Summary: James is given an email to bring the first Team members in order to meet someone (Part 1 of the 'Wanted For Profit' arc.)
Franchises include: Hotel Transylvania (Owed by Sony Pictures), Despicable Me (owed by Illumination) Sing (owed by illumination), Coco (owed by Pixar), Kung Fu Panda (owed by Dreamworks), The Grinch 2018 (owed by Illumination), and Scooby Doo (owed by Warner Bros)
On this night for The Team, James was working on some new tech. It was a weapon that could create any type of carnival attraction. Of course, he wasn't planning on using it against any bad guys, but it was a novel concept he had.
Then, he got a notification from his phone.
He looked at it to see an unknown number and it said 'LightStone Carnival, an hour, bring the first Team members.'
James raised an eyebrow. Sure he didn't usually bat an eye at unknown number messages, but if it mentioned The Team, The Team's getting involved damn it.
So, he brought his new tool and went to call his first members.
...
"Why are you listening to this guy?" Lucy asked James as they were in the completely empty parking lot.
"Because A. He or She might need our help. And B. He or She could want to join The Team." James said.
"Wouldn't they just call you if that was the case?" Miguel wondered aloud.
"Maybe they couldn't." James said. "Now, let's go." He said before He, along with Dennis, Lucy, Meena, Viper, Miguel, Cindy, and Grinch walked into the carnival.
Once they made it to the attractions, they looked all around, but they couldn't find this guy.
"Did they say where to meet?" Cindy said to James.
"No. Just said to meet at the carnival. We did, and this guy hasn't walked up to us yet." James replied.
"Maybe he tricked us." Grinch said.
"He couldn't have." James said looking at the message again.
"James he could've just scammed us into being here in order for us to get in trouble." Lucy said.
"It seemed legit." James said.
While they were arguing, Meena looked over to see a fun house right in front of them. She could barely see somebody over there before they vanished.
"Guys." Meena said as they kept on arguing.
"Guys." She said again.
"If it was a scammer, they would put a goddamn building filled with emojis." James said.
Meena used her telekinesis to grab a teddy bear from a stand and threw it at James, and it made a squeaky noise by impact.
"Someone's in the fun house!" Meena said.
James looked at the fun house. "That's where we're going." James said walking towards it.
Everyone began to follow him. "My gut is telling me we're falling into a trap." Grinch said to Meena.
"Probably. But you know what they say, don't judge a book by it's cover." Meena said.
"But don't you need to judge the cover in order to have an idea of the book." Dennis said butting in.
"Never mind." Grinch said walking pass both of them.
They walked up to the entrance. "Be careful, it's a mirror maze in front of us. Make sure you don't bounce into a mirror." James said walking in to the blue and purple neon colored area before smacking his face into a mirror.
"Like that." James said wiping his nose and letting his hands out to make sure he doesn't do that again.
The others walked in to the place one at a time.
Viper saw a way upstairs. "Over there." She called out.
"Great." Dennis said.
The group were all carefully making their way across the place. A few were hitting mirrors, but they were able to almost get there.
Cindy made it there first, then James, then Dennis. But when Meena tried to get over there, she got stuck halfway through.
Grinch, Lucy, Viper, and Miguel all noticed this. "Little help?" Meena called out.
"I got you." Lucy said getting a slight head start and trying to tackle Meena forward, but that didn't work.
James jumped onto the wallas and tried to pull her out, but that didn't work.
James hopped back down. "Everyone on the other side minus Viper on three. Three!" James yelled before the trio on the other side went to push Meena.
Then, Viper heard a strange sound from below her. She looked down to see the ground shifting.
She looked all around to see that the entire room of mirrors were shifting all around. "Guys! You might wanna hurry!" She yelled.
"What's going on?" Meena asked.
They all looked to see what was happening and panicked. "You're going to be a mirrored pancake any moment now if we don't get you out." James said, making Meena get punched in the gut with anxiety.
"Get me out!" She yelled.
"I'm trying!" James yelled as he was pulling her nose and and her sweatshirt as hard as he could.
Dennis used his powers to pull Meena out, and she flew barely a scratch above James's head and landing on the ground.
Just then, a mirror blocked Grinch, Lucy, Viper, and Miguel's way to the others.
James attempted to shoot the mirror, but the bullet dropped dead on impact. "What!" He yelled before tackling into the glass.
