Disney owns everything, I have nothing to do with them, no money is being made and so on.
FAMILY BUSINESS
Chapter 3
When the next morning dawned, Mechanikles hadn't slept one minute. The entire night had been spent on working on the earwig. His fingers hurt from handling the metal plates and his eyes ached from the lack of sleep, but he was happy. His baby was finally complete!
"It's perfect!" He grinned to himself as he finished polishing the bug. It was so shiny and clean that he almost felt sorry for having to take it out to the desert. He quickly reminded himself that he'd get it properly cleaned again once it had done its job and killed Aladdin for him.
He suppressed a yawn. Perhaps he'd have to take a well-deserved nap before going after the streetrat. It would be such a pity if he fell asleep right when his beauty was having its way with his enemy. Humming happily to himself, he made his way to his sleeping quarters.
Or rather, tried to make. Before he got there, he was stopped by Aspasia. She was smiling widely and all too happily for Mechanikles' liking. His mechanical eye piece whirred out of his head to examine her. She was most definitely up to something.
"What do you want?" he asked.
"I thought we should spend some time together when we have the chance. We're returning to Ikenos in a few days, and we still need to get some talking done," his sister informed him brightly.
"Oh, so you're finally returning?" What great news! He'd be able to put his family out of his mind and forget they had ever even visited him. His life would get back to normal again.
Aspasia shrugged. "Yes. We have to if I want to get back home before the baby starts showing," she said, patting her stomach. Mechanikles had completely forgotten that and he didn't like the reminder. Having children was such messy business. Thank all gods he wasn't a woman.
He yawned. "Charming, I'm sure, but I had other plans for the next few hours," he said.
"Really? What?"
"Sleeping. I'm tired." Mechanikles walked past her, not being interested in her response. However, he froze when he heard what she had to say.
"I wanted to ask you about Metrophanes."
"What about him?" He turned back to look at her in suspicion. Hopefully this wasn't yet another attempt to get him to share good memories and recall the old times. He wasn't feeling up for that at all.
Aspasia looked uncomfortable and played with the sleeve of her dress. She drew a breath. "Well... I never had the chance to ask this, but why was it him that tested the machine?"
"You mean why he died and not me?" Mechanikles asked dryly. To be honest, it was a question he had wondered in the beginning as well. While he certainly wouldn't have switched places with his brother, it had seemed unfair that someone with a wife and young son had had to go.
"No! That's not it! I just want to know... I don't know what I wanted to know. Forget that I asked." Aspasia sighed to herself and closed her for a few seconds. She wrapped her arms around her form and the frown on her face made her look like the unhappiest person in the world.
"In case it makes you feel any better, we flipped a coin. We both wanted to be the first to fly. He wasn't even supposed to even go near the city, but his pride got the better of him. He wanted everyone to see what he had achieved," Mechanikles said. "I wouldn't think about it if I were you. It's useless."
"How can you say that? He was your brother! Don't you miss him at all?" Now there was a tad of annoyance in Aspasia's voice.
"I don't want to talk about this!" Mechanikles snapped and continued to his rooms, leaving his sister alone. She glared after him for a while before sighing and shaking her head.
"I hope Pamphilos had the sense to leave now when he wasn't looking," she muttered.
Once alone, Mechanikles realised that sleeping wasn't an option after all. He was tired, yes, but he found it impossible to sit still for one minute. The thought of having a machine ready to kill Aladdin was too exciting to let him be. Also, he desperately wanted something to do so that he wouldn't have to think about what Aspasia had said.
He rushed right back to his workshop and in his hurry he didn't notice one of his beetles missing. "Come, my pet! Together we shall destroy my enemy!" he commanded and hopped on the earwig. He opened one of the plates and pulled a lever. The bug jerked to motion smoothly, letting out no other noise but the clank its feet made against the marble floor.
Aspasia and Simonides ran to him, alarmed by the noise. Mechanikles wondered briefly where they'd lost Pamphilos. Well, he wasn't feeling like seeing the little disappointment at the moment anyway.
"I thought you were going to sleep," Aspasia pointed out.
"There has been a change of plans, sister dearest! Behold my newest creation!" Mechanikles said happily.
Simonides crossed his hands on his chest, though he couldn't quite hide the interested expression from his face. Mechanikles was a little surprised to see that even the muscled fool had realised the merit of his work.
"He's in one of those moods again," the soldier said to his wife who didn't look very happy.
"What are you going to do?" she asked with some worry. "That thing is not safe."
"Safe? Oh, you and your inferior mind! This is not supposed to be safe! It's the epitome of danger! Danger to my enemies and everyone who dares to oppose me!" Mechanikles leaned back and laughed, getting strange glares from the two viewers.
