Race 7: Pandora
Mickey and Lightning weren't in their usual studio today, with the background behind them instead being a research lab of some kind. "Welcome everybody to the far-off world of Pandora!" Lightning announced. "You're in for a special race today as we had to work to get special permission for today's race to happen."
"So they don't disrupt the local wildlife, our racers won't be using regular items, but instead digital recreations that simulate the feedback of items without any of the damage," Mickey explained. "Think of it like laser tag, where the lasers aren't real but the "hits" are."
"With that out of the way, our teams are currently getting sanitized as their vehicles are prepped for aerial racing," Lightning said. "That's right, this race is taking to the sky!"
"Let's not waste any time and check in with them at the base!" Mickey said.
[***]
"Ugh, I think I got some of the decontamination stuff in my mouth," Adam said, smacking his lips as he took a long sip of water.
"But they used micro-lasers to kill any bacteria on us," Toren pointed out.
"It's probably because Adam's a cyborg that the lasers affected his robot parts," Beth suggested.
"I'll make sure he's fine before the race," Melanie said, taking Adam over to the bathrooms to freshen up and get the taste of static out of his mouth.
As Beth and Toren walked through the loading bay for the race, the Jaquin looked out the window and was amazed at the unique landscape of Pandora. The floating rocks and lush jungle made the flying jungle cat feel at home here, despite it being millions of miles from Earth. "This is so cool…" Toren breathed in awe.
"It is indeed," Gabriel nodded, looking over Toren's shoulder. "And as a bonus, our cars have been outfitted with rebreathers so we don't have to wear special equipment to go out there and race."
"Don't forget our cars getting to fly around with the Banshees as well!" Beth said, bouncing with excitement. "I mean, I know that it's really just a modified version of the anti-gravity mode we have on our cars, but it's still cool regardless."
The three then arrived at the loading bay, where they departed as Gabriel went to see how Logan and Aline were doing after last week. The raven found the two hanging out, laughing as they playfully sent banter back and fourth. "Glad to see you two getting along," Gabriel said.
"Oh yeah, a movie marathon was definitely the best way to bond," Aline said. "We're totally besties now!"
"More like friendly rivals, but friends nonetheless," Logan added with the shrug.
"And I made sure that Logan doesn't have any trace of Heartless left in him this morning as well, so we don't have to worry about that," Rachel said, coming over to join the group.
"I think there's still some side-effects from being in my owl form for so long, though," Logan admitted. "It feels like that magic never really left me."
"I mean, Aline turned you into your owl form, so there's no reason for there to be any side effects if she did it right," Rachel said.
Gabriel gave a raised eyebrow to Aline, who suddenly looked sheepish. "Eh-heh, well now that you say that, I did learn the animal transformation spell, but I didn't exactly learn all the steps in the reverse spell…"
"WHAT!?" the three of them shouted in disbelief.
"Hey, I normally just use the spell to turn into my cat form, where I don't need all the steps," Aline defended herself. "It's not my fault casting magic on others is more difficult!"
"Oh man, I'm not going to turn into some kind of were-owl, am I?" Logan asked.
Gabriel put a hand on his shoulder. "I don't think it'll be something like that, at least I hope it's not. We are going to have to get Aline to fix this later and have her learn the proper spell to reverse it, though. After all, the caster must always be the one to undo their own spell, or get a more powerful caster to do it."
"Then you or Rachel could do it," Logan said hopefully.
"But Aline should really be the one to do it, as a lesson for why you should always study the full spell before casting," Rachel said. "As for you, Logan, we just need to figure out what kind of side-effects you have-"
Suddenly, Logan's phone went off. "Oh, it's Destiny, I need to take this," he said, answering the video call. "Hey Destiny, what's up?"
"Hey Logan, just calling from home!" Destiny said. "I'll be watching your race on TV today, so best of luck! Oh, and I wanted to ask your opinion on something."
"Sure, what is it?" Logan asked.
Destiny pulled back the camera to reveal that she had a new outfit, replacing her old one with a one-piece swimsuit patterned after her whale form, along with sunglasses and a sun hat. "I got a new summer outfit for when we go to the beach! What do you think?"
"I-uh…" Logan mumbled, going red in the face at seeing his girlfriend in a beautiful outfit. Suddenly in a POOF Logan magically transformed into a giant snowy owl, dropping his phone in shock, and hanging up on accident. "What the heck just happened to me!?"
