Chapter Thirteen: Every Story Needs an Epic Jet Ski Fight

Author's Note: FINALLY! This chapter took me almost two hours to write! Why, I don't know.

To answer some of your questions, yes, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was either lost and bought by someone else. However, in 2006 WDC won the rights to him again. That's why they were able to create Epic Mickey.

Warning: There is an awful lot of yelling in this chapter

"Time to wake up, Sleeping Beauty."

Finn cringed. Why? I hate waking up early in the morning too, but something about his reaction didn't seem right to me. Then again, didn't he mention something about Maleficent?

"So, did you cross over last night?" I asked, staring at the empty street. We were the same place as yesterday, the same street in this freaky 'Distopiania' place. Finn was lying down on a bench by the supermarket, while I stood in front of him, wishing he would get to the point and wake up. I wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.

"No." Finn said. "I guess Wayne must have stopped us. I wonder if he knows what's going on."

"Doubt it." I commented. "How would he? None us know how to contact him, and everyone else on the ship thinks everything's fine."

Finn sat up and looked around the street.

"Where'd all those people go?" He asked me. Or, maybe it was a rhetorical question. After all, how would I know? I shrugged in response.

"Does it really matter? Let's just go! There has to be an exit around here somewhere." I said. Finn looked at me as if I were from another planet. Why do people always do that? Yes, I know I'm a total freak; don't people have the decency to at least pretend I'm normal?

"Holly, what about everyone else?" Finn asked.

"What about everyone else?" I asked in return, walking towards the end of the street.

"You said they were brainwashed. We can't just leave them here." Finn said. I turned around and looked at him incredulously.

"Of course we can! They're just going to hold us back, and we've only got today and three more days to get back on the ship and back to Florida." I answered, raising my voice.

"But it's not fair—"

"Life's not fair!" I argued. "These are random people, not anyone we know. They wouldn't do the same for us, so why bother?"

"But we have to—" Finn started, but I cut him off again.

"Look, I know your type. You're the one who's always playing hero, always trying to save everyone. I hate to break it to you, but not everyone can be saved. So why bother?" I asked him. "You think that being nice and doing good things will help you in life, but it won't. People don't care about others. Not nowadays, at least. Now they label you and analyze you, thinking they know everything about you just from how you look. They think anyone and everyone who isn't a carbon copy of them and their stupid posse is a freak, and needs to be ostracized and bullied for it. The people here, brainwashed or otherwise, don't care about you. We don't have time to bother with them, and even if we did, there's no point. People have a habit of stabbing in the back the ones that trust them the most."

Finn stared at me, mouth open wide, for what felt live an eternity (but was probably only a minute or two). Then, he replied.

"I don't know what happened to make you feel that way, but I'm going to figure out how to stop this. If you don't want to, then you can find a way out of here by yourself."

He walked away, past the cinema, onto a dirt path through the trees that I hadn't seen before. I watched him go, farther and farther away, until he was a speck the size of an ant. I sighed, cursing at myself.

God, Holly, why did you have to say that? Stop complaining about being alone if you're just going to scare everyone off.

I wiped my eyes and looked at the clock nearby. It was only six in the morning; I didn't need to leave just yet. I lay down on the bench and closed my eyes. I had been restless all night, and hadn't gotten any sleep. I quickly drifted off, into dreams about toy soldiers, snow globes and blue birds…

I screamed at the top of my lungs, my feet pounding on the brick path bellow me. It was truly amazing how all of this was set up, having not just towns, but a large city all within the island somehow. There had been small apartments set up for the (basically) imprisoned guests, which they stayed in for an exact amount of time each night, before going out and working on the quickly forming world. The adults built, and the teenagers arranged the furniture and other aesthetics, while the younger children went to "school", where they were taught lies about the world. It was horrible, yet miraculous, but running for my life didn't give me much time to dwell on that.

I had been running from them for thirty minutes straight, ever since they woke me up at nine and realized I who I was. It turns out that "Miss Alice" had been on the lookout for me, ever since those idiot pirates told her I was out of my hiding place. I was glad to be out of there, but why did I have to run so much?

There were five of them total: three giant blue birds, one snowman, and one toy soldier. They were all from Pixar shorts, the ones shown in a theater right before a feature film. Guess they were feeling left out as well.

