The group walked carefully though the town, doing their best to avoid the toon ghosts of Bog Easy and their 'hilarious' tricks. So far they had been successful, but Elisea knew that wouldn't last. Prescott, on the other hand, as not the least bit interested in being caught in the ghosts pranks as he was too busy questioning as many toons as he could get in one place.
Elisea, whose little anger tantrum had steadily run its course, was leaning leisurely against one of the buildings of the Bog Esy town, her and Gus watching as Prescott flew back and forth, not noticing the growing annoyed looks the toons would have whenever they saw the toon coming towards them.
Mickey, meanwhile had taken his time doing some small side quests while they looked around, the famous mouse finally sitting on the ground to rest next to them after a very particular quest having to do with projector reels of Pete's ancestor...or something like that, Elisea wasn't really listening to him as she was much more preoccupied when a toon finally stepped forward and told the badgering Gremlin a few choice words she betted he wasn't expecting to hear.
Prescott frowned at the toon, obviously insulted before sniffing in a very Prescott-manner and teleported away from them and next to Elisea, still frowning disapprovingly at the toon he had spoken to.
"Honestly, there's no respect in toons today. All I asked was if they knew who would have sabotaged the projector." The gremlin grumbled as Elisea just looked at him curiously.
"I think it was the fact you practically insinuated that he was the one who sabotaged it that caused him to be a little less respectful." She replied, Prescott merely crossing his arms, still in a bad mood as Elisea continued, the group not really having a lot better to do as they watched the normal day to day actions of the people of Bog Esy.
"I don't get it, why can't you just replace the broken component?" Mickey looked over at Gus an nodded in agreement to Elisea's question, surely the damages to the projector couldn't have been so bad that the leader of the Gremlin's and what was supposed to be, at least according to the bragging Prescott, one of the best projector engineers in Wasteland, couldn't fix it.
"It's not just that, Projector's usually have some of the more important replacements with them in case something like this happened, but the replacement was stolen." Gus explained, his fellow Gremlin nodding in agreement, leaving the group exactly where they started.
"Maybe the ghosts know what happened." Mickey mumbled, partly to himself as he thought it a stupid idea, at least until Elisea straightened her posture and looked over at the famous mouse.
"Great Idea Mickey, maybe if we do something for the Ghosts they'll tell us what happened to the projector!" Prescott also stood up, adding his own idea in to the mix because, well he's Prescott.
"They might even fix it themselves!" The remaining Gremlin and toon Mouse looked at the suddenly enthusiastic toons before looking at each other, shrugging and following them as they started to track down the ghosts they were so carefully avoiding beforehand.
Oswald hadn't really moved from the Walt statue so far. He wasn't really sure on what he should do now, so he just waited for the mouse and his group to return from the mansion, hopefully with the rocket part in tow. So this let him in a rather bored, yet completely worried area of emotions.
He couldn't go to Tommorowland to wait for the mouse; the projector for that station had shut down again. (For the billionth time this week), he couldn't go to the mountain, his home, for same reasons, and OzTown was out of the question since...
The Lucky Rabbit felt a familiar ache in his empty chest and sighed, his ears drooping to either side of his head. All these years, and he still couldn't bear to even walk past that house, to see the gaping holes in its paint work the size of, well, the holes in his non-existent heart.
Grief was once an unknown emotion to the toon, when it began he was not sure how long it would stay with him. And of course Ortensia, as it was just in her nature, had left much more of an impact on his life than the rabbit had ever really expected, her absence somehow also drifting to his two eldest children.
Elliot, of course being the stronger of the twin evils, had taken his supposed adopted mother's non appearance with ease; this probably helped along with the fact that Elliot, unlike his sibling, remembered his original biological family.
The toon might not realize it, but Oswald could tell when he was thinking about his parents. His expression wouldn't waver, but the eyes were more of a window to his soul than Oswald had ever wanted to know.
He always tries to be strongest and unmovable in the face of adversary, but Oswald knew out of the two siblings, Elliot was the most emotionally connected.
Elisea, whilst the less emotionally invested, was somehow more hurt by her supposed mother's disappearance. Oswald noticed this more from her than Elliot as he really held this young blonde toon close to his heart, what with her being one of the surprisingly few daughters out of 420 children.
And true to form, she was quite the daddy's little princess as she grew up, doing her very best to make him proud as she trained with her older brother, never missing a beat to learn new things to impress him. However, the mention of her 'adoptive' mother seems to lower her spirits by a noticeable amount.