"Ah, I know what side-effects you have now," Gabriel said. "And I know how to cure this, but I'm going to need some ceremonial robes, a vessel to contain your animal spirit, and a boy band for good measure."
"Why do I feel like that's a reference to a Disney movie I haven't seen yet," Logan said with a sigh. "But look at me! I'm a giant snowy owl now! I can't drive a car like this!"
"And a floofy one at that," Aline said, giving Logan a hug, burying her face in his feathers. "It's like a Baymax hug but more fuzzy."
"Please stop doing that…" Logan said, becoming flustered.
"Just calm down and you should turn back to normal," Gabriel explained. "It's intense emotions that trigger the transformation."
Logan nodded, taking deep breathes before he POOF turned back into his human form. "At least my clothes are intact," he muttered.
"Aw, no more fluffy owl boy," Aline whined.
"I'm a man! You guys need to stop calling me a kid!" Logan rebutted, before POOF he transformed again. "Cheese and crackers, this is going to be annoying…"
"Just wait until we get back to Earth and I'll get all the things prepared to undo the spell," Gabriel assured his friend. "For now, it's time to race!"
Once Logan returned to his human body, everyone got to their vehicles and revved up their engines, the launch bay opening up to the Pandora skyline as the cars switched into flight mode.
3
2
1
GO!
"And with a rocketing start, Concerto Comet takes the starting lead, followed by Sweet Vision and Heart of a Jaquin!" Lightning announced.
The racers all took a diving start off of the launch bay, freefalling for a bit before pulling up over the Pandora jungle and into the first of items.
"Time for some alternative weapons," Rocket said as his special activated. "Electro Mines!" The raccoon launched his bombs, which blocked the path and zapped at Sweet Vision, temporarily slowing Rachel down.
"Well then, we can't fall behind this early on," Poe said. His own special was ready, with the duck sorcerer launching a fireball at Toren so they could pull ahead.
"Huh, the bananas are now floating air mines," Toren noted. His team dropped it in Beth's path, making sure they could stay in third place for now.
"Here's a return to sender!" Beth called, launching a bomb to get back at Team Heart of a Jaquin.
Aline's team got a firework powerup, but it was useless as Logan used a shield to block the attack. Silver got his special, which let him call out of the animals of Pandora and guide them on a secret lower path to move ahead a place. The racers soared over a river, following it downstream before breaking off to pass by a massive waterfall.
"It's almost like Niagara Falls on Earth," Logan said.
As they flew by the waterfalls and the lake below, the next set of item boxes appeared before them. Gabriel got a bomb to attack Rachel, but her boost power saved her from falling behind. Toren also got a boost to move up a place, which got him out of range of Adam's bomb as it exploded on Beth and Aline, though Logan got another shield to block the attack.
"Wow, we're really lucky with the shield today," Della mused.
The racers soared down into the jungles of Pandora, passing between trees and over giant mushrooms before coming out near a coastline. Going over a reef, the racers made a hard turn as a giant wave started to form, the teams all moving quickly within the tube of the wave to escape before they could wipe out.
"Ha-ha-ha! Cowabunga!" Stitch laughed, getting on the hood of the Toon buggy and hanging ten.
"Do your thing, Stitch!" Beth cheered.
Once they escaped the waves, the racers soon came to the next set of items as they flew into a valley of floating islands in the sky.
"Hey Perry, you finally get to use your special!" Toren said.
The platypus nodded, pulling out his grappling hook and firing it at SEA Racer. The attack latched onto Adam's powerup, snatching it and giving it to Heart of a Jaquin to use, letting Toren boost ahead in the race.
"At least we're not the only team with a powerup stealing ability," Melanie sighed.
Silver dropped a mine behind his car to hit Aline, while Logan got a bomb to blow up Adam and Silver, overtaking them in the race. Stitch then got his special, using his blasters to clear a path through the floating islands so the Toon Buggy could take a shortcut. The racers continued through the floating islands, eventually entering a cave and coming to a stop to admire the bioluminescent scenery.
"This really is a beautiful world," Silver said.
"Hey guys, I just realized that there isn't a Pitstop Challenge for this race," Adam said.
