The Great Disney Adventure III: Heroes and Villains
A Disney story by talking2myself
DISCLAIMER: See Chapter 1.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Yes, it's been a month. I know. I know. It's really unfortunate, but I have been swamped with homework as well as a lot of new other distractions. School is done so I will have more time to write. Thanks for sticking with me.
Chapter. 21 Tests of Loyalty
"He left a NOTE?"
The entire cabin shook as Sophia crumpled the piece of parchment in her fist. She tossed it onto the table where the paper ball rolled a few inches before unfolding. Rob's block handwriting could barely visible amidst the note's wrinkles.
"I'll kill him!" Sophia continued to rant to the women in the cabin. Elizabeth lifted the note, smoothed it on her knee and continued to read it… for the third time that night. Alice was sitting on the edge of her hammock, her head in her hands while Jackie sat next to her patting her back in an awkward comforting gesture. Emma sat on the floor, compass in one hand, she tried to stay out of the way as Sophia paced back and forth. "I'll kill him!" Sophia repeated, "Then, Kelsey will get to meet him in the hereafter and she can kick his butt for stealing her Spirit."
"Sophia, please," Elizabeth sighed, shooting a glance at Emma, "You're not helping the situation."
"We wouldn't have a situation if it weren't for them," Sophia snapped, "They didn't even tell anyone."
"They were right," Elizabeth said quietly, "We would have to split up at some point. Will… Will is probably the most qualified person to go. He'll… he'll take care of Rob."
"So much for our captain," Sophia sighed. Alice stared at the black tops of her shoes.
"I can't believe he left," Alice sighed, "He just left Emma… and me."
"He'll be okay, Alice," Emma piped, "Will's practically a prince. He can make sure nothing bad happens."
"I suppose," Alice murmured.
"He left Barbosa in charge of the negotiations," Elizabeth said, "And until they return… I'm in charge of the crew. Are there any objections?" No one said a thing. "Very well then," Elizabeth sighed, "I suppose that there's very little for us to do apart from continue on the course as we discussed before. We will go consult with Sao Feng and hope for the best. Now." Elizabeth got to her feet, "I believe we all have duties to do."
"I should swab the deck," Sophia said.
"I n-n-need to help patch some of those sails," Jackie said.
"I need to keep Rizzo from eating all the breakfast porridge," Alice sighed.
"I need to stare at the compass until it changes," Emma added, "I'll take my breakfast in my hammock. No calls."
"Eh Ahem," Sophia scowled.
Emma sighed, "Please."
"I'll consider sending you a bowl," Sophia sighed, "Come along. You can carry the bucket."
Emma groaned, but followed Sophia out of the cabin, the compass still stuffed in her pocket. Alice and Jackie pulled their needles out of their apron pockets and slowly began patching up the worn sails. Alice was normally a quick sewer, but today Jackie had two patches completed while she struggled with her first one.
DISNEY ASIA
"How you holding up Will?" Rob turned over his shoulder to glance at Will. The two of them had been flying for hours. The former blacksmith was sitting in the backseat, looking skyward, his knees drawn up to his chest in an effort to keep the contents of his stomach inside his stomach. A faint green hue was spreading across his features.
"I'll be fine as long as I don't look down," Will murmured. Will had ridden on the Spirit so many times with Kelsey. He thought that he would have somehow grown accustomed to the feeling as he flew. No such luck, the vertigo hadn't left him yet. Besides that, Kelsey had flown the vehicle so many times that she was able to keep it steady and avoid turbulence. Riding with Rob was like riding with a teenager just learning how to drive.
"Do we even know where this temple is?" Rob asked, "Singapore?"
Will groaned, pressing a hand to his forehead, focusing on anything was making him feel worse. "Sao Feng is in Singapore," Will said, "The temple… well it's not far from Singapore… at least I don't think it is."
"Think?" Rob cried, "You don't know where we're going?"
"All I have to go off of are a few past conversations with Jack," Will shrugged helplessly, "They don't put these things on maps."
"Great," Rob sighed. The two of them flew along for a few moments. A sudden change in wind caused the vehicle to jolt. Will let out a very unDisneylike word and his hand immediately gripped the side of The Spirit until his knuckles turned white. Rob had initially enjoyed Will's motion sickness as bad karma for trying to escape, but now he felt genuinely sorry for the man.
"Maybe we should land for a little while…"
"I'll be fine," Will insisted, "Just… avoid any turbulance." He buried his face in his hands staring at the floor of The Spirit. "Kelsey won't be happy with me if I ruin her paint job," he muttered under his breath.
Silence resumed. Painful, heavy, uncomfortable silence.
"Okay," Rob finally cried after a while, "I have to ask. What is the deal with you and Elizabeth?"
"There's no deal," Will snapped back quickly.
