Mousedom: Dangers & Dragons (part 7)

"I'm beginning to see why Disney royals aren't allowed into Dreamworks regularly," Stephan said with a sigh.

"Really?" Margo asked. "Why's that?"

"Well so far, I've fallen into a force field from fifty feet, burned my arm," he counted off. "Been kidnapped by a family and held ransom for the price of a dragon, then decided that I was going to be kept as a date, and got freed only to now be hanging over a shark pool."

"Oh... Yeah, I can see your point."

It'd be hard not to, at least for the last one since she was hanging there right along with him. Both were hanging from fixtures that looked more like they used to be ceiling lights with the ropes around their wrists tied to where the light bulbs used to go. You didn't have to be a genius to know that these weren't going to hold for long. Stephan was surprised they'd held for an hour already.

"When'd you burn your arm?" she asked cautiously, as though afraid the answer might be while with her family.

Stephan glanced at his right forearm as he thought about it. It had been an interesting problem to keep secret when they'd been taken captive, but luckily he'd only had to roll down his sleeves while they'd been pulled into the Grue family airship to at least hide it. It still stung, and hurt worse than anything he could remember while he'd been tied, but he'd managed to ignore it. For the most part. Now the pain was flaring again.

"Back on Berk," he said. "Toothless—the dragon I was on—tried to fire at your father's airship. I got clipped by the shot."

"Oh...Well," Margo continued after a moment. "Not all of Dreamworks is like this. I hear Far Far Away's really nice."

"Wouldn't know," Stephan breathed, trying to work the rope around his wrists before he lost all feeling in his hands. "I've never been."

"Me either," Margo said, staring down at the shark. "What's Disney like?"

Stephan paused, partially to think on an answer and partially in fear that too much movement would send him to a watery battle. "Its nice," he said finally. "Castles all over the place. Lots of scenery. Talking animals."

"Sounds nice," Margo agreed.

"Yeah, well, I don't get to see much of the empire either," he said, focusing on how to get down again. "I'm usually in classes or following duties or in training."

"Training?" Margo repeated.

"King courses," he said with a grunt as he started swinging his legs. "Military endurance, strategy, negotiation, that sort of thing."

"Oh." She watched him swinging curiously and was about to ask what he was doing when he launched himself into a flip that swung him to sit right atop the tiny base. Her jaw dropped as he quickly was able to work himself loose. Then he twisted himself around so it looked more like he was sitting on a swing and pulled her closer to start working on her ropes.

"What are you? A part-time acrobat?" she asked as one wrist came loose and she quickly took hold of him.

The prince chuckled. "No," he said and grunted as freeing her other wrist made him take on her full weight. "That'd be Prince Frederick's title. Other side of the EPCOT."

"Never heard of him," Margo breathed, not really sure how this position was any better than hanging from rope.

"Yeah, well I doubt you'd heard of me either," he said with a smile as he looked at the room below them.

She smiled in agreement. "Now what?"

"Well," he said slowly, his eyes finding the large orange sofa on a lower landing. "This isn't usually my line, but-do you trust me?"

"You've gotten me this far," Margo said, though there was an anxiety building in her eyes.

His eyes locked on hers. "Okay," he said gently. "I'm going to let you go."

"What?!"

"There's a couch below us to the right a little bit," he explained. "I'm going to get you to that couch."

Falling was not her favorite thing. Actually, heights weren't either anymore and it had been taking every nerve she had to keep from panicking when she found herself hanging over Vector's pet shark. That made it twice that Vector had supplied her with phobias. And what the prince was asking her to do wasn't helping.

"You can do it," Stephan assured her, his large violet eyes preaching their own world of calm. "I promise-nothing more than bruises."

"Great," she squeaked.

"Or we can see how long this light takes to break," he offered. "Either way, we won't be up here much longer."

Forcing herself to take a deep breath, Margo shakily nodded. "Okay."

Stephan gave her an encouraging smile, then began to swing them on the lamp. Once. Twice... On the third swing, he let her go and Margo did her best not to scream in the seconds that might as well have been hours it took to land on the on the couch with a bounce and roll that sent her into the armrest.

High up above her, still swinging with the force, Stephan smiled down at her, clearly pleased that she did so well. Margo smiled back, but felt like she was never going to stop shaking. Moments later with a loud thud or two, Prince Stephan rolled off the couch and onto the floor near her feet.

