Chapter 40: Part of Your World
One thing that Mindy noticed right away about the little mermaid was that she liked to get to places quickly. "I'm so sorry to leave you so suddenly, but if I don't get back home my father's gonna have my head on a plate!"
"No… we-we understand." Mindy puffed out, "This shouldn't be your top priority at the moment! Go take care of your princess duties!"
"You remember the way to my Grotto?"
"Yes, you only repeated it about twenty-seven times!"
Ariel giggled, "I'll see you later!"
Mindy, Scarlett, and Dakota stopped at the golden seashell archway that led to the phallically-shaped Kingdom of Atlantica and waved to Ariel and Flounder. The duo waved back before disappearing into the city. As soon as they had left, the humanoid mer-people sank to the floor in an exhausted heap. The citizens who were lingering outside the entrance glanced down at them in puzzlement, shrugged, and moved on with their lives.
The trio landed on a bed of stunning red, yellow, and pink sea flowers at the bottom of a gargantuan chasm of sharp stones and coral. They heaved and Mindy conjured some ice cubes that were in the shape of stars to keep everyone cool. She popped one into her mouth as Scarlett spoke up.
"I never thought I'd say this…but being a mermaid sucks man."
"Are we all in agreement that from now on while we're in this universe, we'll hop from place-to-place at our own time?" Dakota asked.
"Agreed." The girls chorused.
"I don't envy you three."
As one, they turned towards the cricket lounging comfortably on Mindy's shoulder. Getting a sudden spark of inspiration, she flicked him off, causing him to barrel through the water.
"Wha-hey, hey, hey! My hat!"
Scarlett readily plucked it from beside her and tossed it to Mindy.
"Okay ladies, you've had your fun, now give it back an-hey!"
The two giggled as they played monkey-in-the-middle with the tiny top hat. Meanwhile, Jiminy panted as he swam back-and-forth between them. Eventually, his movements slowed to the point where his limbs became too tired to keep going. He floated towards the sandy bottom when Mindy caught him in her outstretched hand and Scarlett returned him his hat.
Dakota wheezed, "You were saying little man?"
"N-nothing." The cricket coughed a bit as he regained his composure, "I…really…. got a taste of my own medicine there…oh Walt I'm outta shape."
"So…what does Mindy expect us to do? Sit here and wait around?" Slightly groaned from his place on a squishy sea sponge, "This is boring! We should be out there fighting with them!"
Peter stopped sharpening his dagger from atop the railing of an old shipwreck, "Hey! Stop complaining. Mindy entrusted us to watch out for Atlantean warriors, and dang it we're not gonna let her down! Granted, we're not entirely sure if the Atlanteans would be dumb enough to follow us down here, but for now, we have to stay alert! Absolutely no one-and I mean no one is to leave this spot until the rest of the gang comes back and/or Mindy gives us permission! Is that understood?"
"UNDERSTOOD!"
Wendy looked on with immense admiration, "Isn't he so authoritative when he- ouch!" the light-green pufferfish beside her poked her with one of her spikes before she could finish that thought. "Just so we're clear, I am not afraid of you Tinkerbell…especially not in this state."
The clanging of bells followed by a childish raspberry was the fairy's response.
Wendy rolled her eyes and was about to give her a piece of her mind, when a shadow loomed over the once sunny coral-infested shipwreck. Puzzled, they simultaneously glanced upwards. Peter opened his mouth to say something, but before he could speak, a massive narwal-shaped vessel dropped into the sea.
And it was heading straight towards them.
Under his breath, Peter muttered a curse word he'd heard the girl in the leather jacket use.
"I wanna be, where the people are…I wanna see, wanna see em dancin."
Dakota sung in a passable high-pitched female voice as he started to reenact the "Part of Your World" sequence inside of the Grotto. "Walkin around on those, whaddya call em? Oh feet." He grabbed Mindy's flippers and shook them to emphasize this lyric.
She tried to keep a straight face, but a giggle snuck past her lips. "Stop goofing around and help us look for the second clue."
"I don't get it." Dakota mused as he swam to a random box, and opened it up to reveal twenty thinga-ma-bobs, "I'm singing in an exotic Disney locale with my voice soaring, and my vibrato ringing…I'm getting really wrapped up into the moment here…why isn't a sweeping musical score accompanying my words in verse?"