From what I heard, the birds would supervise the guests' work, while the other two guided any new guests. However, no new people seemed to be coming. Whoever had let us got off (though they obviously hadn't meant to) wasn't steering the ship anymore. Oswald (some cartoon character from the 1920s that WDC recently got the rights back from) was the captain now, and apparently, no one had taught him how to dock. Go figure.

Anyway, the birds had stayed in their little town center, but Snowdude and Crash-Symbols Man decided to chase me. Where to, I don't know.

CRASH! CRASH!

"Will you stop that?" I yelled back at Crash-Symbols Man. Since they hadn't been given voices in their shorts, they couldn't speak. So instead of yelling at me, the Tin Toy crash his symbols, banged his drum, and played his accordion every five seconds. It was annoying, but I guess that was the point.

After a few more minutes—I had stopped screaming at this point, so I wouldn't lose my voice—the brick path ended to form a roundabout. I ran straight forward, dodging the mindless drones in my way. In front of me was a road, with a warning sign near it that read: DO NOT CROSS WITHOUT PERMISSION. I ignored it, and started running on the road. It was tiled with hard, jet-black stones—either marble or granite—and led towards a black and purple castle in the distance.

"Hey! You can't go there!" A man's voice bellowed at me. I stopped in my tracks and stared at the brainwashed person. So they were capable of speaking? I needed to tell Finn that, if I ever saw him on the island again. I looked at Snowdude and Crash-Symbols Man, who seemed to be in deep conversation. Seeing as they couldn't talk, Snowdude mimed stuff and Crash-Symbols Man beat his drum. I guess they were debating whether or not to follow me. It seems that people really took the 'you must have permission' warnings seriously. I walked along the black road, wondering what happened to the people that didn't follow the rules.

The castle was beautiful. It had a Victorian feel to it, except that all but the windows and doors were made of large black and Tyrian purple crystals. It wasn't incredibly large, probably about the size of the Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland. It was surrounded by a moat of dark green water. The moat was huge compared the building in the middle of it, and would take awhile to cross, even by a boat. There was no dock by the road or the entrance to the Castle; the only way to enter the building was to climb the steps in front of it.

I squinted at two cerulean two-person jet skis that someone had put by lake. That must be how people get into the castle. A brunette teenager was examining the jet skis. I panicked, thinking it was another Overtaker. Thankfully, that wasn't the case.

"Finn!"

Finn looked at me.

"When did you get here?" He asked in surprise.

"Not pleased to see me?" I asked him. "Well, get over it, because I'm coming with you."

"You are?" He asked quizzically. I nodded.

"It's better if we stay together. Plus, we've got three days; we can figure out how to turn the other people back to normal."

"Oh, really?" He responded skeptically. "And you don't think they're going to— what did you call it? —'stab you in the back'?" I frowned.

"Look, I was in a bad mood this morning. I hadn't gotten any sleep last night and it made me cranky. People at school are really mean to me, and it just reminded me of that for some reason." I explained.

"Well, I know how it feels to be bullied." Finn told me. "Do need to rest?" He asked as an afterthought. I shook my head.

"Nah, I'm fine. I napped for about three hours after you left. Would've been longer if the Pixar brigade hadn't woken me up and started chasing me." I replied slightly irritated.

"Who?"

"Oh, these characters from some of the Pixar shorts." I answered. "You know, Knick Knacks and Tin Toy. Pretty obnoxious, to be honest."

"Are they still following you?" Finn asked in concern.

As if to answer, there was a loud crash behind us. It seemed Snowdude and Crash-Symbols Man had after all.

"Quick!" Finn told me. He picked up and carried one of the jet skis into the water. He climbed on it and looked at me anxiously.

"Come on!"

"No way."

"Get on! Now!"

The Pixar characters were getting closer.

"Look, if one of the jet skis is turned on, the other one is also. If one is turned off, so is the second." Finn explained hurriedly.

"So?"

"So, if we use this, the other one will start working. This will make it easy for them to follow us."

"So?"

"If we get to the Castle first, we'll have to turn off the Jet Ski, leaving them stranded in the middle of the lake. But if they get there first—"

"—We'll be stranded. Got it."

I looked at the OTs, who were only a few feet away. I needed to get on, but I was scared. What if I fell in? I hadn't swum in years.

"Holly!"