"Right," Rob muttered. He jerked his hand on the inscription pad causing the vehicle to wobble back and forth.
"Rob!" Will yelped clinging desperately to the sides of the Spirit. "Stop it."
Rob shrugged, "My hand slipped."
"Liar," Will snarled.
"Yeah, lies are dangerous," Rob retorted, "Now you tell the truth or my hand might slip again."
Will glared at Rob. His brows creased and his lips tight together in an angry line. The expression used to be unfamiliar to Rob, but it was starting to look more and more commonplace the more time they spent together.
"Let me put it this way," Will sighed, "What would you do if Alice cheated on you?"
"Did Elizabeth…?" Rob gasped.
"Just answer the question!" Will snapped curtly.
Rob sighed, "For starters… she wouldn't cheat on me. But if she did… well… it would be hard, but I love her. We would find a way to work past it."
"I thought you might say that," Will murmured sadly, "Now. What if Alice cheated on you AND committed some grave crime. Could you still love her?"
Rob struggled to keep his fingers still on the Spirit's hood. "Well… I'm… I'm sure that she could justify it to me. That… that would be really hard. It… it would depend on what she did. And why."
"Okay," Will said with a sad sigh, "Now… What if Alice cheated on you, committed a grave crime and because of said crime, I was killed. Could you find it in your heart to forgive her? After all of that?"
Rob whipped his head around to face Will, "Will… did Elizabeth have something to do with my sister's death?"
Will looked down and actually made eye contact with Rob. For a moment, there was something like fear in Will's eyes. Rob had his answer. He was about to say something else when suddenly The Spirit jolted roughly to one side, flinging Rob over the side. Rob clung to one of the Spirit's fins, his legs dangling in the breeze.
"Rob!" Will cried. Will was still upright since he had such a deathly tight grip on the sides of The Spirit. The Spirit was spiraling into a nosedive with the two men clinging to it like drowning victims cling to a spar of wood.
"I'm fine!" Rob scrambled back over the edge into the backseat. "Hit the inscription pad! Quick!"
Will moved forwards, slapping at the pad with the palm of his hand. The vehicle suddenly jerked upwards roughly.
"GENTLY!" Rob roared.
"I'm trying!" Will snarled. He managed to settle into the driver's seat. He eased his hand over the pad while Rob leaned over the side of the ship.
"Oh that's not good!" Rob murmured. A collection of arrows had struck the side of the Spirit. "There's people shooting at us… not good." The Spirit rocked again, but not as roughly this time. Rob clung to the seat. Arrows had struck again and were sticking out of the hood of the Spirit. "WILL! What are you doing?" Rob growled.
"I don't know!" Will cried, his hand still resting on the pad, "I have no idea how to drive this thing!"
Rob managed to sit upright and snarled, "God! What are you a female driver?"
Will turned around to glare at Rob, "Come again?"
"I'm just resisting the urge to make another eunuch joke," Rob snapped.
Will glared at Rob intensely this time before sharply jerking his hand on the inscription pad. Rob let out a yelp as the entire vehicle flipped over in the air. Rob flew through the air before landing roughly in the back seat. Rob lay there on his stomach, winded and wide-eyed.
"Does the peanut gallery have anything else to say?" Will snapped over his shoulder.
"No, The Peanut Gallery is gonna shut up now," Rob said quickly.
"Good," Will said, "Now hang on, I'm gonna try and lose them… OH MY DISNEY!"
Rob glanced up in horror just to see what Will saw. Coming towards them was what looked like the head of a flaming dragon. Rob realized that it was a Chinese rocket. By some divine miracle, Will managed to swing the entire the vehicle to the left. The rocket mostly missed them, but it clipped one of the fins. The entire vehicle nosedived downwards again. Will and Rob screamed as they clung to the Spirit as it plummeted earthwards, leaving behind a smoking trail like a falling star.
-888-
"YOWCH!" Mim shrieked and hopped backwards as she stepped on a thorn. After spending days trouncing through forests, Mim was a little weary of traveling. The smug chuckle from her traveling companion didn't improve her mood. "You don't have to enjoy it so much," she snarled at the thin cloaked figured.
"Sorry," the figure said, though the voice lacked sincerity.
"Hmmph," Mim grumbled, "I can't believe I'm resorting to this. Asking YOU for help to get into The Thirteen."
"I'm as surprised as you are," the figure said, the rich tenor voice was smooth and silky. Dark, but clear. "I never thought that I would be pleading your case. But you know… politics makes for strange bedfellows."
"None stranger than you," Mim grumbled.
"Hmm," the figure muttered, "If I had a quarter for every time I heard that. And coming from the one with purple hair."
"Bah," Mim grumbled, "If we didn't seem to have a mutual lust for revenge I wouldn't even be talking to you."