"Uh, because you aren't Ariel genius." Scarlett replied as she scanned the shelves of human artifacts, "Right now, we're background characters in someone else's story and the plot acknowledges this. The spontaneous musical number has to start when the main protagonist shows up."
Mindy beamed from ear-to-ear, "I knew you'd adjust to this place."
"Eh, what can I say? I'm a fast learner to these kind of things."
"So what is it that we're looking for exactly?" Dakota inquired.
"Dunno." Mindy shrugged, "The clue said it was in something ancient and old."
"But that could be anything." Scarlett moaned as she threw aside coils of rope, portrait frames, and an endless number of candelabras, "Why does Ariel have to be such a freaking hoarder?"
Mindy didn't answer as she searched inside of a chest filled with scrolls. When she found that they were all maps of various locations across Denmark, she became disinterested and moved on to another trunk.
"Up where they walk, up where they run, up where they stay all day in the sun…"
Everyone peered up to see Dakota recreating the shot where Ariel twirls up to the top of the grotto. He even grabbed a piece of wavy-red fan coral to use as a makeshift wig so that his "hair" could flow and glisten in the sunlight.
"Wanderin free, wish I could be, part of that wooooooorld…"
"Dakota." The ladies chided in disappointed yet amused tones.
"You never let me have any fun!" He pouted as he ripped off the wig, descending to the bottom of the cove to resume his search.
Mindy withdrew the first riddle from her satchel, "Ancient, old, a thing that's filled with secrets and lore…that sounds like a book if I ever heard one."
"But there are hundreds of them!" Scarlett gestured to the endless shelves surrounding them on all sides. "It'll take us the rest of the day and night to search them all."
"Then we'd better start looking."
Mindy picked one up at random and ignored the illegible ink-stained words as she flipped through it at rapid speed. She only stopped once when she spotted a loose piece of parchment poking out, but kept going when she realized that it was only a missing page from the book. When she'd finished, she put it back where she'd found it, and grabbed another one.
She didn't pay Jiminy any mind as he hopped off of her shoulder and landed on the jagged shelves of the Grotto. He whistled casually as he strolled along whilst twirling his umbrella. Eventually, he cleared his throat.
"Hey."
Mindy didn't look up from the book she was skimming through, but laughed out of awkwardness at his abnormal casual approach at conversation, "Hey? What's up?"
"So…I'm gonna come out and say it, we haven't gotten much of a chance to talk about what happened back there."
"What do you mean?"
"Sometimes…sometimes I think you forget that I see everything you see." Jiminy confessed, "Which means that I also hear everything you hear. That being said, I heard what the Isle residents said to you, and I think we should talk about it."
She paused...
"What is there to talk about?" Mindy asked in a cold, deadpanned voice, "I'm a witch, a freak, a spoiled little brat who didn't care about anyone's happiness except her own."
"We've had this conversation before, and it wasn't-"
"-let me take a wild guess." She cut him off, moving on to another book. "It wasn't my fault, that was who I was before and I decide where my path goes from here. How am I supposed to do that when the universe constantly keeps reminding me of my past mistakes?"
"Mindy, you're so much more than your past mistakes." Jiminy insisted, "You're honest, kind, and you're a hero… you've always been a hero."
"I don't want to talk about this anymore."
"It's the truth, you're a good person."
"Enough, Jiminy."
"What? You don't think you're on the side of good?"
"Jiminy I'm warning you."
"Oh come on! Why can't you see yourself the way I see you?!"
"Because you're wrong!" Mindy slammed the book shut and whirled around to face him, her eyes flickering spastically with outrage, "I'm no better than The Projectionist, and you know it! Stop trying to paint me as a hero, when you know that's not who I am! I enslaved thousands of cha-people! I enslaved thousands of people in loops just like him, and didn't think anything of it like the selfish person I am! All I cared about was creating what I considered to be a perfect little kingdom and-and-"
She paused mid-sentence when she noticed Jiminy, Scarlett, and Dakota staring at her with equal amounts of fear…Mindy forced herself to inhale and when she reopened her eyes, they had returned to their usual grey hue.
"I-I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me." Her voice shook, "Let's-let's just keep looking."
