At the carnival boardwalk, Logan and Rachel took in the sights of all the Pixar characters running their own stands with carnival games and food stands. Unfortunetely there were also Cast Bots trying to cause problems, but not as many as Rachel expected.
"You know, I thought there would be more of a challenge," the sword mage said as she cut down one of the robots. "Logan, at your 6 with a high swing!"
Logan quickly turned around and slashed with his own sword, sending out green fire that comically burned the attacking robot. "Thanks for the heads up," he said. "And you're right. Do you think Hex slacked off covering here?"
"It's possible," Poe speculated. "If Hex was expecting us to go to one of the other parks next, then we may have gotten the jump on him."
"Speaking of jump…" Destiny called from the bay. "Heads up! Whale Shark coming in!"
"Oh boy," Logan sighed. He braced himself as Destiny leapt out of the water in her Whale Shark from, with the young man catching her like a ballerina dancer held above his head. Luckily his super strength let him accomplish this feat, and Destiny turned into her human form soon after, giving her boyfriend a kiss on the cheek.
"Marvelous performance," Poe said with a chuckle. "Now then, with most of the robots out of the way, let's find that key."
"Oh, I saw where it is while swimming around the pier," Destiny said. She took the group over to a carnival stand where a prize counter was set up. At the very top of the display was the key.
"Excuse me sir," Logan asked the counter manager. "Can we have that key? It's very important to us."
"Only if you present the right amount of tickets," he replied.
"But we really need it," Logan begged.
The manager laughed, taking off his hat to reveal that he was a Cast Bot. "Sorry losers! But you gotta play the game or get out!"
"Come on Logan, let's just find a way to get some tickets," Rachel said, pulling Logan away before he beat up the robot.
"There are a few carnival games we can play to get tickets," Destiny said. "Let's check them out!"
The first game the team went to was Bullseye Station Stampede, a horse racing game where the competitors rolled balls down a skee-ball ramp to make their horse race faster based on the hole the ball landed in. There was already a kid sitting at the bench to play the game: a girl with curly red hair and a candy cane striped shirt.
"Hey, I recognize that girl," Destiny noted. "Giulia, nice to see you again!"
"Hi Destiny!" Giulia greeted. "Are you here to enjoy the games too?"
"More like we're here to win the games," Rachel explained. "We have to get as many tickets as we can to get the top prize, which is that magic key."
"Holy mozzarella, that's a lot of tickets," Giulia gasped. "Don't worry, I'm willing to help you guys out! Luca and Alberto are here with some of the other kids as well, so they can pitch in as well."
"Destiny, how do you know this girl?" Poe asked.
The while smiled as she explained, "Oh, us Pixar characters are like one big family. We watch out for each other, just like how Mickey and pals do the same for their own classic Disney characters. I met Giulia and her friends when they visited the aquarium on a field trip."
"If your friends are willing to help, then let's split up," Rachel said.
With a team huddle and break, everyone went off to one of the carnival games to earn tickets. Logan went to Wall-E Space Race, which was a squirt gun-style game. While his aim was a bit off at times, he had some help from Princess Merida to keep his arms steady and beat the game.
Poe found himself at Heimlich Candy Corn Toss, which was a target-based game to throw a ball into cardboard cutouts of the caterpillar's mouth. Dash and Luca were both there to help the sorcerer duck out, even if Dash was a bit weary working with a villain character. Poe's magic made it easy for him to earn points, and when Luca struggled a bit to get his ball in the hole, the duck subtly moved the ball so the kid could win.
Finally, Rachel met Alberto and Miguel at La Luna Star Catcher, which was a fishing-style game where you pulled up stars instead of fish. Alberto used his fishing skills to help the other two find the stars with the most points, and soon everyone was ready to meet back up at the prize counter.
"And this should be the last of them!" Destiny said, slamming down a huge pile of tickets onto the counter. "I didn't know I was good at skee-ball, but you learn something new every day!"