He knew at the time that telling Elisea about Ortensia may be coming back was most likely a bad idea, what with the young girl needing a female role model in the man infested mountain. But at the same time, the lucky rabbit would see a light in her eyes, the same light he use to see in the children he entertained long ago, and couldn't help it.
This didn't mean that Oswald didn't want Elisea to know about her biological parents. In fact while she was growing up, Oswald would continuously push Elliot to tell her about her parents, show her photos, tell her stories of the times they spent together, anything to at least tell her she was not 'given up' like she might have originally thought.
At the same time, Oswald didn't want her to think that when Ortensia came back, that things would be so different, that he would leave her and her brother behind. He wanted Elisea to think that when his wife did come back, she wouldn't be left behind, but included in a rejoined family.
The adult toon sighed, looking up at the statue of his creator, his father and shrugged his shoulders.
"Well it can't get any worse right?" He muttered to the steel, calm face of Walt, the long gone man's peaceful smile rubbing off on the toon rabbit as it did all those years ago.
Suddenly, as if the world only wanted the lucky rabbit to feel even more pressure in his life, Markus, a nearby hard working Gremlin, flew towards him, a dangerous look of urgency combined with fear on his features.
"Oswald, it's the mountain, we've gotten the connection back but... You're not gonna like this."
"Well at least it didn't take that long to find them." Gus mumbled as he wiped the Bog Gunk from his eyes, his fellow toons grumbling a little in agreement as they were also covered in what was, thankfully the lesser toxic Bog gunk, but that didn't stop them from stinking up like rotting eggs.
The ghosts themselves were in front of the group, laughing themselves silly at the sight of the gunked up toons. Eventually one of them managed to hold himself together long enough to ask a question.
"So why were you guys looking for us? Last I checked, we were pretty hated in this town." He flew a little closer to the group, comically holding his nose as Prescott wiped some of the gunk off his goggles.
"Gee I wonder why." He mumbled angrily, Elisea helping him wipe some of the suspiciously clumpy gunk from his Gremlin helmet, smirking a little when she saw some of the gunk on his nose and wiped it off. He smiled back at her, causing her for the first time to be thankful of the gunk as a good portion of it that was still on her face managed to hide her blush.
Mickey wiped some of the gunk of his brush and looked pointedly at the trio of ghosts.
"Look, we need to get to the Haunted Mansion, but the Projector is broken and we were hoping you could tell us who broke it, or at least help us fix it." Elisea noticed one of the ghosts twitch and raised an eyebrow in suspicion, but decided not to say anything until she was sure it could be useful to her.
One of the ghosts thought about it for a second (or at least made it look as though he was thinking about it) and smirked. Elisea frowned at the Ghosts expression, knowing full well that this was not going to be something her dad would like to know.
"Sure I'll help ya' but there's something you could do for me. See that hut all the way over there?" He gestured behind him at the hut furthers away from the town and mansion. Mickey nodded and walked over to the ghost to get a better look while he continued.
"Sees there this little wimp that lives in the shack over there, his name's Louis. He's kinda cowardly but hey, that's the fun of it all right? Help us scare him for a laugh and we'll open up the projector for ya." The ghost grinned but Mickey, as well as the rest of the group, looked rather unsure. It seems very fair to intentionally scare the living wits out of someone who was well known for his cowardice.
"Maybe we should try talking to this Louis first, just to make sure their telling the truth at being able to fix the projector." Gus whispered to the famous mouse next to him as he nodded, the ghosts all the while waiting for an answer.
"How about we check out this Louis first, just in case he's there." Prescott said to the ghosts, greatly annoying the gremlin next to him, whom he had pushed in order to have full spot light. The ghostly toons however, didn't seem to notice that was speaking and just nodded in agreement, happy at the thought of being able to scare only the wimp guy of the town after so long of him being protected by his lanterns.
The group quickly walked back to the town, leaving the undead toons behind them as Gus scolded Prescott for his unthinking action, as Mickey and Elisea were busy pondering over what they would do. They didn't speak to each other though, Elisea's reasoning being that she didn't think her advice would be seen as that important, while Mickey's reasoning was that he didn't really know the blonde teen that well enough to ask for her opinion.
As the elder Gremlin nagged the Prescott, Elisea and the mouse walked behind them, looking pointedly in different directions due to embarrassment. Eventually they managed to get to Louis' hut, Mickey being the one to knock on his door.
There was a few seconds of nothing and Mickey was ready to knock again when the door creaked open. Another few seconds passed before finally a toon's face appeared from around the door frame.