Dakota reached out a hand to her, but she'd swum up to the highest point of the Grotto before he could make contact with her shoulder. Mindy struggled to control her breathing as she snatched another book and pored over the pages at supersonic speed…
What was that? Were they right about me? Am I… evil? No…no, I refuse to believe that. I need to get a grip on my powers, and defeat The Projectionist as soon as possible. Then I can fix everything…then I can regain the people's trust. I'll die before I let myself become like him.
Peter poked his head around the corner of a shipwreck a couple yards away from the demolished Jolly Rancher. A group of about fifteen or twenty Atlantean warriors floated around the damage, wearing strange scuba outfits that allowed them to breathe underwater. They spoke in hushed tones as they surveyed the candy wreckage.
Princess Kida turned to face them, and shouted something in a language that Peter couldn't understand. In response to her orders, the warriors fanned out to search for what was undoubtedly Mindy and her band of followers.
"We need a foolproof plan like right now…any suggestions?"
"Play dumb!"
"Send Cubby out as a distraction!"
"What?!"
"Blend in as coral!"
"Give up!"
"Build a giant cookie out of the driftwood, hide inside of it, present it to them as a peace offering, then jump out and attack!"
Peter buried his face in his hands, "I appreciate the wide range of ideas we have going on here, but none of them are helpful!"
Wendy put a hand on his back, "Alright everyone, let's think…what would Mindy do in this situation?"
The idea sprung to Peter's mind almost spontaneously, causing an ecstatic grin to appear on his freckled face.
It took everything in him not to crow in triumph, "She'd improvise."
"What would I give, if I could live, out of these waters?" Ariel sang before sprawling out on the floor of The Grotto, "What would I pay, to spend a day, warm on the sand? Betcha on land, they understand, bet they don't reprimand their daughters…bright young women, sick of swimming, ready to staaaaaaaand aaaaaaaaaand!"
Scarlett, Jiminy, Dakota and Mindy watched in astounded silence as the "Part of Your World" sequence played out in its entirety. The latter had summoned popcorn that remained dry even in the underwater setting, and provided everyone (including Jiminy) their own bowl as an apology for lashing out earlier. Dakota mouthed along with the little mermaid's words and occasionally cheered her on, but stopped doing it in fear of accidently throwing her off her rhythm.
And to think, Jeffery Katzenberg was gonna cut this out of the final film. Mindy thought with distain as she shoved another handful of popcorn into her mouth. This is why you got fired Katzenberg, because you wouldn't know good art if it hit you in the face!
Ariel soared upwards with her note, and grabbed a book from off the shelve. "Ready to know, what the people know! Ask em my questions, and get some answers!"
As she flipped through the pages, a stray one fell out and drifted to the floor. Mindy reached out and grabbed it before it floated away, and her eyes sparkled with elation. It was the second clue to the scavenger hunt! Immediately sensing that the paper was important, the rest of the gang gathered around her and read the clue over her shoulder as Ariel continued to sing: "What's a fire? And why does it-what's the word? Buuuuuuurn!"
#2
Shells, shells, nothing but shells. That is where the next clue dwells. Head above the waves, past treacherous terrain. Near the jagged caves, is where the third clue remains. Be wary of the clay, it'll stick to your tail. You must go in the day, or else you will fail.
Not wanting to interrupt the song, the group shared tacit glances before returning their attention to Ariel: "When's it my turn? Wouldn't I love, love to explore that shore up aboooooooooooooooove? Out of the sea….wish I could be…part of that…woooooooooooorld."
Mindy felt inclined to clap after she'd finished, but didn't want to cut through the fantastical musical score of Howard Ashman. It seemed that she didn't have to since a cacophonous crashing sound pierced through the music. Scarlett yelled a cuss word as everyone jumped in alarm at the sudden noise. Dakota shoved Mindy out of harm's way as the human stuff hurdled towards them, pinning her to the floor in the process. Flounder hid inside of a rusty knight's helmet in fright. The culprit landed belly-first onto an accordion with a snarf blat in his mouth, a teacup on his back, and all sorts of other junk piled on top of him.
"Sebastian!"
The red crustacean glared daggers at them before spitting out the pipe and stumbling to his feet, "A-Ariel, what are you-how could you-what is all this?!"