"The feeling is mutual," the figure grumbled, "Why are you so nervous?"
"Because this plan is stupid!" Mim snapped, "Utterly stupid! We'll be lucky if they don't kill us on sight!"
"That's why I plan on sending you in first," the figure retorted, "They may be annoyed by you, but I doubt they'll kill you."
"I should turn around right now!" Mim cried, "Do you realize what I'm risking by agreeing to this cockamamie scheme?" The gray cloaked figure pushed aside a large tree branch and continued to make his way forwards, not heeding the purple haired witch. "I mean it!" Mim yelled. Being ignored was rapidly becoming her biggest pet peeve. She would humor the Thirteen, but not her new "partner."
"I know," her partner snapped, "And my schemes are not cockamamie."
"That's debatable," Mim muttered.
"Do you know of any that have failed?" her partner asked mildly, "They have their twists and turns, but in the end…" The figure waved an almost delicate hand.
Mim scowled at the figure, "Disney curse that voice of yours. It's like herding lemmings whenever you talk."
"Nice isn't it?" the figure grinned behind the gray cloaked cowl. "You should hear me when I sing."
"I'll pass," Mim said, "Just keep moving. It's a long way to Hades's lair."
-888-
"So how does that thing work exactly?" Rizzo peered over Emma's shoulder at the compass.
"It shows you your heart's desire," Emma said.
"Wow, really?" Gonzo cried, "Can I try? Let me see! Let me see!"
Emma passed the compass to Gonzo. "Hey!" Rizzo piped, "I asked! I wanted to see it!" Rizzo reached for it.
"No, it's my turn," Gonzo tugged it back.
"Gonzo!" Rizzo scowled.
"Guys," Emma shook her head as the two muppets tugged on the compass, spinning around in a circle. Emma rolled her eyes. "GUYS!"
The two tumbled to the deck and as the compass bounced out of her grip and rolled a short distance away. "Oh come on guys!" Emma groaned. She got to her feet and wandered across the deck.
The compass rolled away as the two muppets scrambled after it with Emma trudging behind them. Alice sat a short distance away, patching the sails and watching the two muppets fumbling for the compass.
"Emma, what…?" Alice asked.
"Those two don't know how to share very well," Emma grumbled.
Alice set down her mending and got to her feet. Gonzo and Rizzo were a short distance away in a dog pile. Rizzo had Gonzo by the nose while Gonzo was trying to tug him off. Alice bent down to pick up the compass.
As she did, another, Unreal hand reached at the same time. "Oh!" Alice jumped backwards and looked up into the sea green eyes of a sandy-haired boy. "I'm sorry," the boy said with a small smile, "This yours?" he handed her the compass.
"Oh. No, thank you," Alice said, "This actually belongs to my friend."
Emma materialized at Alice's shoulder and swiped the compass. "Thank you Alice. HEY! YOU TWO! LET ME TEACH YOU TWO A COUPLE LESSONS ABOUT SHARING!"
The boy chuckled at Emma as she stormed over to untangle the two muppets. "She's a very brave little girl."
"Absolutely fearless," Alice agreed, "It seems to run in their family."
The boy offered his hand. "My name is Jim. Jim Hawkins."
Alice accepted it, "Alice."
Jim smiled at her, "I'm impressed. I've been living with those two for years. I've never been able to get them to listen."
"Emma is a particularly tenacious little girl," Alice smiled.
"Emma Hatter?" Jim asked. Alice nodded.
"Wow," Jim smiled, "A Hatter."
"The Littlest Hatter," Alice said, "Quite a charming girl once you get to know her."
Emma walked past the two of them, buffing her compass on her shirt. "Emma, where's Gonzo and Rizzo?" Alice asked.
"In timeout," Emma muttered. She passed Alice the compass, "I'm going to get some of that porridge you made earlier. Sophia wouldn't bring me any. She said that "mouthy little girls must get their own porridge."
Alice shook her head at the child while Jim tried to stifle his chuckles behind his hand. "She's Captain Hatter's cousin right?"
At the mention of Captain Hatter, her face fell. "Yes. Yes she is."
"I'm sorry," Jim insisted, "Did I hurt you somehow?"
"Oh no," Alice sighed, "The Captain just… left. Left us. Left the ship. Left the crew." Left me.
"Oh," Jim said softly, "That is unfortunate, but I imagine he has some sort of plan."
"Some sort," Alice shrugged sadly.
"Well, he must," Jim said, "Why else would anyone leave a pretty girl like you." Jim smiled at Alice, "I better get to my duties, maybe get Gonzo and Rizzo out of timeout if it pleases bosun Emma. Good day, Alice."
"Of course," Alice said, her lips quirking up in a small smile. The compass in her hand whirled around once before it pointed at Jim's retreating form.