"Oh, sorry I thought you were those ghosts again." He sighed, moving a little further forward from behind the door, greeting the group of toons in front of him. Elisea sighed, cursing the creepy atmosphere that seemed to surround this town.
"Oh hey your Mickey right? I had heard rumors that you'd dropped into Wasteland, but I didn't believe them. Look can you help me? See the ghosts of the town, well they like to creep me out allot, and well living here I guessed there would be more things in the dark far worse than the ghosts so I kept my house all lit up for safety." He gestured around his house, which was not exactly as lit up as he claimed, in fact the only lights that were left on were the ones inside the house.
"As you can see, they're kind of not working at the moment. But if you help me turn them on I'll help you with whatever you ask." Mickey looked as though he was still thinking it over when Gus butted in at the last moment.
"If we help you, you could help us repair the projector to Lonesome Manor." The easily frightened toon frowned at Gus' demand, wondering exactly what type of business this group of toons would ever have in the haunted placement, but decidedly chose not ask, after all whatever business it was to them, it was none of his own.
"Great! Just please light those lights real quick, I hate having to stay in the dark for too long." Louis shook Mickey's hand, and then shut the door, leaving the group in semi darkness.
"Okay... So what are you gonna do Mickey? Help the Ghosts, or help Louis?" Elisea asked the mouse, who thought it over for a second before turning back to the group.
"What do you guys suggest?" He asked, not wanting them to feel left out of the decision. Of course Prescott was the first to answer, his mind apparently already made up. While he was talking, Elisea moved a little away from the debating group, instead taking the time to see the rather darkened environment around her, the darkness around her only being semi lightened thanks to the unnatural glow of the thinner that surrounded them like swamp water. Every so often the thinner swamp would rise a little, causing a small portion of the wooden paint platforms they were standing on to corrode in the slightest of bits.
"I think we should go for the ghost's offer, after all, they might be more helpful in fixing the projector, in fact they might have had something to do with the projector's break down." Gus rolled his eyes at that, and added in his opinion, not noticing the younger Gremlin haughty glare at being push aside.
"But that's exactly a good reason on why we shouldn't trust them, after all, they might not fix the Projector, then we really would be stuck." Mickey considered both the Gremlin's points, and was mostly going to agree with Gus when he saw the blonde teen in the corner of his eye and turned to look at her fully, realizing that she hadn't really left her opinion yet.
"Elisea?" The two earlier arguing Gremlins turned to look at the teen as Mickey did; Elisea said nothing at first as she was still thinking over her answer. Eventually she did turn around, a little put off that the entire group was waiting for her advice.
"Mickey, it's up to you what we do next. But I guess if you really want to know what I think, I think we should help Louis, after all he is least likely to turn on us and actually would be grateful if we helped him. Besides, I think it would help that much more to get in my dad's good graces." Mickey nodded, completely agreeing with the teen before turning around and using his paint to fix all the lights surrounding Louis' hut. Prescott however, was a little confused and surprised y the last of what Elisea had said and went to ask after it, but was interrupted by Gus.
"Where is your brother incidentally, I don't think he'd like the thought of you hanging out with us as much as your father." Elisea scratched the back of her neck as the Gremlin asked the question she was sure would have been brought up at some time, and smiled a little nervously to the unimpressed Gremlin as she answered.
"Oh, he's back at home, so is dad and uh..." Gus folded his arms, even more unimpressed as his fellow Gremlin only managed to look even more confused. Prescott attempted again to ask after exactly who her father even was when Mickey ran back to the group, speaking quickly before running past them again, the rest of the group running after him.
"I managed to get all the lights back on and Louis fixed the Projector, so let's go!" they ran (but eventually walked rather quickly after hearing a verbal scolding form one of the townspeople) to the Projector.
"I seriously doubt it's fixed though." Gus grumbled, though most of the group ignored him and kept going. Perhaps it was the fact that he and Prescott couldn't fix it or maybe it was that he didn't even see Louis leave his house to fix the machine.
"I don't believe it." They now stood in front of a fully working and efficient Projector, the cartoon's title they would be warped into looping clearly on the screen. Elisea grinned at the expressions of the Gremlins before following after Mickey, who had just jumped through the screen.
Prescott, taking the momentary chance that they had after landing on the other side to finally ask his question. Though he of course made sure to keep it down a few decibels so both his Uncle and Mickey wouldn't hear him and Elisea talk.
