Welcome, one and all, to the crossover between Pirates Versus Privates and Twisted-Wind's Count Dragul comics! It's not really a sequel to either, more of a 'mid-quel' in both stories. The chase is still on between Private Minnie and Captain Mickey, and in the Dragul world, Mina isn't pregnant yet.

Count Mickey Dragul's castle is attacked, and Mina is kidnapped by a group of strange time-obsessed creatures. The Count will go solo to hunt after her, despite the warnings from his companions. Meanwhile, Private Minnie uncovers a magic mirror after trying to stop those very same creatures, and winds up in the world of Dragul. What are these creatures, and why are they so determined to get their hands on Minnie and Mina? Who will win in a fight between the Captain and the Count? If they can't learn to work together, their mouse maidens may met their misfortune at the hands of the King of Clocks!

In this first chapter, we are reintroduced to our heroes and heroines, and the mysterious doll girl E gets her hands on our maidens!

Lastly, E, the clock dogs, and their creator are all my original creations. These chapters will be much shorter than the usual PVP chapters, and the amount of chapters will be smaller as well. More than five, but probably less than ten.

"Oh, will you look at that! That piece of the chess board managed to escape."

"How annoying. Well, should we go look for it?"

"Hmmm… no, I think this will be more fun. And who says we still can't play? I believe it's my turn."

Each and every book in the aging library had its own share of dust. When the castle had only one master, he had abandoned the books, finding no desire to read them in his strange loneliness. Now the master was going through them all, thumbing through them quickly and tossing the rejects over his shoulder. Every so often a whiff of dust would hit his nose, and he'd sneeze hard enough to be heard all over the castle. He could hear the laughter of ghosts at his sneezes, and although it was tempting to yell at them, there were more important matters at hand. The night was full, bright, and beautiful, with morning just a dream away – and sixteen shelves of worthless books hadn't given him the answers he was seeking.

Number seventeen wasn't looking too promising either, and the count slammed the book shut in his frustration. This also brought forth a massive call of dust, but this time he grabbed his nose in an effort to stop the impending sneeze. He waited one second for the urge to sneeze to pass… then two… then three… and then sighed, relaxing.

"Find it yet?"

The spooky startle from the spirit behind him surprised him so suddenly that not only did he let go of his nose, he sneezed twice as loudly as normal, dropped the book on his foot, howled in pain, and then sneezed again. Once he had gained some semblance of bodily control, he turned around and tried not to be irritable. "No. No I didn't, Emily."

Ever since the arrival of the mistress to the castle, the beautiful dead bride Emily had become much more sociable, which could be taken as both good and bad. With how sweetly she was smiling, the count couldn't get too mad at her, she he exhaled out his anger and picked out another book, with Emily continuing to watch him. "If I may… I don't think you'll find what you're looking for in these books. In fact, I don't even know if someone has written about this sort of thing before."

"I have to try!" He flipped through the pages of book eighteen, quickly scanning his eyes over the pages to find words of importance. "I promised Mina we would get married, and I never break my promises." Especially not to his beloved Mina, the woman who had changed his life, who had brought light to his darkness, and in return, he had turned her into a monster like himself. Though she had never blamed him, and so far had even embraced her life as a member of the undead, the count had been unable to forgive himself for giving her the bite. The guilt bothered him even now, giving him pause as his black fingers rested on a yellowed page.

This was in part why Emily had chosen now to bother him. If he was left alone for too long, his mind would wander to those depressing thoughts. She walked up to his side, and spoke slightly louder in order to grab his attention. "I think you just want to see her in a pretty wedding dress." She idly poked his cheek, though her fingers passed through his cold skin and fur. "We could braid her hair up and put her in something white and lacy."

The distraction worked, and the count's unnaturally sharpened teeth were exposed as he grinned. "It has nothing to do with that. I made her a promise, but how am I supposed to marry her when we can't even look at a cross without getting hurt? We can't go to a church, so we can't get someone to marry us. It has absolutely nothing to do with… how good she'll look." Though his words were serious, his eyes gave away the obvious implications of daydreaming. "… She would look nice in white."

"She looks nice in everything." Emily gave him a knowing look, once the count actually looked at her. "And she'll be happy no matter what she wears, and no matter how the ceremony is done. She loves you, Mickey, and nothing will ever change that. You don't need her to walk down an aisle for to know that."