The others were dodging mirrors that were sliding all around the place. "I knew something was up!" Grinch yelled.
"No one cares right now!" Miguel spat back squeezing between two mirrors.
Lucy grabbed Viper for safety and saw an emergency exit. "Over there!" She yelled.
Grinch and Miguel noticed and began to waddle their way over there like newborns.
"Where the hell are they going?" James wondered aloud.
The four others opened the door of the exit and exited the place.
It was only when they walked outside to realize that they weren't outside, instead, they were in a purple and red colored hallway.
"What is this place?" Miguel asked.
"I don't know. But it beats being in there. Let's go where the hallway leads us." Lucy said dropping Viper and walking ahead of everyone.
The other three followed pursuit. "Remind me to punch James in the face if we find him." Grinch said aloud.
...
James, Meena, Dennis, and Cindy stood in silence for a moment. "What now?" Dennis asked.
"Well, there's literally no where else to go but up, so we'll go up." James said pointing to the stairs and then going up the stairs.
The other three also went up with him.
When they made it up, they only saw more average fun house obstacles. Sandbags, moving platforms, spinning platforms, a load of strings that made you need to narrowly make it out of them, a spinning tunnel, etc.
James cracked his knuckles. "Let's do this." James said before Meena stopped him. "You sure you wanna keep going after our last incident?" Meena asked.
"If it leads to finding this guy." James said.
Meena neared punched James in the face but calmed herself down. "James, I'm going to be honest with you, it's just one guy. He can be anywhere in the world right now." Meena said before a voice echoed throughout the carnival.
"Hello Team. Glad you could make it." They heard the voice say.
"Who's that?" Dennis wondered aloud.
...
The others walked through the hallway to see a door way ahead of them. "My name is Dastardly. And I wanted to just talk with you guys." He said.
"About what?" Miguel whispered.
"A potential agreement with one another. I run a government that has a cell for just about every last member of your precious team. And if you don't agree, I may have to force you into arrest." Dastardly continued.
Lucy stopped everyone and asked another question aloud. "Why are you doing this?" She asked.
"Because of your fancy multiverse traveling device, I think you should give it to us for both of us to profit from this groundbreaking tech." Dastardly said.
...
"Can he even hear us?" Cindy asked.
"I don't know. How many fingers am I holding up?" James said pulling out 4 of his fingers. No response happened.
"You should trust me because I can give you riches beyond your wildest dreams." Dastardly said.
"Yeah he can't hear us." James said.
"But can he hear the others?" Meena asked.
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh." James said before running off the ledge of the fun house and dropping on the ground.
...
Lucy kicked the door down to see that they were in a complete glass dome that looked like the inside of a shiny diamond the same colors of the hallways.
They explored the area to see all their reflections within the mirrors. It seemed like there was an endless amount of reflections for everybody.
"Join me." Dastardly said.
"No thanks Dastardly." Lucy said pulling out her blaster.
Then, Miguel saw a different reflection from everyone else. "Uh guys? We're not alone." He said.
"Oh please, most would call me..." Dastardly said before offically coming into view "Dick." He said.
"Okay, Rick?" Viper said.
"No, Dick with a "d."." Dick said, making it clear.
"Rick with a "d?"." Grinch said pulling out a hammer.
"Duh Duh Duh-duh-duh Dick." Dick said again.
"*rolling 'r's* Rick?" Miguel said.
"DIIIIIIIIIIIIICCCCKKKKKK!" Dick yelled.
...
The others from outside are listening to the whole conversation. "Are we really this incompetent?" James asked.
"Maybe it's his accent." Meena wondered.
"I feel like I can make a that's what she said joke any moment now just by listening." James said.
...
"Wait, why are we arguing about this? We have a villain to beat." Grinch said.
Everyone had the expression of 'Damn. He's right.' before they all got in a fighting stance.
Dick pulled out a walking cane.
Lucy took a shot at Dick, but he reflected it and hit Lucy's shoulder and she dropped to the ground gripping her shoulder.
Grinch threw his hammer at him but Dick grabbed it without effort.
Grinch groaned before charging at him, but Dick whacked him with the stick a few times before Grinch grabbed the stick himself.
"Viper!" Grinch yelled before he got one side of the cane down to the ground while the other side was above.