"It's uh, it's just my collection." She twiddled her fingers as Flounder emerged from his hiding spot to conceal himself behind her hair.
"Ohhhh." Sebastian chucked before withdrawing a fish's hook and held it before him with a seemingly contented smile, "I see, your collection hmm…..IF YOUR FATHER KNEW ABOUT THIS PLACE HE-"
Flounder got all up in his face, "-You're not gonna tell him, are you?!"
"Oh please Sebastian, he would never understand!" Ariel pleaded.
"Um, Dakota?" Mindy cleared her throat with flushed cheeks, "You can get off of me now."
"Right, sorry."
He helped her up but she tripped over her own tail with a yelp of alarm, colliding with his chest for the second time that night. Dakota was quick to steady her and helped her find a floating rhythm. Once he was sure that she could swim on her own, he backed away, but was hesitant to let go of her upper arms.
"Th-thanks."
"Anytime."
Realizing how strange they looked, the pair detangled whilst occasionally stealing glances at each other. Scarlett watched this all happen with a bittersweet twinkle in her eyes.
"Wait a minute, who're these three?" the group of young adults were jolted back to the present by Sebastian's interrogative stare, "I haven't seen them around here before."
"We're from-"
Before Mindy could come up with a suitable lie, Dakota beat her to it.
"-the lost city of Sitnalta! Only, it's not so lost anymore because we live there! We're visiting because it was attacked by a sea creature we believed to be extinct called the W.A.P. or Wild Animal Predator…our guys at corporate were jerks with the names, what can I say?"
The silence afterwards was deafening…
Scarlett tried (and failed) to contain her laughter, "Dude, even I didn't buy that."
"For your information Bloom and Gloom, I'm the president of our theatre club's improv group thank you very much!"
The crab's eyes centered on the bejeweled pendant around Mindy's neck, "Wait…I know you! You're the one who started all this trouble! Ariel! Get away from her, we want nothing to do with you! Where she goes, trouble follows!"
"Why does everyone automatically assume that?!"
"Come on Sebastian!" Ariel once again gave the girl in question a side-hug, "She's lost her memories and we need to help her remember who she is so that she can save us from The Projectionist for good!"
"But if the Sea King were to find out that she was here and that he was out there looking for her-"
"-don't get your claws in a twist." The mermaid princess rolled her eyes with a smile, "Mindy's my friend, and it is my duty as her friend to be there for her when she's in a crisis. And losing your memories as well as your powers definitely sounds like a crisis!"
"Ariel, you're under a lot of pressure down here." Sebastian grabbed her hand with his claw and started to drag her towards the exit, "Come with me, I'll take you home and get your something warm to-"
Just then, a large shadow cast itself over the Grotto.
Simultaneously, everyone tilted their gazes upward.
"What do you suppose…?"
Ariel couldn't finish her question as she swam out of the Grotto and headed to the surface. Sebastian called after her, but her mind was too preoccupied to listen and instead quickened her pace. Mindy, Scarlett, Dakota, and Jiminy exchanged equal looks of confusion before following her. Flounder and Sebastian trailed behind them not long after.
When they reached the top, they spotted a ship with fireworks shooting into the sky in bright colors of blue, purple, pink, and green. Ariel giggled, immense curiosity shining in her eyes.
Sebastian looked at her in befuddlement, "Ariel? What are you-JUMPING JELLYFISH!"
Wanting to get a closer look, Ariel dove underwater and splashed to the party barge.
"Ariel?! Ariel! Please come back!" The crustacean cried out in vain.
"Should we follow her?" Mindy questioned.
"The clue does say that the next one is somewhere at the surface." Dakota pointed out with a knowing smirk. "So we kind of have to…right?"
"I'll race ya!"
Scarlett took off before anyone could agree or disagree.
Mindy laughed as she called after her, "Hey! No fair, you got a head start!"
"Eat my dust princess!"
Dakota did a face-palm, "Whatever happened to while we're here let's get to places on our own time?"
The pair gave chase, but it was obvious that they were nowhere near as skilled as Scarlett when it came to swimming, and weren't able to catch up to her. After a while, they gave up and instead floated alongside each other chatting.
"So, we're officially in The Renaissance Era now." Mindy began, "Are you scared?"
Well that was a stupid question, of course he's scared you idiot.
