The fabricator is nice, but it has been too long for Mick since he last knocked a security guard unconscious outside of a locker room and stole his clothes. They might have lucked out with this piece; the demon isn't here yet, it's hidden close to not only one of the very few places in Disney World where you can park an RV, but also a place they would likely be sneaking into anyway, and as previously stated, he gets to knock a security guard out. It's the perfect mission.

"Ok," Sara says, she and the other girls coming out of the woman's locker room in their own liberated uniforms. "Found a map in there, the beach should be just on the other side of those trees. This whole place literally spans thousands of acres, and we somehow managed to end up in a spot where we only have to walk 20 yards so if we could not complicate things that would be great."

"Relax Boss, we'll be fine."

Sara looks a little reassured by that, not much but a little, and that's more than he can say for the other two.

"Yeah… Somehow we aren't the ones I'm worried about." New Girl comments, obviously referring to the rest of the team. Boss rolls her eyes and starts out walking, so they all follow.

"I told them all to stay on the resort." She says, "We can't have them going too far. Ray wasn't thrilled but I think he wanted to see the castle more than Nora did. Hopefully she'll convince him to stay here and, I don't know, ride a horse or something."

A part of Mick does feel for Haircut. They're here in what's been labeled the happiest place on Earth, and he is most certainly the happiest person on Earth, and he can't even go anywhere. The resort they're at is one of those nature themed ones, so hopefully Sara's right and he'll find some pony rides or somethin'.

"As for John," she continues, "He's too busy moping; said he'd keep watch at the RV."

Well, hopefully the place won't be up in flames when they get back.

The resort's beach is pretty small, it isn't too hard to find the dock and stealing a boat is even easier. They might not have even needed to steal the uniforms but he isn't complaining.

This shouldn't be this easy. When Pretty called and said the piece is hidden in Disney World of all places that'd been enough to have Mick thinking this was going to be difficult. But when Pretty got to the part about it's exact location, buried in an old pool on Discovery Island, the abandoned part of Disney World, and he had been pretty sure getting there would be damn near impossible. The fact that so far that isn't looking to be the case… it doesn't sit well with him.

"So what's the plan?" He asks, they're almost halfway across the lake now and well out of the resort property; if anyone were going to try and stop them they would've done it by now.

"According to the tracker Neron is in Disney. Ava's working on pinpointing exactly where, but considering we could only track his car we might not be able to pinpoint him." Sara answers and Mick knows better than to touch that with a ten-foot poll.

"You two still talking?" But apparently Charlie doesn't.

He and Zari both give her a look, and while Boss doesn't exactly look thrilled with Charlie's words she shrugs them off.

"We have a job to do." She says, and so that's that.

The rest of the ride to the island passes by quietly enough, still looking easy, until they really get closer and Mick realizes he can't see where he's supposed to dock this boat.

"Uh…" He drawls out, looking at Sara who is already scowling.

"Hurricanes must have taken out the dock." She growls, "Get us as close as you can, from there we'll have to kill the motor and get out and push."

"Well, lovely day for a swim." Charlie comments while Mick follows the orders.

He manages to get them in close enough that they're barely waste deep in the water when they have to hop out of the boat, though with all the splashing involved he almost doesn't know why he bothered.

They push the boat up onto the shore bank, the sand being enough to secure it.

"Ok, so now what?" Zari asks.

"Now?" Sara echoes, her voice a little more on the sarcastic side. "We hike."


Ray thought he didn't break rules, but as of late he's starting to figure out that when Nora Darhk is involved that mindset goes out the window. The two of them have gotten on a shuttle to Magic Kingdom after promising John they'll be back long before the others return. He dismissively lit up a cigarette and waved them goodbye, so hopefully that means he isn't going to contact Sara and tattle.

"Ray, we really don't have to do this." Nora whispers, leaning into his side. She's seemed a little on the anxious side ever since they got on the shuttle. "I'm still on thin ice with this parole."

Ah.

"Relax." He tells her as comfortingly as he can, taking her hand in his and squeezing lightly. "Sara, Mick, Charlie, and Z have Discovery Island covered, and it'll probably take them all day. Depending on lines we'll probably only have time for a few rides, but I promise you we'll be back before they even know we left."