He hesitated for a moment, and then closed the book, resigning himself to his friend's advice. "… I suppose you would know best." Who was he to argue about weddings with the ghost of a bride? He placed the book back on the shelf. "I guess I should just go and ask Mina exactly what she wants." But a thought occurred to him, and as he wiped some dust off of his robes, he turned to face his dead companion. "You know, Emily, there's been something I've been meaning to ask you…"

The question was left unasked – a horrid, piercing cry hit their ears, and Mickey instantly recognized it – the wolves, from the forest surrounding his castle! These were cries of pain, of terror – then the castle rumbled, its very foundation began to shake. It couldn't have been an earthquake, nor were the ghosts up to their pranks. A voice broke through the cries and shakes, the all commanding voice of Madam Leota. "Master! There are intruders in the castle, they're heading up to the throne room! They've completely obliterated the entrance to the castle!"

What kind of force could do this much damage to his wolves and castle? There was no time to ponder, Mickey knew, so he ran as fast as his feet could take him. As he passed through countless doors and corridors, he could hear the frightened whimpers of the other ghosts, and the rumbles of the castle grew harder the closer he got to the source. He arrived at the throne room, intending to use the hidden door behind the stone dragon to reach Mina and warn her. Yet when he thrust the doors open, the dragon's head was being chopped off, and fell to the ground with a tremendous bang. Here were the intruders, and were Mickey already not dead, the sight would have made his blood even colder.

At first glance, one could make the mistake that these things were giant black dogs, but that mistake would instantly be cleared. No dog was as massive as these creatures, which could tower every horse carriage in the country. Their bulging muscles were grotesque, and their grunts sounded like the rotations of rusty gears. They tore at the floor with their massive paws, and there was a trail of broken walls and chewed up furniture far behind them. Despite all this, their most disturbing feature was their eyes – for they weren't eyes, but clocks, with the numbers painted on out of order, and the hour hands twisted this way and that, hundreds of rotations per second. They seized upon the fallen head of the dragon, and tore it apart without joy or pleasure to it, instead just doing it because it was in the way.

A mismatched sound of giggling was made high above the clock beasts, and when Mickey looked up, he saw a young human woman sitting atop the dragon's neck. She too was not what she first appeared to be, for her elbows and knees were that of a doll's joints. Her dress was haphazardly sown together without insight to color or form, and her hair had the same color and feel as matted straw. Her eyes were also spinning clocks, and so were her palms, and there was an additional clock face on her stomach. The clock dogs had ignored Mickey's presence, but the girl saw him, and she kicked her feet back and forth in excitement. "One, two, how do you do? Three, four, I was just getting bored!" She jumped off the dragon's neck, and landed in front of the angered count. "Five six, we're in a fix! Seven, eight, your mistress is late!"

Mickey had a million and one questions for these abnormalities, but first he had to get them out before they destroyed his home. "Get out of my castle! This is your only warning!" He bared his vampire fangs at the doll girl, but she only giggled again at him, walking backwards and then side to side.

"Nine, ten, I won't say it again! Eleven, twelve…" She raised up her hands, and smacked her palms together. The sound of her palm clocks smashing together signaled to the dogs, who lifted their heads, and then set their sights on the count. They launched their gigantic bodies at him, and it took all of Mickey's strength to fend them off. One punch sent them flying, but they just as easily stood up and charged for him again. He counted at least five of them, and they came at him from every side, biting, clawing, snarling, intending to rip him apart if he wasn't fast enough to block them off. They didn't feel flesh to the touch – it was more that he was hitting sheer steel.

The doll girl watched the struggle with a child's amusement, bouncing up and down on her heels. "One, two, we don't want you! Three, four, it's Mina we're here for!"

Mickey's horror increased tenfold when, during the fight for his life, he heard the scream of his dearly beloved. She too had heard Leota's warning, but instead of hiding away, she had also headed for the source of the castle shakes. How dreadfully ironic she used the same secret door Mickey had been planning to use, and as she came out from behind the dragon, she had fallen into the trap of the clock creatures. No sooner had Mickey and Mina called out each other's names than the doll girl swooped in, scooping up Mina into her arms, and clutching her close to her chest. Though the doll looked frail, her grasp was iron, and Mina found no matter how hard she kicked about, she could not free herself.

The sight of his bride in danger so deeply terrified and angered the count that it added a million men to his strength, and his shadow-like powers reflected his intense emotions. His demonic wings took form, and with the force of Mickey's feelings, the blasted away the dogs to all the corners of the room, nearly toppling down two walls. His face became feral, advancing on the doll girl with his wings still extended, intending to give her a far worse fate than merely being blown off. "Put. Her. Down."

