Chapter Thirty Four

San Fransokyo

ANNA

She remembered the horrible feeling of plunging into the depths below, the last ray of light closing up around that black hole as the last thing she could see was Eleanor's gloating face. The fact that Melody and Maui were at least falling with her did little to make her feel better as the overwhelming nausea of being unable to break a fall that had been ongoing for ten minutes engulfed her senses entirely.

When would this stop? Anna remembered thinking after her voice had gone hoarse from screaming. She had called out in the darkness to Melody and Maui, but as far as she could tell, she only heard Melody's voice shouting indistinctly back to her as the sound bounced off the walls of the black hole. She had no idea if Maui was even still with them.

Eventually, they did stop falling, and then everything went black. She didn't know how much time had elapsed, but when she did open her eyes, the searing headache that plagued her was enough for her to shake herself out of her stupor.

The light that engulfed her surroundings was overwhelmingly bright. Frowning hard, she closed her eyes again and massaged her temples, trying to clear the cobwebs. Then she ventured another peek. Tall weeds. Dry, overgrown and dead grass all around. She was lying in a field of some kind, gazing up into the clear blue sky.

Anna eased herself up into a slow stand, shielding her eyes with the side of her palm as the sun came out from behind a cloud and very nearly blinded her again. Squinting, she surveyed the area around her. That it was not Denmark was more than an understatement.

For one thing, the weather was nothing like spring. This was full blown summer. She wiped the sweat which had begun to bead on her forehead with the back of her hand. Where is this?

And then she remembered more importantly, where were Melody and Maui?

"Melody!" she shouted, cupping both hands around her mouth. "Maui!"

All she got in return was the sound of the wind and a hot breeze in her face.

"Melody!" she hollered at the top of her voice, this time a little more frantic. What if they weren't here? "Maui! Where are you guys?"

"If you keep shouting like that, my headache's only going to get worse."

Anna spun at the sound of the voice, trying to figure out where it was coming from. She brushed through the tall weeds madly, till she found Melody lying not far away.

"Are you alright?" Anna crouched down, relieved to know she wasn't alone in this strange new environment.

"Not really, no." Melody groaned, jamming a palm against the bridge of her nose. "Why is it so bright and hot? Where are we?"

"I've been asking myself the same thing." She offered a hand to Melody who took it, and she pulled her companion to her feet. "We're definitely not on the same continent, that's for sure."

"It's summer." Melody said, echoing the same thing Anna had thought of.

"Yeah," Anna said. "Not that I wasn't happy to see you or anything, but you could have told me you guys were planning an ambush against Eleanor. I would've been prepared at least, even if we didn't really stand much of a chance."

"Well," Melody went a little red and she avoided eye contact with Anna. "It wasn't part of the plan actually."

"Huh?"

"I'm sorry, but when I saw you up on the third floor with the Empress, I couldn't let that opportunity slip away." Melody looked sheepishly into the distance. "I let my emotions get the better of me and it landed us here."

"Hold on, hold on." Anna raised her hands defensively. "Aren't you usually the one telling us to hold back and consider things from a tactical advantage and not rush into things while we're emotionally unbalanced?"

"Yeah I've been getting that a lot lately." Melody sighed. "I guess it's easy to give advice. But it's hard when you have a personal stake in it."

"Okay, I get it."

"You do?"

"Yeah, my kingdom's in danger too. I can't blame you for something I would've done myself." Anna said.

Melody sighed and visibly deflated. "Still doesn't change the fact that now we're stuck in the middle of nowhere because of my mistake."

"Did you see Maui?"

"No, but if you and I are here together, it stands to reason that he should be here somewhere too."

"Wherever this is." Anna glanced round again.

"Maybe we should follow the road." Melody felt for her quiver which was somehow still attached to her back, and she closed the flap, concealing her sharp, pointed weapons. Her bow, however, was a different story. It had been left back in the Maine club where Eleanor had revealed her powers and incapacitated them.

Anna nodded, glancing at the long stretch of road that seemed to span for miles in the horizon. "You're right, he could be further up the road or something."

Wherever they were, they had to figure out how to get back to Arendelle and Denmark as soon as possible. She shed her magenta overcoat and began the long walk to wherever the road would take them.

Along the way, about ten or twenty minutes into their hike, they found that Maui was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, Melody spun round like a cat.

"What is it?" Anna said.

"Something's coming. Something fast."

Anna turned, just as a strange vehicle that looked a lot more sophisticated than a carriage seemed to draw closer to them at an alarming speed.

"Get clear!" Melody shoved Anna to the side of the road and she herself dove for the other side just as the vehicle careened down the road and screeched to a halt a little further up away from where the two girls were.

A man emerged from the vehicle and slammed the side door. "I'm so sorry! Are you girls hurt?"