She groans through a closed mouth, looking away and taking back her hand so that she can wring it together with her other one.

"Hey," he whispers firmly, glad when he gets her attention back. "Look, if you really don't want to go to Magic Kingdom we can stay on this bus and go right back to the resort, no problem. I just thought there might be stuff here you'd want to see."

"And that's sweet Ray." She beams at him, taking a deep breath through her smile. "Ok, a few rides."

He beams back at her; it's obvious that something is still bothering her, but they're ok for now. Maybe a day in the park will get her mind off whatever it is.


Zari has been to a lot of strange and dangerous places throughout her life, if most of those came before or after the Waverider is hard to say, but hiking for hours through an abandoned island theme park is definitely near the top of the list in terms of overall creepiness.

On one hand it's hard to believe this place was ever a tourist attraction of any kind. All the paths are beyond the point of overgrown; the buildings are far, few between, and falling apart. There's even a single bike wheel leaning up against some hunk of metal that looks like it was blown off some sort of attraction thanks to a hurricane. There are nets, or pieces of nets anyway, strung up in the tops of some of the trees.

The fact that they're looking for an abandoned alligator pool doesn't make this any less unnerving, and nor does it help when they finally find said location.

"Isn't this pool supposed to be dried up?" Mick asks, because according to the map (they may not have time travel, but the Internet does have pictures from 1995) they're in the right spot. Only the wall that once separated the alligators from the lake on the other side isn't.

Sara growls as she tears her eyes away from the map.

"Damn wall must have crumbled."

"Great," Zari finds herself saying, because the piece is supposedly embedded in the concrete make-up of the pool, but if it's all crumbled and eroded away… "So the piece that we thought was at the bottom of a dried up pool, is now at the bottom of a very functional lake.

Sara nods, sighing along with the action.

"So what now?" Mick asks, "Call Haircut?"
"No," Zari denies, folding her arms over her chest and beginning to pace. "His suit was in his pocket when your little dragon friend crashed the Waverider, he still hasn't fixed it."

She notes Charlie giving her an odd look at that, and Sara just sighing with outright misery.

"Great," they're Captain mutters. "Just great. We finally beat Neron to a piece, and we have no way to get to it."

Charlie's face has now shifted from curious to thoughtful, a small smile spreading across her features as she eyes the high water not even ten feet away from them.

"Maybe not." She says, her grin now down right mischievous.

Zari does not like it when she gets that look.

"I still have trace amounts of my powers." She says as her only explanation before she screws her eyes shut in what looks like a very painful expression, and it isn't long after that a few little slits open up on either side of her neck.

"Gills, nice." Sara approves, but Zari can't help but thinking back to the last time Charlie tried using her powers and posed as John to fool her; the way she exhaled so loudly when she gave up and had to lean on the table for support, swearing she would never be doing that again.

"How long can you hold that?" She asks, because sure this is a much lower scale transformation, and she doesn't actually know how long she had held John's form, but…

"Long enough to find the piece." Charlie promises, inching ever closer to the riverbank. "But I really should get started."

"Be careful." Sara warns, "And make sure you come up for air if you need it."

Charlie nods, and without another second's delay she jumps into the lake and disappears under the water, leaving an uneasy pit to settle in Zari's stomach.


There is nothing that Nora would like to do more right now than to smack her head harshly against the nearest wall, except for maybe enjoy Disney World like a normal person but that isn't looking like it's going to happen either. She and Ray have agreed that they can't take too long here; they do have to be back at the RV before those who went saucer hunting. He thinks that's the only thing freaking her out, considering listening to orders is a big part of her parole.

If only it were that simple.

She can't believe she is having this problem in the first place, or that it's SO bad. Ray keeps trying to distract her as they stand in line for Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, one of the rides that had a reasonably short line, by pointing out all the cool little things to look at along the way.

She could swear she is going to be sick.