"Hey who is your dad?" He whispered to the teen, who just looked at him for a few seconds before smiling coyly, and replying, all the while trying to keep the snickering held under her breath. Mickey and Gus meanwhile, where busy clearing a safe path through the passageway for the two slackers, not really noticing what they were talking about since they were trying to deal with the toon ghosts that were blocking their way.
"What, you can't see the resemblance?" Prescott gave her a weird look as they continued to run through the maze that was the projector pathway, the both of them just narrowly missing the shutters slamming open that were intended to knock them off the platform they were currently standing on.
"I don't get it." He replied simply, jumping up in the air to avoid a falling plate thrown by a nearby ghost. Elisea however, decided against saying anything else, instead just smiling and running ahead of him, she and Mickey once again coming in at a very close tie of who could jump through the projector screen first, this time with Mickey only seconds ahead.
"But really though, who is he?" Prescott continued to whisper as Mickey and Gus had their own conversation not that far away from them. Elisea looked over at the Gremlin and just looked at him. She didn't really think it was that important to Prescott that he should know her dad, then again her father was the leader of wasteland, so that might be a big poignant thing to tell him.
But at the same time, they were currently at the Haunted Mansion, where, if she was correctly informed, the Mad Doctor, a sort of enemy of some kind of her dad's was currently hiding out. Therefore making it rather irresponsible to just go off shouting or even whispering around here that her father happened to be this strange toon's enemy.
"It's not really that important okay." She mumbled back, following the older Gremlin and famous mouse as they walked past multiple tombstones that lay scattered around the front of the mansion. She did briefly look over the building itself, only to shiver a little in nervousness, a strange feeling of anxiety just flourishing through her mind whenever she even thought about the fact that she would eventually have to enter that building.
Unfortunately for her though, Prescott did not seem that willing to just give up without a fight, especially when he really wanted to know something that people, even if unintentionally, were keeping from him. So he kept in badgering her, not noticing the teen's continuously fraying nerves as he spoke.
"I think it should be important, especially if it somehow concerns Mickey." The Gremlin said a little louder than he had intended, causing the two toons in front of them to stop and turn to see what the youngest toons of the group were talking about.
"What are you two up to eh? You've been whispering ever since we got here." Gus floated over to the bashful pair, Prescott being the first to speak up while Elisea tried her best to silence him. Mickey meanwhile, was watching the blonde teen's movements with worry, especially since she seemed more than particularly on edge all of a sudden.
"I was just asking Elisea who her dad was, but she's not telling me." The younger Gremlin said, while Elisea suddenly froze, hearing a slight metal creaking that wasn't there before. She turned back to the actually rather loud pair, and now attempted to quieten them down for a different reason.
"Why not Elisea? After all, your father is quite the celebrity across Wasteland." Gus told the overly freaking out teen as she was still attempting to both get their attention and keep them quite, but so far it had been to no avail as they continued to chat, the metal creaking only growing louder, in fact it got to a point where even Mickey was starting to get concerned.
"I-I really think it best if we don't talk about this right now, especially not here, so could the both of you kind of keep it down?" The teen slightly stammered, but was ignored, of course as Prescott began badgering his Uncle for the answer.
"Well? Who is he? I mean if it's a celebrity than obviously it's somebody I know. So who is it?" Elisea shushed him loudly as his voice grew a few decibels, the metal creaking still apparently nonexistent to the two gremlins. Gus, meanwhile, floated over to Prescott and quickly whispered the answer in his ear. It was at this moment that the metal creaking actually stopped, so Elisea relaxed, thinking everything was just in her imagination.
"OSWALD IS YOUR DAD?!" The Gremlin shouted, causing the blonde teen to nearly jump out of her skin. And while Prescott might in reality, have shouted that at a rather decent level, to Elisea it sounded like he was announcing it for practically every Blot and Beetleworks in the immediate vicinity to hear. None of the group seemed to notice at that moment that the scenery seemed to change then, what was once just soft, creepy hues of green thinner in the night turned to bright, poisonous and dangerous lighting for this terrifying scene.
"Shut up!" The teen shouted back, mortified as she quickly slapped her hand around the Gremlin's mouth. Not that it did much good as by then, it was too late.
Because just at that moment, a glass dome controlled by a metal arm dropped out of the air, and landed over Prescott and Elisea, effectively trapping them. The latter of the pair yelled out in anger as she realized what had happened, trying her best to break the glass with her fists while Mickey and Gus tried to do the same from the other side, their images warped and blurred by the glass. Prescott meanwhile, was just standing there, jaw dropped and staring in a rather comical look of disbelief.
