Sorry that this chapter was so late, I was dealing with a lot in terms of school and work. Hopefully this makes up for it!
Chapter 38: All of Us
Scarlett practically trudged through the main deck of The Jolly Rancher with her head down.
She stuck to the shadows and refused to humor the overpowering glare of the technicolored sun. When it was too much for her to handle, she removed her leather jacket with an animalistic groan, and used it to shield her twitching, sleep-deprived eyes.
She was rapidly searching for an escape.
Not from the ship, but from the people who inhabited the ship.
She despised all the whimsy, wonder, and corniness that currently surrounded her on all sides. Not to mention that the potent scent of sweet confections was making her want to vomit. And to top it all off, she was about to start her dot at the end of a sentence. Originally, she'd wanted to lock herself in the chocolate cabin for the whole day (she'd been planning to snag a few squares to tide over her unpredictable cravings) but Mindy had pleaded with her to at least take a tiny peek at her magnum opus.
And she could never say no to her.
True to her word, Scarlett had explored every nook and cranny whilst narrowly avoiding the cheery dispositions and practically perfect existences of the various Disney characters who were located throughout the vessel. She probably wouldn't have minded as much if she hadn't said "No" the moment she opened her eyes that morning.
"Hey Miss Bloom! Beautiful day isn't it?"
If one more person smiles at me I'm going to scream at the top of my fucking lungs.
Feeling pressured due to societal norms of politeness, Scarlett forced herself to remove her makeshift hood, and gave a tired, lopsided, (clearly fake) smile, "What else would I expect in a place like this?"
Jesus, I think I got an acid reflex saying that.
Jiminy Cricket beamed up at her from the grape-flavored barrel…then, he tilted his head with pity apparent in his expression, "Oh…oh gosh uh, are you okay? Mindy mentioned you'd had a rough night."
"Um, I'd rather not talk about it if you don't mind." Scarlett twisted her hands together as her eyes flitted back-and-forth for a possible escape route, "Good to see you, Jiminy."
She didn't give him much of a chance to respond before she powerwalked away.
Scarlett didn't care if that came across as rude or not, mainly because she was too exhausted to care. She wanted to go back to the cabin, but ultimately found that she couldn't. She was afraid that if she did, she would get unanticipated intrusions and she wouldn't trulybe alone.
Plus, she didn't want to burden anybody else with her problems since they were her problems.
She needed to think, and take a day to process everything she'd learned.
Scarlett soon found herself at the bow of the ship.
She actually laughed out loud when she realized how "broody" and "edgy" she must've looked sitting on the narrow surface that wasn't necessarily supposed to be sat on. Her ringlets of ebony hair flew in her face from the breeze, and she hastily grabbed a soft fluffy pink scrunchie from her wrist. She watched the churning waves below them as she meticulously styled her hair into a high ponytail.
She caught a flicker of movement in the corner of her eye, and snapped her head towards it. When Scarlett peered closer, she gasped before withdrawing a sketchbook and mechanical pencil from her pocket and starting on her work.
Fins.
There were hundreds, possibly even thousands of shiny, rubbery fins dancing atop the water.
Scarlett's hand vibrated at supersonic speed. her head popping up-and-down like a madwoman as she attempted to catch every seemingly insignificant microscopic detail. She was about to darken the lines, when she heard a melodic laugh from behind her.
Curious, she turned towards the deck and her breath hitched in her throat.
Mindy was floating in midair with her arms spread out. Peter hovered beside her. He gave her words of encouragement as he slightly fixed her form by bringing her legs closer together. "That's it, you're doing great!"
"Am I doing it correctly this time?" She asked in the middle of a giggle.
"There's no correct way to fly!" Peter grabbed her hands and twirled them in a circle as they soared a bit higher, "You just do it!"
An abnormal warmth spread across Scarlett's face. Her heart fluttered slightly in her chest as she watched Mindy twirl in an endless circle above the main deck. She'd never noticed how vibrant she looked whenever she smiled, really smiled. Did her cheeks always used to puff out like that? She'd never realized how adorable and "Chibi-like" she appeared until now.
Mindy's eyes unexpectedly locked with hers.
Quick as a flash, Scarlett returned to her work and played it off as vague curiosity…but her eyes would occasionally dart back to the princess…
"I think I'm really getting the hang of it!" Mindy proclaimed.