She really does feel bad, and not just physically. Ray keeps asking her what's wrong and if she wants to leave right now, he'll call an Uber or a cab or something back to the resort no problem. It's sweet, and a part of her REALLY does want to leave and go back to sitting on the RV with John. But another part of her wants to stick it out. She wants to stay. She wants to for once in her life have fun like a normal person and not let her long list of issues get in the way.

She manages to survive the rest of the line and the ride is fun, getting off she's almost forgotten her anxiety, but then they're halfway to the next attraction and she's starting to panic again.

Damn it.

"Nora?" Ray asks, and she knows her hand in his has gone cold and clammy but out of pride she's been refusing to reclaim it.

"Yeah?" She asks, a poor attempt to play dumb that he clearly sees right through.

"Are you sure parole is the only thing you're worried about?"

She closes her eyes with a sigh, maybe if she talks about it.

She leads him over to the side of the walkway, away from the crowd, and focuses her eyes intently on something past him.

"Fifth grade was the last grade I finished, before my life went to shit." She says, finding the courage somewhere in the feeling of his eyes on her to look at him. "I did a research report on Disney World that year."

He chuckles, he is still obviously worried, but he does always love when she gives him insight into her life before Mallus.

"Did you know Walt Disney designed this place so you wouldn't be able to see the outside world from the inside?" She asks and Ray grins for a moment, probably amused she's remembered this obscure fact all these years, before the realization clicks and he starts looking around, apparently needing to confirm what she's said, and then he looks at her with something akin to horror.

"So… we're in Disney World but… to you… this is basically…"

"One big cell," she says in unison with him. "Yeah. Except this is a cell where everything is bright, and happy, and perfect, and somehow that's worse because-"

"Because you're waiting for the other shoe to drop."

"Yeah."

That hangs awkwardly in the air for a minute or two, talk about a buzz kill.

"Oh man," Ray sighs, "Nora I'm sorry. I-"

"No," she interrupts him, leaning forward and taking his hands desperately in hers. "It's ok, I didn't even think of it that way until we got here, and now I can't stop."

"Ok," he says, giving her hand a light squeeze. "Ok, come on, let's get you out of here."

"No." She says firmly, planting her heels into the ground even though he isn't trying hard to tug her anywhere.

"Not yet. Just… one more ride. Any ride. I… I want to stay. Please."

He looks hesitant; he knows that the longer she stays here the more she is going to unravel.

"Ok," he eventually agrees, and a big smile breaks out over her face. "Ok, one more ride, not too long of a line, and if at any point you change your mind we're gone."

She nods in agreement, she can accept those terms.


She can do this. She can do this. She just has to maintain her powers for long enough to find this blasted piece of saucer.

The only problem is, she has no idea what she's looking for and it's getting harder to breathe. She can feel her lungs fill with water every few seconds, choking her, and she has to force the gills back. She needs to hurry up, needs to find this piece, she needs to-

She can't breathe.

There's something pressing down hard on either side of her neck, not strangling herself per-say but covering her gills and this time she lets them retract but it doesn't do her any good. She's choking on water and now a lack of oxygen. She thrashes against whatever it is suffocating her, a heavy weight on her back, but it just clamps on tighter, and she's choking now, water filling her lungs, and, and, an…


Charlie has been gone too long.

Zari is pacing along the riverbank, Sara doing the same, and Mick is sitting on a fallen tree. Charlie went under over an hour ago and she still hasn't come up for air even once.

"She's probably downstream by now," Sara tries to rationalize, "Somewhere where if she comes up we won't see her."

She's probably right, but Zari can't stop pacing and worrying. She should've been back by now. She doesn't want to think about how she could be literally be anywhere under the water, how that piece could be anywhere. All she can think is that it's been too long and that last time Charlie used her powers it clearly physically hurt her, she could barely move to stand up.

But it's fine. It has to be fine. It's Charlie; she's too damn stubborn to kill.

So why is she still this worried?

She continues to wonder that right up until she gets her answer, when someone who very clearly isn't Charlie comes rising out of the water.

"The Legends." This man chuckles almost maliciously, in an eerily calm voice that serves as enough to announce his identity.

Neron.

"I've been looking forward to-"

Zari doesn't hear the rest. She's already off, charging at the river and diving beneath its surface to find Charlie.