"HAHAHAHA!" The group looked up to the darkened sky, a metal vehicle of some description dropping out of the sky in the same manner as the dome did, the driver of this machine truing to see what he had captured, before grinning. Elisea glared back at the grinning toon in front of her, she didn't exactly need a PHD like this guy's to know who he was.
"The Mad Doctor." The named toon didn't reply to Elisea, instead just inspecting her closely before looking at Prescott, apparently also completely ignoring Mickey and Gus for those few moments.
"She was right before my little Gremlin friend, I would never have seen the resemblance, but no matter, it sounds just like Oswald to take in some snivelling brat!" The Mad Doctor laughed, while Elisea fumed angrily, about to say something that would most likely put her life even more in jeopardy than it already was when Mickey spoke up instead, his voice clearly stressing that he'd cut her off on purpose.
"Let them go Doc!" The famous mouse, stepped forward, his brush held tightly in his hands, ready to use should anything happen. The crazed toon meanwhile, just laughed and turned away, looking back at the teen and Gremlin he had trapped for a few more seconds. Eventually he got bored and merely flicked his hand in a shooing motion, the glass holding cell then flinging into the air and landing somewhere inside the mansion, the sounds of the spring that shot them into the air very well complimented by their shocked yells of surprise and fear.
"There, now go and find them, if you dare. And don't call me Doc!" He growled, his vehicle also shooting him back into the air and into the mansion, leaving the famous mouse and the older Gremlin on their own. Mickey looked over at Gus, clear worry and apprehension of both somehow finding the now missing pair in the haunted crib now plaguing his mind. The Wasteland technician just attempted to wave away his worries in an attempt to keep him focused on the road ahead.
"I'm sure they'll be fine when we find them Mickey, which we most assuredly will." With that, the pair quickly ran to the front door of the Mansion, ready to start their quest.
"This is your entire fault." Prescott sighed as Elisea reminded him of this fact for the umpteenth time, the teen pacing angrily around as much room as the dome prison would allow, taking a few seconds to pause and practically wither the Gremlin sitting in front of her with the most anger piercing glares he had ever seen for quite a long time.
"I don't see why you're so angry. We just have to wait here until Mickey and Gus come and get us out." He looks away from the teen since he knows the knife sharp glare would have heightened in its intensity. Elisea felt her fist shake a little in anger, the knuckles turning white form the tightened grip.
"You don't get it. We might not be saved, we could never be found. And even then, if we are saved, I will never be able to hear the end of this from my family." She hissed, pacing faster and faster as she spoke, her little speech not yet done while Prescott seemed to be trying his best not to look to guilty.
"I came here; I left the mountain to prove something. I wasn't just running away, I wanted to prove something to my dad. He thought I was incapable of taking care of myself, of defending myself even though he knew damn well I could. I ran off to prove that I can, that I'm not just some damsel in distress that needs to be taken care of." The Gremlin continued to listen to Elisea's speech, a sudden understanding of her hatred of being called a princess, she didn't want to be seen like someone who was incapable of taking care of herself, like princesses usually were.
"And now, he'll always feel that way. As soon as he hears about this, I will never be allowed to leave that mountain; I will never be trusted again. And it's all your fault." Elisea looked away from him then, glaring hatefully at the reflective glass, looking out into the darkness beyond. Her forehead was now lightly touching the glass, her breath eventually evening out into a calm state.
"When this is over, I don't want to see you again. Just, don't talk to me." She mumbled unhappily, allowing herself to finally sit on the ground, her back still facing the Gremlin, who was now in the process of digging himself a deeper and deeper hole of self pity.
They didn't speak again for a long time, but there was by no means any silence following their conversation. The mansion was still creaking, cracking and moaning all around them, the two toons at first to drawn in on their conversation to notice this at first. But now that they were sitting quietly, Prescott was now starting to freak out from all the noises.
"What was that?" He muttered fearfully, but Elisea said nothing, still glaring intently at the glass dome keeping her in this place. The noises continued, relentless to the Gremlin's emotional state, which was seemingly coming closer to a snapping point. A good sign of this firstly being his actual mental debate on whether or not he should just try to break the glass with anything he had on hand. And he actually did for a little while, though he did eventually get a headache after bashing his head against the wall so many times.
Elisea ignored him, and was actually, not that she'd ever admit it, starting to fall asleep, the emotional turmoil she put herself through earlier actually draining her of energy. She slowly closed her eyes, the cool feeling of the glass certainly not helping her to stay awake as she drifted off.
Sorry I took so long to update, but here you go. please review, constructive criticism always welcome.