Peter was there to steady her as she floated back to the deck, "Yeah! Keep practicing and maybe-and keep in mind this is a hard maybe, you'll be as good a flyer as me."
She rolled her eyes, "Gee, thanks."
Just then, Scarlett popped her head up, "Did you hear that?"
Everyone looked around in various directions, trying to pinpoint the source of whatever noise she'd detected. There was a tense silence after that…but no sound. Dakota tilted his head from his position at the helm.
"I don't-"
"-Shh."
The girl stood up from the bow, and peered over the edge…
Whatever she saw made her reel backwards and sprint onto the main deck with a sharp: "SON OF A BITCH!" Before Mindy could ask what it was, an Atlantean Ketak shot upwards and blocked The Jolly Rancher's path.
On it, was none other than Princess Kida and Milo Thatch from Atlantis: The Lost Empire.
Milo was a freakishly tall, lanky figure with a pointed chin and cartoonishly large oval-rimmed glasses. His chestnut-brown hair was short, and two tuffs of it framed his forehead slightly. In a way, he looked like the taller, guy version of Mindy. The only other differences were that his hair was a bit lighter than hers, and his features were squarer and more exaggerated while hers were soft and round. He donned a cream tank top, mustard cargo pants, and a heavy brown trench coat with matching boots.
Kida was a bit taller than him, and had a ripping bod despite appearing to have a traditional hand-drawn Disney Princess waist. She was dark-skinned, and had blue striped tattoos on her left cheek. Her hair was snowy-white and was styled into a simple half-up half-down do. She donned a blue strapless bikini and a darker blue skirt that reached her mid-thigh. Her iconic Atlantean crystal shone brightly in the sunlight.
At first, Mindy thought that they were there to help.
They were the good guys after all, so why wouldn't they try to assist them on their quest? She tried to smile at the princess, but when Kida responded with a hostile scowl, she realized how naïve she truly was.
"N'ose pas me sourie salope!"
Milo gasped at whatever his girlfriend shouted, then cleared his throat before switching into a more stoic, professional, uncharacteristically cold persona. "You might want to surrender. Trust me, you don't want to cross her when she's angry."
"Surrender?" Mindy stepped forward, "Wait…you're trying to turn us in?"
"Bingo." His eyes darkened which was a strange look for him to say the least, "I'd say I was sorry if I actually meant it."
Before they could blink, the ship was surrounded on all sides by Atlantean vessels.
Mindy needed to make one of two choices. Either A: Try to reason with them and work things out in a diplomatic manner or B: run like hell. She didn't have time to think as the Natives boarded the deck.
At lightning speed, Mindy withdrew her sword from its scabbard and parried Kida's hooked spear. She gritted her teeth as she twisted her neck to watch how the rest of her companions were holding up. Scarlett was struggling to fend off the two large Atlantean men on either side of her while Peter was trying to protect Wendy from the advancing Audrey, Sweet, Vinny, and Mole. The Lost Boys attempted to shoot their slingshots at the rest of the fleet, disregarding the fact that they were wearing imposing wooden masks with gaunt faces and horrified expressions. The masks protected their entire bodies, and the rocks bounced off of them easily.
"Tink! Dakota!" Mindy shouted as she painstakingly pushed against the princess's spear, "Lower this thing ASAP!"
Tinkerbell dinged something in reply before shooting over the side of the ship.
She threw her arms out, spilling pixie dust onto the ocean's surface. The fairy flew into a circle as the water swirled around her in a mini-typhoon. She then worked on soaking the hull as fast as humanly possible.
Kida was frothing at the mouth as she glowered down at Mindy, "So it wasn't enough to banish us from the rest of the kingdom! You just had to go ahead and punish us for existing too! Is that it?!"
Mindy would've been lying if she said that her words hadn't pierced her like a knife.
She tried to come up with a valid response to her claim, but couldn't find one. Kida had absolutely every right to be angry with her. It was such a bizarre concept that she was currently facing a heroine that wanted her dead. The roguish Captain Jack Sparrow wasn't impossible, Queen Mousetoria she could understand.
But a fellow Disney princess?
It was too much for her to handle.