"What were you thinking?" Anna asked indignantly as the man helped her up. She had sustained a few scratches from where she had hit small sharp bits of protruding bitumen.

"I was on my phone." The man said apologetically. "It's a bad habit of mine."

Anna cocked her head. "What's a phone?"

"And more importantly," Melody got up from the other side of the road. "What kind of carriage is that?" She pointed over to the vehicle that had almost flattened them.

The man blinked in surprise. "What, they don't have phones or cars where you girls come from?"

"Where we come from?"

"I think you girls might be hurt. In a daze or something." The man looked concerned. "Don't worry, I can drive you two to the nearest hospital. I'm headed into the city."

"We're-" Anna caught a sharp glance from Melody from the corner of her eye.

"That'll be great, thank you." Melody said hastily.

Anna understood. If the man could get them to civilisation any quicker, then why not?

"Please," the man guided them to his car and opened the backseat door. The two girls piled into the car, and silently marvelled at the sleek, aerodynamic build of the vehicle as well as the low rumbling sound it seemed to produce.

"A car, huh?" Anna glanced at Melody who looked equally curious.

The man got into the front seat and closed the door. The car made a low rumbling noise as if it were a horse being spurred into motion, and set off down the road at a considerably fast pace. Faster than any horse Anna had seen anyway. She glanced round. There was a little dashboard in front of the man, and he had a sleek black slab of metal of sorts mounted vertically at the side.

The front face of the black slab was lit up, and the contents on the front of it was moving somehow. What was this strange thing?

"What's that?" Anna asked again.

"What, my phone?" the man said, this time keeping his eyes on the road. "It's the latest model. The prototype was designed by that Hamada guy."

That wasn't what she was asking, but she could infer one thing from it all. Something is definitely seriously wrong here.

###

Before long, the man had miraculously delivered them into the heart of a city, and in a relatively short span of time too. Anna and Melody gazed quietly out of the window, surveying the new landscape before them.

There were many more "cars" like the one they were in, all of different colours, sizes and build. Some seemed to move even faster than the one they were in, which Anna couldn't for the life of her imagine how that was possible.

People roamed the streets, carrying devices similar to what their driver had. Some were bigger, some smaller, with wires coming out of their ears. What was going on?

Buildings and houses looked different too. Most of them were tall skyscrapers, looming high up in the sky at least twenty or thirty times the height of normal buildings back in Arendelle and Denmark. Was this what the rest of the world really looked like?

"I'm guessing you girls are new here in town." The man broke the silence. "Welcome to San Fransokyo."

"San…what?"

"San Fransokyo. The technological forefront of our nation, and quite possibly the world too." The man said proudly. "Where are you two from?"

"Ummn, Arendelle." Anna said, though Melody remained quiet.

"Huh?"

"Arendelle. The kingdom down in Norway. Have you heard of it?" Anna tried hopefully.

"Kingdom? What, are you from the medieval ages or something?" the man chortled.

What? Okay, guess not.

"What about the Empire of Exon? Heard of it?" Anna suddenly felt very scared, though she herself didn't really know why.

"Lady, are you sure you're alright?" the man turned round to look at her worriedly. "You're talking a little crazy."

"Yes, yes," Melody said hastily. "She's fine. We're both fine."

"Hang on, the hospital isn't far off."

"No, no, we're fine. Please."

"Okay then, tell me what year it is." The man asked.

"You tell me, I'm the one who's supposed to be concussed." Anna mumbled.

"Twenty twenty." The man answered himself. "How can you not know that? You really must be hurt."

"Look, we don't want to impose on you or anything." Melody hurriedly chimed in. "I have a brother in this city who's a doctor. Our car broke down while we were on our way to the city, and both our phones had died on us. And then you found us hiking the rest of the way. Don't worry about my friend, my brother can have a look at her."

"Alright, where's your brother's clinic?" the man looked a little confused.

"It's near here. Don't worry, we can make our own way there ourselves." Melody said quickly. "Please, you've been too kind already. We don't want to impose on you. You can drop us around this corner."

The man looked rather bewildered but he complied and dropped off the two girls. He drove off rather quickly, probably to get as far away from the two strange foreigners as humanly possible.

"What was that all about back there?" Anna scratched her nose as she stared after the man in the car.

Melody beckoned to the side of the street where it was a little less packed. "I think I've figured it out along the way. I think."

"What do you mean?" Anna tilted her head.

"I think," Melody leaned forward and whispered. "We're in the future."

"Wait, that doesn't make any sense." Anna snorted. "You're saying Eleanor sent us to the future?"

"And most likely an alternate world of sorts too." Melody said, sounding quite confident.

Anna paused to think for a while. As far fetched as it seemed, it wasn't entirely impossible. "What tipped you off?"

"It's something our driver said that really got me thinking. He meant it as a joke really, but something clicked in my mind. He asked if we were from the medieval ages or something, remember?"

