by many of the inept villains who called themselves Agrabah's enemies.
But it seemed that that would not be the case today.
"Well…let's just say that you'd better take a look for yourself…"
No jokes? No tricks? No weird references? Thought Aladdin. Even in their darkest hour, Genie was prone to his quirks. An absence of such mannerisms did not bode well. This must be serious.
Walking out onto the balcony of the window, Aladdin gazed out over the city of Agrabah to the desert beyond the city walls. There, a vast cloud of sand billowed and blew menacingly just beyond the city's reach.
"What, a sandstorm?" Aladdin asked his friend, surprised to see something so unassuming and common. "We get those all the time, Genie. What's so different about this one?"
"What's different? What's different?" Genie nearly screamed, obviously terrified of what he saw out the window. "I'll tell you what's different—that, my boy, is no sandstorm!"
"Then what is it?" Aladdin continued.
"…company…" Genie whimpered.
"Company?" Aladdin echoed, looking away from the distant yet fast-approaching cloud of sand to face Genie again. "What company?"
But Genie was gone.
"Huh?" Aladdin wondered aloud. "Genie?"
"RED ALERT! RED ALERT!" a voice boomed throughout the Palace—a voice that sounded suspiciously like Genie, if Genie had been commander of an army. "THIS IS NOT A DRILL, FOLKS! BATTLE STATIONS!"
Now that's the Genie I know, Aladdin thought to himself with a wry smile. Even if he didn't exactly believe the oncoming sandstorm was something to fear like Genie made it out to be, it was nice to hear his friend back to using his usual parlance.
"But what about a small sandstorm could make Genie so afraid?" Aladdin asked himself, turning back to the window to give the windblown sand one last look before closing the curtains to keep out the pesky particles that would inevitably blow in otherwise.
Suddenly, a large, thick metal barrier slid down in front of the window, almost slicing off Aladdin's nose.
Aladdin jumped back in surprise, but his expression quickly changed to one of mild annoyance.
Genie, what are you up to now?
A siren began blaring throughout the Palace hallways as Aladdin ran down them, searching for Genie to demand that he stop this madness. He heard iron barricades boarding up the windows of each room he passed, while the spinning lights of electric alarms appeared to line the walls.
"WHAT IS THAT RACKET?" squawked Iago, his ruffled, feathery head poking out from the door to the bedroom he reluctantly shared with Abu whenever Aladdin and his constant monkey companion stayed at the Palace. Abu also peeked out of the doorway, below Iago's flapping form, watching Aladdin sprint past and covering his tiny ears to block out Genie's blaring sirens.
"Genie's afraid of the sandstorm!" Aladdin called to them over his shoulder, not pausing to explain any more.
Rounding a bend, Aladdin found the master staircase that led up to the tallest room of the tallest tower of the Palace. Siren sounds blasted down from upstairs, prompting Aladdin to take them to at a time on his way up.
The former street-rat's midmorning jog was rewarded with seeing Genie in what was usually the observatory at the top of the Palace, but seemed to have been converted into the genie's personal base of wartime operations. Blipping and bleeping machines with green screens and microphones jutting out from them lined the walls, while the floor was crisscrossed with countless wires connecting them all to a central control panel that Genie was furiously typing away on, watching the monitors in front of his desk intently.
Aladdin saw that each monitor was displaying a different view from outside the Palace, covering the big building's front, sides, and rear—which were even now becoming magically encased with Palace-sized armor.
"Genie, what's going on?" Aladdin yelled over the sirens, having to strain to make himself heard.
"Sorry, Al!" Genie replied, not turning his eyes away from the monitors. "But we're in full lockdown!"
"Full lockdown?" Aladdin repeated, confused. "Genie, what are you talking about?"
"Nobody gets in or out of the Palace until whatever's using that sandstorm for cover leaves!"
"What do you mean, 'using the sandstorm for cover?'" Aladdin questioned, hoping to get a little insight into Genie's apparent sudden delirium.
"Take a look!" Genie exclaimed, sliding the rolling office chair he was sitting in to give Aladdin a full view of the monitors. The preparations Genie was making on the Palace must have been completed, because now the cameras Genie must have hooked up to the display screens showed the streets of Agrabah.
At first glance, Aladdin saw everything he would've expected to see in a sandstorm—the tiny particles flying everywhere, obscuring visibility to almost zero, with people taking shelter in their houses and stores. But upon closer inspection, Aladdin saw that the expression on the faces of a few citizens huddled in the corner of a mud-brick building was one of absolute terror. What appeared to be a family shook with fear, clinging to each other in the part of their dwelling that was farthest from the street.