Mindy did her best to dissociate as she listened to her next words: "My father was forced to relive his death over and over again, and I never even got the chance to say goodbye or change the outcome of it all! He had suffered enough already, he didn't need to suffer anymore because of your selfish needs! How would you feel if the one person you've ever loved had to endure that kind of torture?!"
She met Kida's icy stare, and her heart tightened in her chest.
It was obvious that she was out for blood, and it was even more obvious that she was stronger than Mindy. She knew had to do something drastic or else all of them were screwed. As much as she hadn't wanted to resort to this, she could see that she was left with no other options.
Mindy's amulet shone a midnight-blue, "Forgive me for this."
Before Kida could form a response, an invisible blast shoved her and the rest of her posse over the edge of the railing. Reacting solely on impulse, Mindy thrust her arms forward, and white translucent streams of magic attached themselves to the Atlanteans, and kept them suspended in the air. She then closed her eyes and willed each of them back to their vehicles safely.
"We don't want to fight you, we aren't going to fight you." Mindy corrected herself, "Please, let us pass and you'll never have to see us again."
"NEVER!" Kida snarled, "YOU WILL PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO US, TO ALL OF US!"
Mindy's face fell…
All of us?
The realization came too late, "HIT THE DECK!"
Streams of fire streaked towards the ship, shooting it out of the sky causing their descent to happen a lot sooner than they were anticipating. Everyone stayed low, and held on for dear life as they plummeted towards the ocean. Mindy dared to glance up, and her eyes widened in horror. The main sail was on fire. She wasn't worried about it collapsing since she'd constructed the vessel to withstand anything, but that didn't change the fact that it was still on fire.
With a blink of her eyes, it extinguished.
That was when The Jolly Rancher hit the water. The relief was short-lived as another blast barreled towards them...or more specifically towards Scarlett. Letting out a strangled cry, Mindy's hands slapped together and a dome of pulsing white magic covered the ship. The fire ricocheted off of it, and disappeared into the clouds.
She panted as her arms trembled violently above her head.
The flapping of wings drew her attention to the skies.
"Nice shot old boy!"
"Brr brr!"
"You have got to be kidding me."
Two figures hovered before the group.
One was a dusty-blue with a yellow belly and black puppy-like ears. The other was green, spotty, and had the head of a camel, the neck of a crocodile, and the ears of a cow. He also had tuffs of cotton candy fur on his forehead, spikes, and tail.
The Reluctant Dragon rapped experimentally on the dome, "A protection spell…how quaint. But it won't hold forever, I can tell that you're still new to the ways of magic."
"Unreal." Mindy whispered.
"Actually, we're very much real thanks to you." The dragon's friendly features twisted into an unpleasant scowl, "A shame that you don't seem to see us that way."
"That was before, and this is now." She stared directly into his eyes with a pleading look, "Please, I'm not a little girl anymore, I do have empathy and am not the selfish person I once was! That's not who I am! I promise that I will set things right once I figure out how!"
"Oh will you now?"
Mindy got to her feet and whirled around to face The . Legacy. On the futuristic vessel was Jim Hawkins, B.E.N, Long John Silver, Morph, Dr. Delbert Doppler and-
"Captain Amelia?"
"It's certainly been a long time, hasn't it princess?" The humanoid feline resumed with an impassive expression, "You may look different, but you haven't changed one bit. All you spout are empty promises of "equality" and I for one am tired of waiting for "justice to be served". You see the only way for true justice to be served is for the oppressed to take it, and that starts today."
"I'm guessing from the metaphorical quotes you placed around those two particular phrases that I said those things when I was younger."
"Something along the lines of it yes."
"I can vouch for that!"
"For the love of-uggghhh!" Mindy moaned as she turned towards The Black Pearl, "You're still here too?!"
"Never left Love." Captain Jack Sparrow piped up as he leaned against the railing of the upper deck, "You might want to check if your victims are already dead before walking away from a battle."
"I wasn't even trying to kill you!" She burst as her eyes started to flicker and her arms lowered a bit, "Dude! I don't want you dead! I-I don't have anything against you or any of the residents of the Isle, I want to help all of you break your loops and I promise I'll-"
"-have you learned nothing from our time together?" Captain Hook chimed in, "Don't make promises you can't keep…it's bad form!"
