Chapter 10: The Keepers

Helper used her feet to launch herself from the tower towards the hub. She was going to crash into the teen, but one look at him made her think otherwise. When she was in range, she rolled in the air, hooking up her wings as she did so, and landed perfectly in a crouch between Mickey and the mysterious teen. She took a moment to examine Mickey, then stood and turned around to face the teen who was still wounded on the ground.

"Who are you?" The teen asked. He was visibly in pain and terrified by her sudden appearance. Despite all that, he met her gaze evenly, his rich green eyes locked with her black ones.

"Me?" She asked softly "I am the Helper of the Kingdom. And who might you be?"

There was no bow or friendly smile this time. She tilted her head, analyzing this new stranger and awaited his response. As much as this person was hurt, he was still a stranger and a non-toon stranger at that. Not only that, but something came over her with Maleficent's reappearance; she brainwashed Benny, (and possibly Louis too) she tried to hurt these kids (stranger or not, Helper would not let that stand) and she had hurt the Mouse, Oswald's half brother, the leader of the Kingdom! On top of all that there was the threat she made to Oswald earlier, the many crimes that she had committed in the Kingdom in general, and Helper's own long, hideous imprisonment, a score which she intended to settle sooner or later.

All the non-toon did was state at her, his face was unreadable. She took a deep breath and noticed that her hands were shaking violently. She looked down at her hands and tried to calm herself.

"Finn"

"Huh?" She looked up from her hands to the conscious teen in the crater

"My name. It's Finn Whitman."

"Oh, well...it's nice to meet you, Finn" I suppose she thought privately.

She still didn't know if they were enemies, but if Maleficent wanted them dead, they couldn't be all that bad, could they? Plus, that little fact made Helper want to protect them all the more. Suddenly, she remembered the characters behind her.

"Gus!" She called out suddenly, startling Finn.

There was a small flash of light and a whirlwind of miniature colored spheres, then one of the pilots appeared. He was much taller now, about two feet tall, and his feet were fluttering keeping him hovering above the ground. He had olive-green skin, red coveralls, and unlike the others, a bushy white mustache and a brown bowler hat stuck on one horn.

"Yes? What is it Helper?" He asked in a crisp British accent.

"Gus, could you and your crew keep an eye on these people. I have to get the Mouse someplace safe..." She trailed off.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of things around here." Gus said patting her shoulder.

"Thanks, Gus." She looked over her shoulder at one flight teams, which was braking out in a fight "You sure the fairies and the gremlins can work together much longer?"

"I-I'm sure it will be fine" Gus said with less confidence.

There was a jingling sound to their left. Helper turned to see a very disgruntled Tinkerbell hovering by her shoulder, chiming away a mile a minute.

"Yes, I see you...the fairies are just as import and as the gremlins..." Helper responded to her bell-like speech "...I don't always go to them first!...now your just saying that to be difficult!...they are not!"

"If I may intrude, Miss Bell, the gremlins no longer need your help, as we are quite capable of the task ourselves, thank you" Gus said, uncharacteristically sharp.

"Are you sure, Gus? They could be a handful." Helper asked, hoping that he would get the hint.

"No, we're quite...*oof* "Helper elbowed him in the ribs "...well I suppose... We could use some help" Gus said grumpily.

"Great. I'll leave you two here. If you need anything, I should be in ToonTown with Oswald and Miss Mouse. Donald might be there too." She turned and looked at the teen once more. "And make sure him and his friends are comfortable, alright?" She added.

She turned around and very gently picked up Mickey. With one final look at the small group, she launched herself into the air and headed straight for ToonTown.

Gus watched as Helper and Mickey disappeared over the castle walls. With a sigh, he turned to Tinkerbell. The fairies and the gremlins rarely get along; in fact, they were about to go to war if Helper hadn't intervened. With her help, they had formed some sort of pact and successfully constructed the Disney Air Force (used in emergencies only) Despite all that, there was still tension between the two toon groups.

"Well Miss Bell, I think we should gather the troop?" Gus asked, awkwardly

"I guess..." Tink said, rather icily

In a few moments, Gus shrank back down to five inches and all of the toons gathered in a loose circle. Seven gremlins and seven fairies stood in front of the non-toon group, shuffling uncomfortably. Each flight team went to a teen, which meant that Gus and Tinkerbell accompanied Finn. Finn was painfully sitting up when Gus and Tink walked up to him.

"Hello," Gus said as he approached Finn "I am Gremlin Gus and this is my...associate, Miss Tinkerbell." Gus had a hard time figuring out a proper word for their uncomfortable relationship.

"Um...hi?" Finn was unsure how to react.

Finn knew Tink (she was the second official mascot aside from Mickey) but he had never seen anything like Gus before. The only gremlins that he's ever here about were the little furry monsters that had sharp teeth and lived in dark forests; Gus looked more like a tiny engineer (besides the horns and skin color). Tink was 'speaking' but to Finn, it sounded more like bells and he couldn't understand any of it.

"I see you don't understand the fairies' language" Gus summed from Finn's confused look. "Don't worry, I'll translate for you."

This created a massive outburst on Tinkerbell's side.

"Fine, if you don't trust me to translate 'correctly', how will he know what you are saying?" Gus asked her. She thought about this then responded again. "Alright." Gus turned to Finn "Miss Bell suggests that we listen to you, that way we will not do 'too much' talking."

"Um, Ok then...I'm Finn, a member of the Kingdom Keepers. We're a... I guess an organization. We were set up by Wayne Kresky. He's an Imagineer...ever heard of him?"

Gus looked up in thought and taped his chin. Tink frowned and tugged her bangs. The two looked at each other, shrugged, and shook their heads at Finn.

"Oh...well," he cleared his throat uncomfortable "We're DHIs and were here to help stop the Overtakers." He said confidently.

"Overtakes?" Gus asked. Tink tilted her head and chimed, probably asking the same question.

"You know, a group of only the most famous villains in the Kingdom..."

At this, Gus and Tink looked at each other with worried expressions.

"Uh...Helper won't be pleased to hear that." Gus told Finn "You see, no one knows why, but she is determined to destroy the L.V. That's the League of Villains as some of the characters here them call them. Also...she gets...touchy if someone else tries to help..." He shifted on his feet and Tink started pulling on her bangs again.

"L.V. huh?" That was all Finn said, but he was thinking many questions at once. What's she hiding? What's this strong obsession of hers? Can she be trusted?

A/N: I'd like to thank all of the people who wrote compliments; it's nice to know that you like the story so far :) Again, this story is still open to requests, comments, and suggestions! Some clarification...

- in Kingdom Keepers, the group of villains are the same, but the Keepers call them the Overtakers.
- in the Pixie Hollow books, Tinkerbell pulls on her bangs as a nervous habit a lot
- in the book The Gremlins, (Ronald Dahl) the gremlins are small and have many tools, but in the Epic Mickey series, they are about two feet tall, they hover, and can teleport.