"I don't know." Dakota shrugged, "I'm excited and scared…nervouscited, if you will. I mean, I'm with you and Bloom and Gloom and a bunch of Disney characters I've grown up with…but at the same time, those characters are trying to kill us like the Atlantis Crew and it-it's a lot. I mean, we're gonna see the more dangerous Disney villains as if Hook and Ratigan weren't enough to deal with. We're gonna inevitably meet Jafar, Scar, and most likely even Ursula."
The name sent shivers down her spine.
She hadn't even considered that they would have to encounter the Sea Witch at some point during this quest. Out of all the Disney Baddies, Mindy feared Ursula the most. When she was a little girl, she vaguely remembered that she used to refuse to go into the bathroom by herself because she believed that the octopus would be hiding behind the shower curtain waiting to snatch her in her tentacles.
Looking back, the idea was ridiculous but she much preferred that over the real thing.
"Shit…" Jiminy lightly slapped her on the ear for her vulgar language, but she couldn't've cared less at that moment, "I totally forgot about that…if we do somehow meet her, I don't know if I'll be powerful enough to protect you guys from her. That's why it's so important for me to collect the pieces of my childhood now. All I know how to do at the moment is summon junk food and occasionally catapult someone backwards. Not to mention that I'm still learning how to fly without relying on others to make me happy…I need to attempt to control this magic inside of me if I want to have the sliver of a chance of surviving in this world."
"Do you mind if I ask what…that was back there?"
Mindy paused mid-swim, "What?"
"You know…the whole…" Dakota paused and tapped his fingers against his thumbs around his eyeballs, "…thing?"
"Oh…that." She avoided eye-contact as she bit her lip, "I-I don't know…Jiminy? You've been with me since the beginning, do you know what…that was all about?"
The cricket was appalled that she was even acknowledging him after what all took place, but he shook his head helplessly in response, "I'm sorry but, I have absolutely no idea…that's something that I haven't seen before. Your powers were always unpredictable, and maybe now that you're relearning how to wield The Amulet of Illusions they've become even more unpredictable. What do you think it is Mindy?"
She hesitated, "I don't think I've told you guys this, but it's been happening for a while now…I don't remember when it started, but I know that it's primal. I'm not describing it correctly, but it's the closest word I can think of. It's a sort of fight-or-flight thing I guess whenever I'm emotionally charged up. It happened when I found out Scarlett was taken, when the Isle residents were spitting insults at me through the force field, and…and in the Grotto. I don't know how to stop it from happening, or what happens if I let it continue for too long…all I know is that I'm afraid of it."
"You'll figure it out." Dakota reassured her, "Just don't make the mistake that Elsa did and close yourself off from everybody because you want to protect us from what you can do to the point where you become scared of yourself."
Mindy tilted her head, "Huh?"
"You know…Frozen."
"…"
"You're kidding…you're the Queen of Disney Trivia and you've never seen Frozen? The highest grossing animated feature of 2013?"
Before she could defend herself, the rumbling of thunder cut through the air.
The rain pounded down on them almost instantaneously as sinister looking storm clouds swirled above their heads. Lightning flashed and the waves around them became choppy and inconsistent in height.
"Well whaddya know? Hurricane season came early this year." Dakota tried to joke despite the fact that he was trembling head-to-tail in fright.
"Come on! We have to find Scarlett and Ariel!"
Mindy flailed her limbs violently as she swam towards the ship with Dakota following close beside her. Her heart palpitated in her throat and the droplets building up on the lenses of her glasses made it difficult to pinpoint where exactly the barge was. She followed her instincts and fought the current until they eventually arrived at the scene. The wind whistled as the lightning cracked, causing her to jump.
She shook her head as she searched for their friends, "Scarlett! Ariel! Where are you?!"
Her voice cracked a little as she struggled to yell over the turmoil, so she wasn't surprised that she didn't receive an answer. Panicked, she dove beneath the churning waves. She vaguely recalled Dakota shouting something at her, but it was lost to her ears amongst the saltwater. Mindy reappeared directly besides the hull of the ship. She opened her mouth to call out again when Dakota beat her to it.
"MINDY GET DOWN!"
She whipped her head around too late as an earth-shattering explosion pierced through the air, then her vision went black…