"Okay the place does look like its brimming with technological advancement. We could be in the future. But what makes you think we're in an alternate world?"

"If you think about it, the Empire of Exon's infamy would have spread throughout the continent, and most likely the world by now. Everyone would have known about a historic period in history where a tyrant queen tried to colonize the continent."

"Uh huh…"

"But if it's such a momentous event in history, how come people don't know about it?"

Anna waggled a finger at her. "I think you might be onto something there. So assuming it's true, we're in the future of an alternate reality. Why?"

"The Empress wanted to send us as far away from her as possible. To make sure we can't interfere with her plans." Melody said grimly. "She felt threatened by our presence."

"Or she'd really been planning this all along and succeeded in luring us into her trap." Anna sighed. "I feel like a complete idiot for falling for it."

"Well, no time to think about that now." Melody said. "We need to figure out what we should do."

"What we should do?" Anna laughed humourlessly. "We're in the future, and in an alternate reality. What can we do?"

"We should probably start by finding Maui."

"Right, right."

"But first, we should find a place to settle down and plan our next move."

"You mean something like that?" Anna pointed to a modern coffeeshop across the street. It was more of a small cottage really, probably someone's home that had been vacated and rented out to be used as a rest stop for travellers. And how true that was in their case. They were travellers after all. Time and dimension travellers. It sounded absurd and laughable to her.

They headed across the street cautiously, almost getting run over by a few of those fast-moving vehicles. A weird, loud and rude sound rang out from the cars as they narrowly swerved to avoid the two girls. They were puzzled though. How was anyone supposed to cross a road like that where there was a non-stop flow of traffic?

Nonetheless, they somehow made it safely to the other side without getting bulldozed and entered the coffeeshop unharmed. Inside, it was exactly what Anna had imagined it to be. A local rest stop for travellers, tourists, or people who just simply needed a drink and a rest.

The interior was like a cozy cottage, walls lined with smooth wood surfaces that gave it a very homely feel. Tables and chairs with clean, minimalistic designs were laid out across the room, and the place was quiet even though there were quite a few patrons in the place.

A lone barista was manning the place all by herself. She had a white apron tied around her waist, which was already stained brown by repeated spillage of various beverages. One could deduce that she was actually quite clumsy, not unlike Anna herself.

"Hi," Anna leaned against the counter while Melody stood by and surveyed the place.

The barista looked up from washing cups by the sink and rushed over.

"Welcome," she said breathlessly. "What can I get you?"

"Ummmn…" Anna looked up at one of those sleek, black bricks with electronic words printed elegantly across it, hanging above her. She hadn't even thought about what to order. "Can I have…uh…"

The barista looked at her, almost as if to say "if you can't make up your mind, then stop wasting my time."

"…two ice mocha frappuccinos please." She hadn't the slightest foggiest what those were, but they sounded enticing and the words just rolled off her tongue smoothly.

"Alright." The barista's fingers moved frantically over a separate device and then turned to attend to the order.

"Oh, and one more thing." This was kind of the reason why they were even in the coffeeshop in the first place. "Do you have a map of the city?"

"Map?" The barista looked somewhat befuddled. "No disrespect fam, but can't you just search it up on your phone?"

"My friend and I are tourists here." Anna used Melody's cover story. It was a good one. "We want to collect maps as souvenirs. You know, just touristy things."

"Uhh…" The barista looked round. "If you really want one of those old things, I think we might still have a few of those lying round. Though no one really asks for them anymore." She rummaged below the counter and produced a flimsy, bent folded piece of paper with multiple creases. "This okay?"

"Yes, I'll have it." Anna took it from her. "Thanks."

"Cool." The barista looked absentminded as she pushed a small disc across the counter. "I'll ring for you when your order's ready."

"Ring for me?"

The barista looked impatient. "The disc?"

Anna stared down at the disc that the barista had slipped across the countertop. "Ah, yes, the disc." She picked it up, though she had no idea what the barista was talking about. "Thanks."

"That'll be twelve dollars."

Anna stared blankly at her, realising that she hadn't any local currency on her. She rummaged into her purse, looking for something that would suffice. Ah, this would do. She fished out a bracelet that she was sure was a royal heirloom.

"Would this do? I'm sorry, I don't have any cash on me at the moment."

The barista blinked as if Anna was the strangest customer she had ever served, but took the bracelet anyway. After all, who wouldn't want to have a bracelet worth thousands for two cups of coffee?

###

"You got something?" Melody asked when Anna sat down opposite her.

"Yeah," Anna unfolded the map and placed it on the thin wooden tabletop. "Though the barista almost took my head off. Is everyone in the future this impatient and distant?"

"Who knows," Melody shrugged. "Let me take a look at that."