Still, the doll girl had no traces of fright. "Five, six, those are neat tricks! Seven, eight, but it's far too late!" She kissed Mina between the ears, treating her captor as if Mina was a doll instead. "Nine, ten, still can't use your powers then?" She held out one of her palms towards the count, as he began to advance ever closer. "Eleven, twelve…" A yellow light shout of her palm, emitting a clock face in front of the count. He would have ignored the light show, but the light enveloped him, and when he leapt to attack the kidnapper, he found he could not move! His limbs were frozen, and he remained as still as the destroyed statue nearby.

Mina squirmed in the tight grasp, trying uselessly to reach the man she cared for. "W-what did you do to him? Mickey! Mickeeey!" But no yell could get him to move, and he remained absolutely still.

"One, two, we've got better things to do." The doll plucked off one of the needles of her eye clocks, and haplessly tossed it on the floor. "Three, four, he'll move once more." The needle spun on its own on the floor, and it spun so quickly that it became a blur – and then that blur became a gaping hole, emitting more yellow light. "Five, six, but we'll be in a new mix!" The clock dogs had now regained their footing, and bounded towards the hole, jumping in one at a time and vanishing from sight. "Seven, eight, we've got to make a date!" Once all the dogs had left, the doll stepped up to the hole, and jumped in with her feet close together. "Nine, ten, it's all a matter of when!"

The last thing Mickey heard before the hole closed up was one more scream of his name. The hole merely ceased to exist in a second, and when it was gone, he was free to move. He could now move and do as he pleased, but all he could to think of to do in that movement was bang his fists on the place the hole once was, and yowl over loss of his intended bride.

Normally, the annual Toy Fair in the Kingdom of Britain was the happiest time of the year. Toy factories from all over the world would come to display their latest products, and proud collectors would show off their valuable pieces. This year, several wealthy families had decided to spruce up an old, abandoned manor for the show. The crowd that came on that sunny brisk day were very lively, and fun was had in children of all ages. Private Minerva Mouse would have gladly been among this crowd, as she was fond of dolls and their lavish dresses. Alas, as said before, this would have been 'normally'.

Today was not normal. Today, Private Minnie and her three companions found themselves in the Toy Fair as Captain Mickey and his Mouseketeers were ransacking the place. In her desire for revenge against the pirate who had ruined her reputation, Minnie was making just as big a mess as the men invading the manor. After zigzagging around toppled tops and picked apart puzzles, she found the little captain testing out several yo-yo's on each of his fingers. She stomped on the floor to get his attention, and he looked over, she pointed her pistol directly towards his face. "Captain Mickey, you're under arrest!"

He blinked once, and then sported that cheesy grin that tended to make Minnie's heart beaten faster. "Wanna see how many dogs I can walk, turtledove?"

"This is a new low, even for you!" She shoved her pistol to his nose, ignoring his adorable antics. "You're actually stealing from children! Don't you have any shame?"

"They're fer me inner child." He began to loosen each yo-yo from each finger, collecting them in his hands. "There's a difference between growin' up and growin' old. But speakin' a kids, how's about we play some kid's games?" He wiggled his eyebrows at her, hoping to see her face go red. "We'll play house. I'll be the dad, ye'll be the mum, and-"

"How old are you?" She snapped to interrupt him, not wanting him to finish whatever insipid innuendo he was planning. "The only game we're playing here is Cops and Robbers, and I intend to win! Now, put your hands up in the air!" He wasn't going to get away this time!

Mickey shrugged. "Sure thing, luv." He rose up his hands, at the same time dropping all the colorful yo-yo's. The flurry of strings and wood succeed in distracting her, and Mickey took the opportunity to slap the pistol out of Minnie's hands, grab her by the wrists, and give her a powerful smooch on her bewildered mouth. He held it for one second… then two… then three… then pulled back, wearing that devious smirk that showed off his golden tooth. "Tag, yer it!" Then he ran off, feeling triumphant that he managed to make her entire face turn a lovely shade of scarlet.

Oooh, how she hated him! It was hate that flooded her body, making her knees go weak and her head feel light. Surely it was only hate that made her want to collapse onto the ground right there and then and just reel in the feel of those lips. Fueled with this 'hate', she snatched up her pistol from the ground, and resumed the chase. "Get back here, you filthy bilge rat!" Wait until she got her hands on him! Then she'd show him how much she hated him! She'd vigorously hate him over and over and over again! She'd hate his brains out!