Giulia gestured to Logan to kneel down so she could whisper in his ear. "Don't tell her thing, but most of her balls actually missed the targets entirely. I may have helped her out a few of those throws."
"Your secret is safe with me," Logan winked.
"So, can we get our prize now?" Rachel asked.
The Cast Bot counted up the tickets, giving a surprised glace at the team. "Wow, you actually managed to get enough tickets. Very impressive. It would be shame if somehow these tickets were, I dunno, thrown out to sea?" The robot then swiped the entire pile of tickets off the counter and into the lagoon behind them.
"No, the tickets!" Destiny gasped. She jumped into the water to try and get them, with Luca and Alberto jumping after her to help out as well.
The Cast Bot laughed as the heroes glared angerly at it. "Oops! Looks like you'll have to try again, losers!"
"Now listen here, good sir!" Poe said, pointing a finger at the robot. "I may be a villain myself, but I wouldn't go so far as to callously rob someone of a prize they earned. To be a good villain, you have to have a certain respect for your opponent, which you clearly lack."
"I mean, Hex is a hacker, so playing fair isn't really in his MO," Logan sighed.
Destiny, Luca, and Alberto came back from the water, with a bunch of soggy tickets in hand. "We got the tickets back… most of them," Destiny smiled sadly.
"And we worked so hard for these," Luca sighed.
"Come on Luca, we can just go earn more tickets," Alberto tried to cheer his friend up.
"Alberto is right! This robot here is just a bully like Ercole," Giulia said. "We just have to prove him wrong!"
The other Pixar characters cheered, going off to earn more tickets. Rachel and Logan still glared at the laughing Cast Bot, though. The sword mage looked up at the magic key, then held back a gasp as it started move on its own! Dropping down to the floor, Rachel motioned for the others to follow her as the key went to an area away from the prize counter. Once they were in a safe place, it was revealed that Woody and Bo Peep were behind the moving key!
"Hey, it's Woody!" Logan smiled. "Nice to meet you, Sheriff!"
"We saw all the work you guys put in to earn those tickets," Woody explained.
"You had a lot of fun, and made new friends as well," Bo Peep added. "You earned this key for sure."
"Won't that robot notice that it's missing, though?" Destiny asked.
Woody smirked. "Don't worry about him. I've called in the calvary to get these out-of-control robots off the pier."
"There he is, officer!" shouted an angry voice. The heroes turned to see that it was Anger himself, ready to blow a fuse as he pointed at the Cast Bot. "That's the guy that was leading the other robots around here! He ruined my hot dog stand!"
"And they popped all of our balloons!" Russell added.
"They raised all of the prices on everything as well!" Mike said. "How can anyone have fun if you can't buy anything?"
"Okay folks, I'll deal with this troublemaker," said Officer Colt, the centaur police officer going over to the counter and crossing his arms.
"Oh, hello, officer," the Cast Bot said nervously. "Would you look at the time, I think I should be going on my break right now!"
"The only place you'll be going is behind bars," Colt huffed, placing handcuffs on the robot.
"Looks like justice was served," Rachel nodded. "I was thinking about giving that robot a piece of my mind."
"We have the key now," Logan said. "How about we get some training in, Rachel?"
"Only if you can keep up," the sword mage taunted, summoning her Keyblade and getting into a stance. "So engarde!"
Author's Note
A short chapter for sure, but I hope you had fun seeing all the Pixar cameos. Also, Luca is a fun wholesome movie, so go watch that one. If there was one thing about it that impressed me, it was that it had no twist villain! That sounds strange, but after a string of Disney and Pixar movies having their villains be "twists" it was nice to have a villain that was straightforward with how much of a bad guy they were.
Minor note, but the Pixar characters seeing each other as family is a partial reference to the Pixar Theory, which is a popular fan theory where all of the Pixar movies are actually set in the same world. The Youtube channel Super Carlin Brothers has a whole series of videos on the subject if you're interested.
Next time is Cars Land, so see you on Wednesday for that!