A pair of men dressed in dark grey uniforms entered the coffeeshop, speaking rather loudly. A pistol rested on the belt of each man, and a badge was sewn onto the sleeves of their left arms. By the looks of it, they were city policemen on break.

"It was nuts I'm telling you." One of the men had a grating voice which made Anna's ears perk up. "You should've been there."

"I was out on patrol duty remember? It's not like I want to be out there when I could be lounging in headquarters with the rest of you skivers." The other sounded tired.

"Whatever. Anyway, so after the big brown bald tattooed dude crashed through the roof of the headquarters out of nowhere and landed in the middle of the lobby, he starts raving about magic and black holes as if the fall was nothing to him at all."

"Probably one of those junkies high on drugs as usual." The second officer dismissed the first's excited tone.

"No man, I'm telling you, there was something iffy about this one. The roof just collapsed under his weight like it was nothing. And he was huge! It took like a dozen of us to pin him down and get him into a holding cell."

"You're exaggerating." The second man took a long pull from his newly arrived cup of coffee. "No one's that strong."

"Homie, I swear he had the strength of ten men! If you don't believe me, when we get back to headquarters, ask Al what happened. See if his broken nose is exaggerating."

The second man snorted. "So you're telling me this junkie is superhuman or something."

"I don't know, man."

"How did the sheriff react?"

"Oh, you know the boss. Always level headed and calm, even when guys drop through the ceiling and scare half our guys to death."

"Hear that?" Anna whispered to Melody, who had by now looked up from her map at the ruckus from the two policemen's conversation. The arrival of the two men and their choice of topic was a little coincidental, but not that she could complain. It just made their task a whole lot easier.

Melody nodded. "We should find out more."

"How?"

"Just follow my lead." Melody stood up from the table and hurried over to where the two policemen were standing.

What's she up to? Anna caught up with Melody, her eyes matching the confused glances of the two policemen's.

"Officers, I'm sorry, but I need your help." Melody said with an air of a typical damsel in distress, which Anna had to admit, she pulled off really well.

"We're off duty now, miss." One of the officers affected an apologetic tone.

"Please, it's urgent." Melody pleaded. "Our family servant has gone missing?"

"Servant?" one of the officer's cocked an eyebrow. "You mean butler?"

"Yes, yes. Butler. He's gone missing." Melody said hastily. "And my sister and I," she gestured at Anna, who was beginning to understand what she was doing. "We couldn't help but overhear your conversation. You said you had a big brown bald man in custody?"

"Yeah…"

"Well he was bald right? Deep voice? Tall? Muscular?" Anna chimed in, catching Melody's drift.

The first officer looked at the second. "Sounds like these two know our guy." He turned back to the two girls. "Well, the dude was calling out for-"

"Anna. Or Melody. Right?"

"Sounds about right." The first officer said, scratching his chin. "He's a big one."

"Yes, well, before Dwayne came into our family's service, he was a wrestler. He got injured and decided to retire and take a less dangerous job." Melody explained. "Could you take us to him, please? I assure you, he's harmless. I promise."

"Some butler." The first man motioned for the two girls to follow him. "Come on, we'll take you down to the precinct to collect your butler."

"Oh, just hang on one sec." The disc that the barista had handed to Anna began to vibrate and lit up, which was probably what she had meant by "ring for you when it's ready".

Anna hurriedly snatched her two iced coffees from the countertop which almost toppled over in her haste, and handed one to Melody before heading out the door. The two officers were waiting by their car, a sleek black thing of beauty which purred like a soft tiger.

Throughout the ride, the two officers continued chatting casually with each other as if they didn't have any riders in the back. As for Melody, Anna guessed that she was silently planning for a contingency in case things somehow went south. Which was good, Anna thought, since she herself was fresh out of ideas.

The two girls were driven to the front of the police precinct and they got out. The building before them looked like something from outer space. It was well furnished and even on the outside, it looked like an impregnable fortress meant to keep criminals in.

"Oh, uh, a word of caution," The second officer said. "Don't be too intimidated by the boss. Bark's worse than the bite, you know what I mean?"

"Right…" Anna shot a curious glance at Melody. The sheriff sounded like a real charmer.

"Alright then," the door of the precinct opened, and the two girls walked into the building, escorted by the two officers.

Author's Commentary:

The title of this chapter should have given you a hint as to what's coming next. Talk about a crossover. I initially thought about calling this chapter "A whole new world" which would reference Aladdin, but this one worked far better in my opinion.

And boy, writing about a car and phone and modern civilisation from Anna's perspective was fun. You have to remember that they're from the 19th century when technology hasn't quite evolved this far yet, so everything our heroes are seeing is fresh and foreign to them while they seem so common to us. What a new perspective.

Oh, and if you caught the second "Rock" reference, kudos to you. Dwayne Johnson always refers to himself on social media as the "big brown bald tattooed dude". Just a fun little Easter egg :)