California Adventure had yet to open for the morning and the characters were performing their final checks on the Park. Merida wandered aimlessly and watched them passed by, munching on an apple as she walked. Not because she actually needed to or anything like that. It was just something to do. Something familiar.
She'd made it to the edge of the Pacific Wharf section when a loud honking effectively broke the peace and quiet.
"Comin' through!" someone shouted.
Merida jumped back, bumping against the railing and nearly dropping what was left of her apple as one of the cars came barreling down the street. It took her a second to recognize him as the one named Mater.
"Sorry about that, miss Merida," he said, swerving back around to face her. He then tilted one of his front wheels in a strange sort of way, which she realized was probably meant to be an approximation of a bow.
"Where are you off to in such a hurry?" she asked. While she didn't know what it was yet, she knew why he was in a rush; he obviously wanted it done before the Park opened for the morning. The other characters could easily hide from the guests in plain sight, but apparently it was much harder for the cars.
"I was lookin' for Woody. We've got a problem back in Radiator Springs that needs to be fixed with, y'know, hands."
Before he could speed off again in the direction of Paradise Pier, she quickly spoke again. "Is it something I can help with? I mean, it's not as if I have anything better to do for a while. Not until the Parks open, at least."
Mater squinted his massive eyes at her as he asked, "Can you fix a light?"
"Can you talk me through it?" she replied.
"Shoot, one of us probably can."
"All right." Chucking the apple core into the nearest trash can, she wiped her hands off on her skirt and said, "Lead the way."
She practically had to run to keep up with Mater as he led her around the edge of the Wharf to the next major turn off the street. Beside it was a big rectangular sign that read "Cars Land". On the other side was another long, straight road. This one was lined with dusty looking buildings with big glowing signs. A yellow light hanging about halfway down the street kept blinking lazily. She'd barely stepped onto the street before the air started to ripple around her. As it did, everything went all hot and dry. It was too warm for her normal wool, even compared to the Parks on a normal day. While she walked, Merida changed her clothes to the combination of shirt, short jeans, and boots that she normally wore as a disguise when out amongst the guests.
Partway down the street, Mater started to stop, turning in the direction of one of the buildings. A single car rolled out to meet them.
"Couldn't find Woody?" she asked. And she was definitely a she, judging by the voice. This car had one of the sleeker designs, at least that Merida had seen, painted entirely in soft green and silver.
"I was closer," she explained. "What do you need?"
"Something's up with my sign. We figured we'd get Woody or one of the other toys over here to check it out, but you'll do. Hey, Red!"
An even larger, very boxy car came from the biggest building, the one at the far end of the long street. Judging by his brilliantly red paint, it wasn't hard for Merida to guess how he'd gotten his name. Mater and the green car — who was almost certainly named Flo, based on the sign — explained the situation to him. He then turned around, which forced Merida to retreat several feet to get out of his way. A ladder extended from his back and up the pole of the sign.
"Don't worry, hon," Flo said. "We'll walk you through it."
Merida looked up at the sign high overhead, shielding her eyes against the sunlight as she did. Even with the ladder, it was still going to be a climb, though it was definitely doable.
"Right, then. Let's do this."
After a few minutes of trial and error, Merida got the big light tubes — which she found out were called neon — in Flo's sign to work again. Most of the error came from the other cars that arrived on the scene. It hadn't taken them long to show up after she'd started her climb up the ladder, and every one of them seemed to have their own input on her work. Of course, by the time she climbed back down again, most of them had disappeared again. The few that remained included Red, obviously, along with Flo and the other red car she thought was named Lightning McQueen. Mater had yelled something about seeing her later before disappearing off to who-knew-where.
As Merida finally hopped down from Red's back, and dusted the dirt from her hands and onto her shorts, she said, "I ought to be getting back."
"Why the rush?" Flo asked her.
"Park opens soon, and I want to get back into position before the crowd hits."