"Well it's a whole fucking party in here isn't it?!" Scarlett burst as her bubbling frustration reached its peak, "And look at that the guests consist of a wide collection of curious characters that want to kill you! When were ya'll gonna inform me that we had a whole posse out for Mindy's head?!"
"Because she didn't take into account just how many lives she's ruined." Hook responded smugly, "It's amusing how the actions of one spoiled little brat who simply wanted a dream kingdom of her own could backfire so tremendously."
Just then, the rest of the Isle of Oblivion's residents made themselves known.
Willie the Opera-Singing Whale emerged from the clouds, the cast of Oliver and Company growled at Mindy and her crew from aboard the Pearl, and The Horned King and his army of the undead appeared alongside the Treasure Planet crew on the R.L.S. Legacy. Surprisingly enough, the heroes of the film Princess Elionwy, Taran, Gurgi, and Flewdder Fflam were alongside them. There were also characters from the package films Melody Time, Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros, and Fun and Fancy Free (minus Jiminy Cricket, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy of course).Mindy had lost count of how many extras and background characters surrounded the main ones.
She was losing her grip on the force field.
She could feel the magic slipping from her fingertips, but refused to let it go.
With a new resolve, Mindy strained her arms and reinforced the protection spell. Driblets of sweat slid down her face as every vein in her neck bulged and her eyes flickered at an impalpable speed. Scarlett steadied her as her knees started to wobble.
"There's nowhere to run this time poppet." Captain Jack said as his mouth curved into a toothy smile, "You can't hide behind magic forever…sooner or later, it will collapse and then what will you do?"
"Mindy he's right, we can't fight them." Jiminy spoke, "What do we do?"
Her mind was racing.
The force field was weakening by the second, and she didn't want to know what would happen once it vanished. It didn't help that the Isle's residents were shouting obscenities and jeering down at her with overwhelming hatred apparent in their eyes:
"EVIL WITCH!" "You're a selfish wretch!" "She's no better than The Projectionist!" "We should kill her before she kills us!" "You're a joke of a princess! You don't deserve your title or the privileges that come with it!" "She feels no empathy!" "Burn her!" "She cares about no one but herself!" "Strike without mercy! She sure doesn't have any!" "A power like that can't be controlled!" "She's dangerous! A menace to society!"
Their words shattered her.
As she stared up at them, she didn't view them as simple cartoon characters anymore.
They were people.
People she'd failed to protect as princess. Mindy wanted nothing more than to reconnect them with the rest of the kingdom as well as piece the severed worlds back together into one land again. The only problem was that she didn't know how.
She was too inexperienced in magic.
But she knew someone who wasn't.
"Alistaire." Mindy croaked out, "Alistaire can get us out of this. Scarlett, take everyone below deck and take my amulet with you."
"Not a chance!" She shouted, "Without the amulet, you won't have any magic! You'll have nothing to protect you!"
"I know." Mindy replied with an unusual calmness, "But I have enough blind faith to know that Alistaire won't let me die. We're connected somehow, they sense my urgencies, they'll know what to do to get us out of here."
"I'm not gonna leave you."
"I'll be fine, just go! Jiminy, go with her!"
"On it!" The conscience unclasped the amulet from her neck before hopping onto Scarlett's shoulder. "Please be careful Mindy!"
Scarlett shook her head, "I can't let you do this."
"There's no time to argue! You have to go, now!" Mindy urged, "Please…"
Scarlett held her gaze for a moment before taking off with The Lost Boys, Peter, Wendy, Dakota, and Tinkerbell to the candied door that led to the cabins below deck. Mindy then turned back to the force field, and strained every muscle in her petite body.
"How nauseatingly noble." Hook sneered, "But your efforts will be in vain…you will come with us if not willingly, then by force."
Mindy didn't have the strength to respond.
Any minute now the shield she'd constructed would disintegrate.
She could feel it, the magic was slipping even faster this time and she was powerless to stop it. Mindy mouthed a quick prayer as her eyes flickered faster than the speed of light, and her heart pounded furiously in her throat. She then released a pent-up screech as she fell to her knees in a heap, and the shimmering milky-white dome evaporated into the ether.
Mindy's eyes sparked for a split-second before returning to their usual grey hue.
Her world was spinning, but she forced her chin up to face the approaching mob of characters.
Despite herself, a tired lopsided smile appeared on her face. "You want me? Come and get me bitches…"