A moment passed of him just blinking at the ceiling over head, then the prince let out a breath and a soft groan. "Ow."

"You okay?" Margo asked, looking down at him.

Silently he nodded, working on getting air back into his lungs. It was a feeling he was very well acquainted with, especially when he practiced against Dorian. He was actually more surprised that he'd yet to break a rib.

"So, now what?" the girl asked as Stephan pushed himself up so he was sitting.

He glanced around the room. Of all the places he'd ever been, this was probably the strangest. Everything was stark white, except the couch and a few other things which were bright orange. There were stairs that wrapped half the room, though there wasn't a rail that he could see, and halls that somehow hid with the curvature of the room.

"Find a way out," he said with a shrug. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about this place, would you?"

To his relief, though partial surprise, Margo gave him a lopsided smile. "Actually," she said slowly. "I've been here before. I might be able to get us out."

~~°o°~~

If he'd thought the living room had been strange, the rest of the house took the cake. Not even the places around Future World were this oddly designed. And considering the Robinsons lived in Future World, that was saying something.

Even Margo seemed to find the house obscure as she led him this way and that. Every now and then, they'd hear something—either that Vector guy singing about himself or something like footsteps—that made them jump into a surprising doorway or hall. Stephan was almost sure they were lost when Margo gave a little gasp and spun to look up at him with a grin.

"I remember this part!" she whispered.

He smirked. "Well, lead on."

She bounced a little as she turned back in the direction she wanted to go, which nearly made Stephan laugh. It was almost like she wanted to be out of here faster than he did.

"Just one more turn," Margo mumbled as they raced along. "And—."

"Hey! How did you kids get out?!"

It felt like Stephan could have jumped out of his skin as both he and Margo spun to see Vector, hideous jumpsuit and all, staring at them from back down the hall.

"Run, Margo!" Stephan shouted, giving her a gentle shove. "Run!"

Margo let out a shriek and took off with Stephan quick on her heels.

"Oh no you don't!" Vector shouted after them. Something fired and then splattered against the wall as the two teens ducked around the next corner.

"Its that door!" Margo told Stephan over her shoulder.

He nodded, of course a bright orange door would be the way out. What he wasn't ready for, was a courtyard. But they barely had a second to register how far away the yard's gate was before something whizzed past their heads.

Grabbing hold of her hand, Stephan rushed down the path. They'd almost made it when rapid clicking sounds came from the walls around them. Margo's grip pulled him to a halt and they stared up in shock.

Dozens or maybe hundreds of laser guns lined the tops of the walls, and all of them were aimed at Stephan and Margo.

"Bad day for you, mini Grue," Vector chided, leaning against his doorframe as he twirled some kind of remote in his hands. "Now you can try to get past my defenses, but... I wouldn't recommend it."

Stephan glared at him, tempted to test him on that. Vector merely smirked at him from behind his thick framed glasses.

~~°o°~~

Hiccup's arms felt like they were going to fall off.

Getting away from the psychos' house had been a trick in itself, and then he was pretty sure he'd spent the whole night wandering in circles. It was close to dawn when he'd actually made it to the nearest city, which he still didn't know the name of. But at least he'd been able to find a train that got him within half a day's walk to the port.

Then it had just been the trick of getting a kid to lend him this dinky little boat. Not his first choice, by any means, but it was the only thing he could find and for a price he could afford (his whalebone carving knife). The only thing he hadn't fully counted on was how hard it would be to row by himself across the ocean.

He'd rowed with his friends a few times before, like the time they had to help Gobber find the Bone-collector dragon, so he hadn't been entirely hopeless. In fact, he'd managed to get a third of the way there before dawn on his third day of escaping. But by that point he was fighting exhaustion, having only gotten some sleep on the train and a nap on some fishing nets at port while he'd been waiting for anyone to show up.

"Just... just a little longer," he promised himself, fighting (unsuccessfully) the need to yawn. "Then I'll... I'll be in range of... Stormfly!"

The last word had become a shout as an echoing roar came from overhead. He'd never been happier to hear a dragon, or well a dragon that wasn't Toothless.

"Oh thank Odin," he sighed, dropping backwards in the boat with a groan. He sighed and flexed his hands as he heard the flapping wings draw closer. His friends were amazing, this was definitely further out than they'd ever patrolled on other nights. Which instantly made him feel a little guilty, and apprehensive.