McQueen groaned. "Come on. You did something for us, so we need to do something for you. Besides, we've heard you're a little bit of a thrill seeker."
"All right, so?"
"It might not look like it, but there's plenty of cool places to check out around Radiator Springs. You could get a quick tour of them before heading back." When she hesitated, he added, "We'll be back in plenty of time. Besides, all you've got to do is walk back out. Nobody'll notice one more teenager wandering around."
He had a point about that. Especially in a part of the Park that got so crowded so quickly; Cars Land filled up with guests almost as soon as California Adventure opened for the morning. If she were to step out from behind the façade while in disguise as one of them, none of them would either notice or care. With that, she made up her mind, and climbed up onto McQueen's back.
"Hang on!"
With a shriek and a roar, he took off down the street, leaving her to grab whatever she could for a handhold and flatten herself as much as she could.
"To save time, I'm going to pop us back into the Park in a second," he said after a couple minutes of driving.
True to his word, the air gave a shudder a second later, just like it always did when the Park's façade went up or down. When it did, they appeared on the track of one of the attractions. Radiator Springs Racers, she was fairly certain it was called. That was the one that was always so busy.
"That gets us onto the track, and —" The air rippled again and they came out of a tunnel in front of a cascading waterfall. McQueen sped up again and shouted back to her, "Cool, right?"
Merida looked up at the cliff-side towering overhead. The spray from the waterfall mostly evaporated in the hot, dry air by the point it reached her, but she could just barely feel it all the same.
With her eyes still on it, she shouted, "Can we stop here?"
"What was that?"
"I said stop here!"
McQueen came to a halt with an ear-splitting screech that made Merida grit her teeth. Once he'd come to a full stop, or almost had, Merida clambered off again. It apparently didn't take him more than a couple seconds to guess why.
"Hold on a second," he called after her as she climbed up the embankment alongside the road. "Are you seriously going to climb that?"
Pushing her hair back out of her way, Merida looked over her shoulder and said, "I'm a thrill seeker, remember?"
She found a good foothold and started to hoist herself up the side of the rock.
"Careful up there!"
"I'm fine!" And she honestly was. The climb was much easier than the Crone's Tooth. It was much shorter, for one thing. It didn't take long before she finally managed to scramble to the top and got to her feet. Below, the entirety of the desert opened up before her. Radiator Springs itself was a distant series of dark specks against the sea of sandy-brown. A hot, dry wind tugged at her curls and she had to hold them back with a hand as she took it all in.
She couldn't have been at the top for more than five minutes before McQueen shouted up, "Merida, we need you back down here!"
She didn't reply. Instead, she just climbed down the cliff face to meet back up with the car.
"What's going on?" she asked as she slid back down the embankment again and onto the road.
"Apparently, there's someone outside looking for you."
McQueen sounded tense. Merida assumed that response meant one person: Ariel. Not much of a surprise, if she was being honest, but she wasn't exactly looking forward to the fight she knew would inevitably break out if she waited too long to intervene.
She dusted off her hands and said, "I assume it must be about opening time anyway."
"You've still got about twenty minutes, I think."
That would give her enough time to get out and get into position. Fantastic. As she took off, she called back, "Thanks for bringing me out here!"
"Anytime!"
The façade shimmered and fell around her, leaving her on the exterior track of the attraction they'd re-entered from just a little while earlier. A tiny version of the waterfall and bridge she'd just been standing by sat partway up the rock wall behind her. Far below was the pathway she was pretty sure would bring her back to the Park's version of Radiator Springs' main street. With a sigh, she started her climb down over the attraction's track and back onto the main path again.
Rounding a corner ahead led her, as she'd hoped, back onto the main street. Once there, she started to run. There wasn't much time left.
It turned out not to be Ariel standing at the very end of the road after all. Kenai sat there instead, a bear once more, arguing with a silver-blue car. Koda perched up on his shoulders, while her brothers all peeked out from behind him with inquisitive eyes.