Taking shelter from a sandstorm was one thing, but hiding? What could the citizens of Agrabah possibly be so afraid of? The city had weathered far worse than a few grains of windblown sand, and even far worse sandstorms than the one enveloping the city right now.
Then something darted in front of the camera—only for a split second—and was gone.
"What was that?" Aladdin asked Genie.
"That, my dear Aladdin," Genie explained, quivering with just as much fear as Aladdin had seen in the faces of the family huddled in their home. "Is what I'm trying to protect us from!"
"It's probably just someone who was out when the sandstorm hit and were caught outside," Aladdin said uneasily, trying to find a bit of comforting logic in the situation.
"Then tell me, Al—what wayward pedestrian looks like this?"
Genie rewound the last few seconds of footage from the camera, pausing the stream right as the 'pedestrian' strode in front of the screen. The bleary, low-resolution image was only a dark, shapeless blob, but as Genie hit the "image enhance" buttons, it began to look increasingly less so. In a few seconds, it resembled neither a blob nor a citizen of Agrabah—but Nefir Hasenuf, the greedy, selfish imp.
Aladdin would recognize the squat, fat, bird-headed being with bat wings anywhere.
"Nefir Hasenuf? What's he doing here?" Aladdin growled, his fists clenched at the memory of the group's past encounters with unscrupulously dirty businessman. "If he thinks he can just waltz right into Agrabah, then he's got another thing coming!"
Aladdin quickly turned to go personally deliver that thing Nefir had coming, but grabbed his shoulder.
"But that's just it, Al—it isn't just Nefir!" Genie informed.
"So he brought his imp friends with him?" Aladdin sneered. "All the more reason to give Nefir a proper welcoming!"
"Oh no, it's more than imps he's brought along," Genie went on. "Take a look at this!"
With a snap of his fingers, the camera monitors multiplied tenfold, filling the observatory. Aladdin saw bits and pieces of nearly every part of Agrabah displayed, each showing a disturbingly similar theme. Citizens hid in their homes, while every enemy Aladdin could remember having faced marched past them. Nefir was indeed far from alone—not only were there the other imps he regularly employed to help him in his dangerous moneymaking schemes, Aladdin caught glimpses of several others as well. There was Abis Mal & Haroud Hazi Bin, Mozenrath and Xerxes, as well as a cavalcade of others, each steadily advancing towards the Palace.
"It seems as if every evildoer we've ever clashed with is coming here!" Genie quavered. "And that's why we're in lockdown!"
"But Genie, if every villain is here…" Aladdin gulped, at last realizing the true weight—or so he thought—of what was coming. "Then that means we need to be out there in the streets now more than ever! None of those citizens are protected like we are here in the Palace!"
"Thankfully, they don't need to be," Genie countered. "Take a look, Al."
Following Genie's pointing finger back to the monitors, Aladdin saw that none of the undesirables Agrabah's defenders had fought in the past actually seemed to be causing any harm to the populace. Indeed, the only negative infliction this group appeared to be making the citizens suffer through was fear.
"Why aren't they attacking?" Aladdin inquired, reflecting on how that's all the villains he and the group had encountered ever seemed to do.
"Don't know for sure," Genie replied. "But my best guess is that they're not here for the city—they're all here for you, Al!"
"Me?"
"Well, you have managed to humiliate them and thwart their dastardly plans more than anyone else they've probably encountered…" Genie added. "They must have realized that they couldn't take you out alone, and so they all gathered together to come and eliminate their main obstacle—you."
"Oh…" Aladdin gulped. "That makes sense."
"But don't worry, Al!" Genie continued. "Even if there is a horde of bloodthirsty cutthroats outside the walls wanting to kill you, we should be safe in the newly refurbished 'Palace of Protection!'"
Aladdin did have to admit, despite all the potential power those outside the Palace presented, the fortress that Genie had converted the Palace into seemed like it would be nearly impossible for even them to infiltrate.
"But what do we do for food and water?" Aladdin asked, the survivalist thoughts bred from years of living on the streets as a thief suddenly springing into his head.
"Not a problem, Al!" Genie replied, brightening up immediately at the mention of one of his favorite topics—food. With a snap of his fingers, Genie produced a dish covered with an elegant array of buttered lobster. "I can take care of the housing necessities, and none of our dear old friends outside can possibly get into the Palace now—either through force or magic. We just have to stay in here for the rest of our lives!"
Even though that idea didn't strongly appeal to Aladdin, he had to agree that staying inside was currently the best strategy. There was no way he could take that many adversaries, even with the help of Genie and the rest of his Palace friends.
Besides, the villains couldn't wait outside the Palace forever, could they?
Unfortunately, it turned out they wouldn't need to.