As they went further into the manor, they managed to leave behind the fighting and messes, as these areas had yet to be robbed. Minnie lost track of him, and wound up at a corridor that split in two. To the left was a section devoted to old dolls. To the right was a section devoted to board games. Mickey could have easily gone down either one, but Minnie's hidden weakness for dolls led her to choose the left. And if he wasn't there, what could a few seconds of looking around hurt?

She quietly walked into the left empty corridor, and was greeted with wall to wall glass displays of past dolls throughout the ages. Mickey began to slip out of her mind as Minnie looked over each one in detail, marveling at the dedication put in each lock of hair, and in each tailored dress. She wished to take home every single one of them, except for the last doll she came upon. This one was modeled to be life-size, and while Minnie was sure the designer must have worked very hard on it, this particular doll was rather hideous. Who would put clocks on their eyes, or carelessly use only straw for their hair? The more Minnie stared at it, the more it gave her the creeps. She walked backwards in an effort to get away from the odd doll, and bumped into something behind her.

Turning around, she saw that she had nearly knocked over a large vanity mirror that was double her height. It was an unusual thing to find in a room for only dolls, and even stranger, the pale frame holding the reflective glass were shaped like arms from the elbow up. Minnie's lips curled at the spooky design, but she decided to make the best of it, and looked at herself in the mirror. She smoothed down her skirt, and placed her pistol back in its holster so she could attend to her spitcurls. She noticed that her sleeves had become wrinkled, due to Mickey grabbing them, and so she huffed as she tugged them down. The nerve of that ruffian!

"One, two, I'm coming for you!"

What the – Minnie could have sworn she was the only person in the room when she came in. She turned around –

"Three, four, I'm getting one more!"

It all happened far too fast – The doll, the same ugly doll with the clock eyes in that tall display case, it was now standing directly in front of her! It was smiling, and the clocks on its body were spinning around and around. "Five, six, your time is nix!" The doll then shoved Minnie back – and, impossibly, Minnie fell through the mirror –

Down Minnie plummeted, into a world of night sky, of ocean blue, of swirling colors and countless shining jewels that were no bigger than her eyes, and she fell, and she screamed, and she heard the doll laughing, and heard gears grinding, and she fell, and she fell, and she fell, and she closed her eyes –

First, there came a thud. Then, there came a crash. Minnie opened her eyes, and saw a moldy gray blanket on top of her. She was laying flat on her back on something wooden, and as she began to sit up, she heard angered and startled voices in thick, foreign tongues. She yanked the blanket off of her face, and saw that she was sitting in a musty caravan that was being pulled by an aging mule. The owners of the caravan had stopped to see what the commotion was about, and as Minnie looked around, she saw that she was surrounded by small bits of poorly made furniture. The caravan owners were upset that one of the pieces of furniture had been broken – a vanity mirror, with frames made to look like pale arms. The mirror was now shattered into thousands of pieces, and the owners were demanding something of Minnie – what it was, she didn't know, as she couldn't decipher their language.

She merely stared at them, trying to understand what had happened in the course of the past five minutes. They grew impatient, and the owners – their clothes were shabby, and they smelled foul, they had to be lower class citizens – violently shoved her off the caravan. She squeaked as she landed on her rear, but made no effort to reprimand them as they began to ride off with their damaged goods. There was no gravel or stone on the road under her, it was only dirt. She looked around again, and did not recognize the shabby town that was now stuck in. The clothes and style were unfamiliar, and there wasn't a trace of steel or steam-power to be seen. The people who she assumed were poor would stop to gawk at her, wondering why she was choosing to expose her legs in such a scandalous manner.

She sat there for a long time, and was only able to come up with one conclusion. One way or another, this had to be Captain Mickey's fault.

The doll girl tried to look as apologetic as possible by not only going to her hands and knees, but pressing her forehead to her creator's shoes. "One, two, I'm sorry, it's true." She mumbled pitifully, not daring to look up at his highness. "Three, four, it won't happen once more."

The man tapped his shoes in an effort to try and get her off. "Everyone makes mistakes, E. You're not in any trouble." He reached down, and affectionately ran a gloved hand through her straw. "You go and get the ceremony ready. I'll pick up our other guest." He chuckled deeply, causing the doll girl, E, to lift her head and visibly relax under his warm tone. "We've come this far… and I've got all the time in the world."

End Of Chapter One.