"I think enjoying this view is enough of a pitstop for me," Beth replied, looking around as the plants and animals in the cave all glowed in the low lighting.
"…. Everyone, there is something I should probably tell you since we're all here now," Gabriel said, getting everyone's attention. "There's been some weird things happening during the GP, and Rachel and I think it might be a villain trying to sabotage us. The EPF are also working on the case, but we kept it hidden for the most part so that none of you panicked."
"Oh, is that all the secret stuff with Rachel was?" Logan said nonchalantly. "I thought it was something way worse."
"Really, you're not mad we kept this hidden from you?" Rachel questioned.
"I mean, whenever we get together for these big crossover events, something or someone usually comes along and tries to ruin it," Toren shrugged. "We're kinda used to it at this point."
"And we know you would have told us eventually," Silver said. "This isn't like a cliché cartoon were our friendship has a third-act breakup over some secret."
"And if we're all in on it, then we can catch the villain off-guard and take him down!" Aline cheered.
Gabriel nodded, then looked at his dashboard as it started blinking. "Well, I think we've been out of shot of the racing cameras for a while now. Let's get back out there and race!"
Everyone else smiled, revving their engines up before flying out of the cave and back into the open air. "After a bit of interference, our racers are back on track and into the final stretch!" Lightning called.
The teams twisted and twirled through the air, going around rock structures and taking in all the sights Pandora had to offer. As they got closer to the trees below, the last set of items appeared right as they flew over a clearing in the treeline.
"Bruno, it's your time to get us to the end," Rachel said.
"Then watch out for bombs from above," Bruno warned as his special activated. Rachel did as she was told and swerved out of the way to avoid a bomb thrown by Gabriel, though Beth wasn't as lucky to avoid the attack.
"King, make some noise!" Toren said.
"Titan Scream Attack!" King shouted, using his special to attack the Concerto Comet and move ahead in the race.
"Sorry about this!" Silver called as his launched a firework at Beth, hitting the mark. The Blue Royale then took a tight turn as the SEA Racer boosted past at high speed, thanks to Iron Man using his own special. Eventually the racers all entered into a canyon, going into a divebomb as they approached the finish line.
"Check this out!" Aline called as they moved ahead two places.
"Do a barrel roll!" Beth laughed.
"It's actually an aileron roll!" Logan corrected.
"Just let her have some fun," Silver chuckled.
"Get ready to pull up towards the finish line," Athena said as Adam steadied their vehicle.
"This view is amazing!" Jasiri whooped. "We have to come back here and explore some more, Gabriel!"
"Looks like this is another win for us," Rachel said.
"Actually, we'll be taking that one," Nico called, using his special to boost the Heart of a Jaquin forward and cross the finish line first.
"Heart of a Jaquin takes first, followed closely by Sweet Vision in second and Concerto Comet in third!" Mickey announced.
"That's right, it's our second win!" Toren cheered.
"And with King on our side, we just won't quit!" Nico said, starting a rap.
"Our team's so cool, we're shining stars!" King boasted.
"And it's all thanks to our awesome car!" Toren laughed. "Take it home, Perry!"
Agent P did his signature noise, ending the rap as the team posed.
"They're such dorks," Rachel said, trying hard not to laugh at Toren's antics.
"Yeah, but Toren is our dork," Gabriel chuckled.
Total Points
Gabriel (44)
Rachel (35)
Logan (34)
Toren (33)
Aline (29)
Adam (28)
Silver (27)
Beth (22)
Author's Note
By complete coincidence, the chapter that takes us to the world of James Cameron's Avatar also comes out on the day that the teaser for Avatar 2 was released to the public! I saw it early when it played at the beginning of Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness (another great MCU film, by the way), and ever since I went to Pandora at Animal Kingdom I've wanted to write about this amazing setting. The track was based on the Flight of Passage ride at Animal Kingdom, so consider this a preview of the ride if you've never had a chance to go!
Also, Logan and Aline have leveled up to being friendly rivals, though Aline needs to learn to fully read a spell before casting it. Now Logan is experiencing transformations into a giant snowy owl in similar way to the main character of Pixar's "Turning Red," though Gabriel will have that fixed eventually.
Everyone is now in on the sabotage plot as well, so they're more prepared if another attack happens. But who the villain is remains to be seen…
Next Time: We go from space to under the sea!