That meant Astrid had been worried.

Which could land him a black eye. Or a broken rib. Or both.

Suddenly he was fully awake and not entirely sure if he was going to be functioning enough to keep his promise to go back for Stephan.

"Hiccup!"

It was definitely Stormfly over head, a long with a fairly flustered looking Astrid.

"Down here!" he shouted and pushed back up onto the boat's seat. "Astrid!"

Waving his hands above his head, it wasn't long before scaly claws wrapped around his wrists and hoisted him into the air.

The wind on his face and ruffling his hair was such a welcome feeling, he started wondering how long they'd actually been captive if he missed flying this much. But he didn't have time to dwell on it when they suddenly landed on a Viking ship.

"Hey! You found him!" Snotlout cheered in greeting. "Astrid, I had nothing but faith in you!"

"Stuff it, Snotlout," Astrid snapped, slipping off her dragon to stride towards Hiccup with a dangerous fire in her eyes. "Hiccup! What happened?!"

Instinctively, Hiccup backed up a step—which only made him bump into another dragon. "Uh," he said, glancing to see their four friends watching with interest. "It was that family—That family that tried to take Hookfang. They caught me and Stephan when they tried to grab Toothless—."

He was interrupted by an affectionate growl before the dragon in question nearly knocked him down in greeting. "Hey, buddy!"

"Great, yeah could've figured that one out," Astrid said impatiently. "But what happened?"

Looking back at the blonde and gnawing his lip a little, Hiccup took a deep breath. "They found out Stephan was a prince," he said quickly. "And he helped me get out to find help."

"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Astrid commanded, waving her hands for silence.

"Yeah," Tuffnut said, folding his arms. "Why would he help you?"

"No," Astrid said, giving him a look that told the boy to shut up, then she looked back at Hiccup with a subliminal concern in her eyes. "They know he's a prince?"

Feeling even more stupid, Hiccup gave a sheepish nod.

Astrid stared at him in horror. Clearly she knew the dangers of that as much as Hiccup did, even if their friends seemed to have no idea. Or maybe they just ignored the problems Stephan could be facing.

"This isn't good," she said finally, pinching her chin as she started to pace.

"So?" Snotlout asked, leaning on Hookfang's nose. "We just go to the mainland, get across to wherever these freaks live and get him back."

Ruffnut snorted. "Yeah, if he's still there," she said, rolling her eyes. "They could've sold him to a circus or the Det Com Nation by now."

"Or worse," Fishlegs voiced looking fidgety.

"Yeah, to Warnerstock," Tuffnut agreed.

"They couldn't sell him to Warnerstock, you idiot," Ruffnut said, giving her brother a shove in the head. "We took over most of them ages ago!"

"Well Anime then!" Tuffnut said, shoving her back.

"Guys! Focus!" Astrid ordered. "It doesn't matter, we need to find him."

"Why? He's a prince," Snotlout said. "He can figure out how to get out of it if Hiccup did."

"Because," Astrid growled, looking even more deadly than usual. "He's a Disney prince. If anything happens to him and his dad doesn't see him in Bluthia by Friday, we'll have started an International Incident!"

"And that's bad?" Snotlout asked.

She glared at him, then (without warning, but with speed that Hiccup could only admire in a terrified sort of way) hit him over the head with a club. Sending their strongly built friend to the floor of their ship.

"Any objections to rescuing Stephan?" Astrid asked, lightly patting her club against her hand.

Hiccup and the others exchanged glances, then quickly shook their heads.

"Good," she said with a calming breath, then started towards the helm as the sun became a full circle on the horizon. "Alright, we've got three days to get Stephan and fly him over to Bluthia before Stoic or King Philip know anything's gone wrong. So let's get moving, people! Ruffnut. Tuffnut. Your turn to pull. Get us there fast."

The twins high-fived and moved towards their dragon, snickering at Snotlout as they stepped on him to get across the deck. Hiccup couldn't help smiling as Toothless nudged him again. If there was one thing he could say about his friends, he could count on them to do anything.

Even if they had no idea how to save the prince.

A/N: Well... guess that didn't go well... *dons newscaster's outfit* What will Vector do with his two hostages? Will Hiccup and the others make it to their friends in time? And who will I throw into this ridiculous mash-up next?! Find out next time, here, on DrawnInTwilight's house of insanity! *bats away a line of encroaching plotbunnies* Have a good one everybody!