As Merida ran up, she just barely made out the car saying, "I don't understand why a Disney character came all the way out here."
"Technically, we're all Disney characters," Kenai pointed out with a sigh.
"Disney, Main Company, whatever. You know what I meant. My point still stands. I thought you were stationed over at Grizzly peak."
"I am, but I heard Merida was back here, and I was told to come look for her. Sorry to intrude on your turf. If you want, I'll just go." The car started to say something else that Merida didn't catch, to which he responded, "Seriously, this isn't worth getting into a fight over. I'm leaving. Just tell her we're looking for her out there when she gets back, okay?"
With that, he started to turn toward the cross street out of that section of the Park. Merida skidded up beside them at that moment, sliding to a stop and shoving back her curls. "I'm here. What's going on?"
Of the characters now staring at her, the car was the quickest to speak, though it wasn't exactly an answer.
"You're back quick," she said.
Merida shrugged. "I heard someone was looking for me, and the Park opens soon anyway, so I figured I might as well head back over here. It was nice meeting you all. If you lot have any more problems, you know where to find me."
The car made an odd sort of movement that she thought might be an approximation of a nod. As she drove away, she called back, "See you around, Merida."
Merida waved after her until the air rippled and she disappeared. Then she turned back to Kenai with a questioning look. It had been a couple days since they'd ended up in the other Park, and she hadn't seen much of him or the boys since then. Not from more than a distance.
"Why were you looking for me?" she asked.
"Actually, it was Ariel that's looking for you." So it was her after all. Kenai wasn't finished, however, and he continued to explain, "She was looking on the other side of the Park, but I heard you'd come over here, so I decided to check."
"I thought we were in a hurry!" Koda shouted. Merida hadn't noticed before, but he and the boys had already made it a fair way down the pathway back in the direction of Grizzly Peak. "Get to the point!"
Kenai groaned and rolled his eyes. "Right. So, Ariel's looking for you, and it sounds like she's got something important to say. Wouldn't tell me what, though. I'd go find her if I were you."
"Wait a moment. We still have a few until opening, so I thought—"
"I've really got to get the boys all back to Grizzly Peak before opening, but I'll probably see you later, okay?"
Before Merida could say anything else, or even do more than wave, the five bears all trotted off. She settled back onto her heels with a small huff. When it was clear that they definitely weren't coming back, she figured there was nothing left to do but try to find Ariel.
She was, as it turned out, easy to find. She was walking back from the direction of the Pier as Merida neared her attraction. To her surprise, she was also dressed in her guest disguise rather than her gown.
Ariel stopped and looked her over with one hand on her hip before saying, "I was hoping to catch you before opening, but it looks like you're already busy."
"I was exploring a bit." It wasn't really a lie. Ariel looked fairly relaxed in that moment, but Merida didn't think it was a good idea to bring up the involvement of other Pixar characters in her morning's escapades. If she didn't already know, there wasn't any point in mentioning it.
Ariel didn't seem to notice the omission as she went on, "Well, I just wanted to let you know that we've all finally settled on where we're meeting for Girls' Night."
"On what?"
"Girls' Night. It's a monthly meet up for the Princesses to come hang out together. Or at least it used to be," Ariel amended with a grimace. "We haven't had one in a while. Things got a little complicated during and after all of the fighting last year, and before that it tended to be kind of … messy. It should be better this time."
Merida got the impression, based on her tone and expression, that the last bit was probably wishful thinking on Ariel's part. She kept it to herself, however.
"Where are we going?" she asked instead.
"Well, we usually take turns hosting, depending on space and who's up for it."
"Are you stalling?"
Ariel blew her hair out of her eyes while pointedly avoiding Merida's gaze. "Of course not. We're meeting tomorrow night at Cindy's new place over in the main Park."
A/N: Sorry for the long wait on this one. Happy new year, everybody!