I climbed onto the Jet Ski, wrapped my arms tightly around Finn's waist (something that made me feel incredibly awkward), fully aware of how stupid of an idea it was.

The Jet Ski roared to life, zooming through the water quickly and hectically. Water towered over us on both sides, splashing me in the face, making it hard to see. I tighten me grip on Finn, afraid that if I didn't, I would fall into the water and be left to drown.

I heard a faint drum beat behind me. Cautiously, I turned my head around and saw the Pixar Brigade climb onto their Jet Ski. They did it rather awkwardly, since the Tin Toy was large and the Jet Ski was already moving. The Snowman hit a button and both of our jet skis stopped.

"What happened?" Finn asked.

"They turned it off." I answered, but by the time I had finished, the Jet Ski had started again. We continued to gain speed, and the Pixar Brigade was far behind us. It looked like the odds were finally in my favor.

That is, until someone started throwing sticks at me.

One of the Pixar characters—which one, I don't know—had gotten sea plants from the lake and were throwing them in my hair. I turned my head to see which one it was, but this ended up being a bad idea, since I got seaweed covering my eyes. I shook my head violently in attempt to get it off me. I was still afraid to let go.

Since that (obviously) wasn't working, I carefully pried my hands from Finn's waist and grabbed the plants. I yanked them off my face and threw them into the water. One piece of seaweed got stuck on my hand, and I shook it off, involuntarily leaning towards the water. The Jet Ski hit something—a rock, I presume—and Finn and jumped up from our seats.

I plunged, head first, into the water.

Under water, I flailed my arms and legs in a pathetic attempt at the Doggie Paddle. I did manage to get my head above the water, however. The Pixar Brigade was nearing towards me, the Snowdude's hand extended to his side. Finn, on the other hand, was nowhere to be seen.

I was stuck in a lake and didn't know how to swim. The Overtakers were getting closer by the second. They would capture me, and bring me back to Alice. I don't know what she'd do to me, but it wouldn't be pretty. Finn was too late; he wouldn't be able to save me now. But was he even looking for me? Had he even noticed I was gone?

The Pixar Brigade was closer…

Closer…

Almost there…

Fwonk!

The Jet Ski jerked to a stop, the Crash-Symbols Man slamming into Snowdude, his accordion letting out a noise similar to a dying cat.

I felt myself being pulled up. Finn!

I steadied myself on the Jet Ski, and Finn started it again, this time going slowly.

"You okay?" He asked, worried.

"Yeah." I answered. Freaked out? Totally. Soaked? Unfortunately. Okay? Definitely.

I glanced at the Pixar Brigade. They were going incredibly quickly, whereas we were going at a snail speed. They would pass us soon, and either capture us or abandon us in the lake. We had to go faster.

"Finn, speed up."

"No, Holly."

"Finn, you have to!"

"You're not getting thrown off this again."

"I won't! Just hurry up!"

"Holly, are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. Just go."

"Holly, are you absolutely certain—"

"JUST GO, YOU IDIOT!"

That did it. Finn speed up, and so did the Pixar Brigade. Finn and I were getting farther and farther away from them, and closer and closer to the Castle. It looked like we actually had a chance again.

Once I felt that we weren't in immediate danger, riding on the Jet Ski was kind of fun. True, the water kind of freaked me out, but it wasn't as bad as falling into the lake. The wind blew my hair out of my face and dried me off a bit.

We stopped the Jet Ski at the Castle's steps and climbed off. For a moment, I felt dizzy and off balance. Thankfully, that didn't last too long.

"What should we do with this?" Finn asked me, motioning to the Jet Ski.

"Leave it. We'll need it to get back." I told him, and he nodded. Looking at the lake behind me, he said,

"I'm glad I'm not them."

I glanced at the Pixar Brigade. The two characters were arguing with each other, and Crash-Symbols Man kept beating the drum and crashing the symbols in Snowdude's face. It was a pretty funny sight.

"Hey, can't they just start the Jet Ski again?" I asked Finn. He nodded.

"Yes, but I don't think they've realized that yet."

"Good." I responded.

And with that, we climbed up the steps to castle ahead.

Author's Note: So, this is my favorite chapter so far. What do you think? Reply in a review! I have almost twenty now!

Question: Should the next chapter be at Finn & Holly's POV or the others?