"Oh, man!" Max complained, as he stormed out of Tanchester Square Garden. "There's just no way I'm gonna be ready for tomorrow night!"
He had spent the last two days and nights rehearsing for this musical by the Phantom. It was called Love From Two Worlds. It was about a man from this world and a woman from a parallel Earth and they fall in love with each other. This musical was fully sung-through and it only had two parts in it – the man and the woman. There were no other characters in it, not even silent extras. Well, none were in the script anyway and he hadn't been rehearsing with anyone. Not even with the actress playing the female role. He didn't even meet the orchestra for the musical because he was being too busy pleasing the Phantom.
Max returned Tanchester two nights and started to rehearse the musical by singing the songs out loud as he read the script. As the stadium wouldn't be opened to the public until tomorrow night, he had to rehearse in the Phantom's mansion. The Phantom had her AI robot children help him by performing the music while he rehearsed. When they had their lunch on the first day of rehearsal, they apologized to him for how they treated his godchildren and how much they hated doing it, no matter how little choice they had. Max forgave them because they knew they would only do something like that if they were orders from the Phantom and no one else.
Max decided that he needed a bit of fresh air before he went to bed to get a good night's rest before tomorrow night's opening, so the Phantom allowed him half an hour at most. No matter how hard and long he rehearsed, he just felt he was nowhere near ready. He wasn't feel very confident about it, no matter how much he showed otherwise to the Phantom and the robots. If he messed tomorrow's performance up, he didn't know what it would mean for his family and his friends. He didn't really care if what would happen to him.
"Max!"
Max looked to see someone running towards him through the lights reflecting from the lampposts near the stadium. When that someone became closer to him, he saw it was none other than the woman he loved he most all his life. "Roxanne? What are you doing here?"
"We're rescuing you, of course," Roxanne replied.
"But how –"
"Shh. Just follow me and your questions will be answered, trust me."
"Okay. But I only have half an hour before I return. Well, twenty-five minutes, actually –"
"Then let's stop wasting more time."
So Max did what he was told.
Roxanne took Max to a van that was giant and black all over it. When they went in, Max learned that the inside of a van was a giant lab and there was Goofy in it. He was wearing a lab coat.
"Hiya, son."
"Dad, what are you doing here?" Max asked.
"I'm just helpin' out a friend who's helpin' me save you in return," Goofy replied.
Max looked around the lab again and tried to remember which scientist was a friend of his dad. Then he looked around and got the answer.
"Dad, does this van belong to Professor Von Drake?" Max asked.
"It certainly does!"
Max turned to face who said that and there was the old duck Professor Ludwig Von Drake himself.
"Hello, young Max," the old duck greeted. "Boy, have you grown."
"Good to see you too, Professor Von Drake," Max said.
"Now, your dad tells me that you're in a bit of trouble. Well, don't you worry. My latest invention will help you. Now, come on. Let me show the demonstration."
Ludwig took Max, Roxanne and Goofy to a lab table.
"Now tell me what you see on the table," Ludwig said.
"Nothing except a windup toy car," Max said.
"Right. Now wind it up."
Max picked the tiny red car and winded it up until it couldn't be winded up anymore.
"Now, put it at that end of the table over there," Ludwig ordered.
Max put the car down at the end of the table he was closest to.
"Now release it."
As Max did, he along with Goofy and Roxanne saw the car drive on the table on its own. But then it stopped in the middle of the table but not because Max didn't wind it up enough. It stopped moving yet the wheels were still going.
"Why ain't it movin' forward, but its wheels are still goin'?" Goofy asked.
"That's because it's stuck in a cage," Ludwig explained.
"But there isn't a cage," Roxanne said. "At least, I can't see one."
Then Max, Roxanne and Goofy jumped when they saw a little metal cage appear over the toy car.
"How did that cage get over the car?" Max asked.
"This."
Max, Roxanne and Goofy all turned to see Ludwig holding a black device with a small red button on it.
"This is what I call an invisible cage," Ludwig said. "This is what I intend to use for capturing your ghost friend."
"This is ingenuous, Professor Ludwig," Goofy said, "but I don't see how this tiny cage can capture someone who's… four foot?"
"Six foot actually, Dad," Max said. Then he turned to Ludwig. "Is this tiny cage a prototype, Professor Von Drake?"
"Oh, yes," Ludwig said. "Let me show you the big cheese."
Ludwig pressed the blue button and a metal door on the other left-hand side of the wall opened. All they saw was cheese. A giant block of cheese! But they couldn't even tell which type of cheese it was because it was too smelly for any cheese. It stunk more than Stinking Bishop. It made everyone want to gag. Ludwig closed it up.
"Sorry about that," he said. "That was a defence strategy. Causing the enemy to surrender by unleashing awful stinking cheese."
"Well, it would work on me," Goofy said.
Then Ludwig pressed the yellow button and another metal door opened. It was a giant cage. "This is what I intend to use to capture this ghost. I will turn it invisible, lift it up above the stage and throw it down to capture her. Just to warn you, Max, there may be the slimmest chance it may capture you as well, but at least if I capture you and her together, at least I can let you out and keep her trapped."
Max liked what he was seeing, but he only hoped that the Phantom wouldn't be hearing this so she didn't have a chance of ruining it.
Max walked out of the van followed by Roxanne.
"How do you feel, Max?" Roxanne asked.
"To tell you the truth, I have mixed feelings," Max said. "The good feeling is that we have a chance about this and I am grateful that you're all trying to help me, but the bad feeling is if it all goes wrong, something bad will happen to you. I don't really care if anything happens to me. I'm more worried about you and our friends, especially you."
"Well, don't worry about me, Max," Roxanne said. "I don't really care if anything happens to me."
"Roxanne, I must ask. I haven't been in your life at all for five years or even contacted you no matter how much I tried and yet you're doing this for me. Why?"
"Because I'm worried about you, Max. I'm worried about what's going to happen to you if you'll never ever be free from the Phantom. And because I still love you."
Max was surprised and yet deeply touched to hear that. "That really means a lot to me, Roxanne, but –"
"Let's ignore the fact that I'm married because I'm not happy with my husband at all, Roxanne said. "I know couples getting back together is highly unsuccessful and unrealistic, but I really need you in life. All those things I always say about how no one has made me feel special and loved like you, I really mean them. I've really missed you. And even though we never been in contact with each other for five years, I've always thought about you. I really can't live without you."
Max held her hands. "I feel the same way about you, Roxanne. I do feel better for you being in my life again and I still love you as much as I always had, but –" Then his digital watch beeped. "I must return to the Phantom's house now. If I don't get into bed by nine o'clock, the Phantom will be angry."
"Max –"
"I'm sorry, Roxanne, but I still have to do this. There is no other way. I'm so sorry." He gave her a kiss on the cheek before he ran.
As she sadly watched Max ran back into the stadium, Roxanne hoped that this plan to save Max from the Phantom would work.
Up above the roof of the stadium stood the Phantom and looking down. She had been watching Max the whole time since he came out for his fresh air break, so she knew that Max met up with, she knew that they were cooking up a plan in that van and she heard their confessions of their love for each other even after never seeing each other for five years.
But the Phantom was actually smiling. "Good boy, T-Rax. Glad you learned something from disobeying my orders – never to do it again." But that wasn't the reason why she was smiling. She was smiling as she looked at Roxanne. "So you love him, do you? Well, congratulations. You've only escalated the war. May the best woman win." Then she vanished.