Viper slid up the cane and whacked Dick in the face.
Dick grabbed the snake and threw her at the glass, before making grinch trip, grab him by the chest, and yeeted him into the glass.
...
"They need us." James said, hearing what's happening, and having an idea.
"Where could they be?" Dennis asked.
"Simple." James said walking back to the fun house and pointing to the mirrors, which were still moving. "Last time we saw them, they went down some exit in the top left corner over there. So Denny, what I need you to do is to freeze the mirrors in a way that can get us over there, especially Meena." James said to Dennis.
"Come on!" Meena yelled.
Dennis let out his hands and green magic flowed around the mirrors and they fiddled around for a bit until they made a perfect path for that area.
"Good job." James said before running to the exit and diving in like an airplane.
The other three followed him and Meena grabbed the children then slid in.
They landed in the hallway and James saw the door ahead of them and ran straight to it.
He kicked the door down to see Lucy, Grinch, and Viper on the ground.
"Vip! What happened?" James asked.
"He got out, he took Miguel. That way." Viper said pointing to the right, revealing a cracked door.
James looked at Viper. "Rest here. I'll get him." James said before running out the door.
The others made it inside. "Where's James?" Cindy asked.
"We went to find that Dick." Lucy said.
James ran outside the place. "Kid!" James yelled running onto a dock.
"James!" He heard Miguel yell faintly.
He began to walk onto the dock, since it seemed creaky.
The place was beginning to fog up, blinding James's vision from a far distance.
"Well, we always did share a love of the dramatic!" He heard Dick yell. "Didn't we?"
"If you say so." James said back.
"But look at us now. But don't you see? You're denying my proposal when I'm the only one who can protect you and your Team from danger!"
"But you can't! I know who you are, just some villian who wants to use my tech for money!"
"Your team can't stand on it's own forever Michael! You don't have the resources! But me? *laughs* You need me!"
James sighed and kept walking.
"Here's the thing, Dick. Your protection is based on the fact that people know you're not one to be trusted. Just like they're scared of any horror movie monster *pulls out gun* While I'm the one people can look at and know I would help them no matter what the cost. Cause I'm James Goddamn Michael!" James yelled before shooting blindly at the fog.
He heard Dick scream and he began to run at him.
When he saw him in sight, Dick threw a cane at him.
James caught it and held onto it as he saw Dick holding Miguel by the throat over the ocean.
"That was so embarrassing." Dick said.
"Oh really." James said before going to shoot him again, but he was out of bullets.
"How the fu...give me the kid!" James yelled.
"Mmm, give me your agreement first." Dick said.
"No. Not happening for two reasons. One, your clearly evil by your looks and how you've been treating my team. And two, I have a ring." James said.
"Ring?" Dick and Miguel said.
James pulled out a grenade and took the 'ring' off. "This ring." James said before kicking the grenade to Dick.
Dick screamed before James tackled Miguel away from Dick and they both dived into the water.
*BOOM*
They heard a bunch of wood fall to the ground.
James and Miguel swam up to the surface and swan back to the sand ahead of them.
...
They both got back to the others and they were lying down. "Is everyone ok?" James asked.
"Sort of." Lucy said.
...
They were all back at James's house, recovering from the fight. Some were chatting with one another, but James was just dead silent. Which was odd since James always wanted to talk with someone.
"Is he right?" James said to the others.
"About what?" Meena asked.
"What Dick said, should we have the assistant of a government of some sorts?" James asked.
"Well, that's your choice James. You run The Team, so it's up to you, do you get assistance from someone, or do you just stay where we are at the moment, the choice is in your hands." Grinch said.
James sighed and landed back on his couch. "You have a point. But I can run The Team, no government needed."
"Then why would you do it?" Dennis asked.
"I don't know, the added help, extra funding, wait that doesn't make sense I have pretty much infinite fundings to begin with." James said.
"Well just take some time to think about it." Lucy said.
"Alright." James said before throwing portals for everyone to get home. "Good night."
"Night." Everyone said they went in their portals and they closed.
And that was this chapter for the time!
This was a question that was constantly in my head, what would happen if people truly knew about James's traveling adventures, would people try to profit from it? Would people fear it? How would politics react to this? So, I started this setup for a mini arc that's coming up, so be ready for it.
Review the story if you want and have a great day!