"Uh-huh," Aspasia said dryly.
The inventor stopped and looked at her critically with his eye piece. "I see you don't appreciate my genius," he pouted. "Well, it is of no importance. Once I have gotten rid of my enemy, the whole world will be open for me!" He commanded the earwig take him out of the building. Right before he was outside, he turned back to look at his family.
"Oh, and while I'm gone, please clean up your camp site. I see you've been littering," he said disapprovingly. With that he was quickly out of sight and alone.
Now, he wasn't about to march straight to Agrabah to challenge Aladdin. While that would have been entertaining, he knew his earwig wouldn't be taken seriously in the city. They would just send some of the incompetent guards to deal with him. What he wanted was to be alone with Aladdin and whatever friends the nuisance would drag along this time.
Doing that would not be a difficult task. He only had to lure the fool to a suitable spot in the desert.
The sun was shining on him as he rode the earwig to the place he had chosen. He wiped sweat off his brow and pulled out his scroll. "Next time build something with air conditioning." When he got to his destination, he jumped off his creation and eyed his surroundings with an expectant smile.
They were in a canyon with high walls rising up to the sky. It was a route favoured by caravans from some of Agrabah's neighbour kingdoms. There had once been numerous thieves hiding there like roaches, but the shared effort of the kingdoms had got rid of such a menace.
"Now we'll wait," he told his beauty as he climbed on top of a cliff. It was a difficult task for him as he wasn't an athlete, but when he got there, he realised that it had been well worth the effort. He now had the perfect view.
He instructed the earwig to dive underground. Now it looked like it had never even been there and Mechanikles cackled to himself. Soon his plan would be set to motion!
Turned out that it took a little longer than that, however. After two hours, there still hadn't been a single caravan making its way to Agrabah. Mechanikles yawned to himself. He was leaning against the stone wall and while it wasn't the most comfortable position, he felt like he could no longer keep his eyes open. Before he knew it, he had fallen asleep.
When he woke up, he was aching all over and it took him a few seconds to realise what was going on. The horrified screams that rang in his head didn't help to make the matter any clearer. He blinked and then turned to look at the direction of the voices.
His heart jumped. A caravan had tried to walk through the canyon while he had been asleep, and his earwig had attacked them all on its own. At the moment it was chasing two men towards Agrabah. Both were bleeding and their clothes were torn. If the earwig had continued pursuing them, they would have had no chance. However, Mechanikles called his creation back. He wanted those men to spread word in Agrabah.
"Oh, I'm so proud of you!" he exclaimed happily as he gazed down on his invention. He climbed down to the ground and hugged it like a proud father. Then he turned to look at the scene. The caravan had dropped many of their packages and the canyon was in a state of horrible disorder.
Mechanikles frowned to himself. "No, this won't do. We can't have Aladdin's death scene be played in this mess!" He quickly started collecting the merchandise and building neat piles out of it.
"So, where were we supposed to meet this new friend of yours?" Iago asked. He was sitting on Aladdin's shoulder and gawking around. There was nobody matching Aladdin's description in sight.
"Right here," the young man said, pointing at the street the group was standing in.
The parrot snorted. "Oh, really nice. A dirty back alley with rotting trash at every corner. No wonder he's not here. I wouldn't have come either if someone had asked me to meet him in a place like this!" he said.
Abu chattered a response and rolled his eyes from Aladdin's other shoulder.
"Right, almost forgot. He met the monkey too. Now we can be sure he's not coming back," Iago said.
"Oh, be quiet," Aladdin said. "Pamphilos is just late, that's all." He was not having any doubts about the other man arriving. He had seemed like an honest guy.
He glanced over to Jasmine. She was wearing the clothes he had dubbed 'the market outfit' so that she wouldn't attract too much attention. She had been delighted to hear they'd be receiving a foreign guest. Even after her life had become considerably less restricted, she was still curious about places she had never seen.
"Is that him?" she asked pointing to an advancing figure. Aladdin turned to look and saw a lanky young man who was glancing around uncertainly and looking like he wasn't sure he was in the right place.
"That's him," he said and waved to the man. "Hey, Pamphilos! Over here!"
A relieved smile spread on the Greek's face and he hurried to them. "Sorry I'm late. I got a little lost. I'm horrible with directions," he apologized.
"It's no problem. It's not like any of us was impatient or anything," Aladdin said with a glance to Iago's general direction.
"Oh, sure. Everyone blame the parrot," Iago said, though he wasn't sounding particularly annoyed anymore.
"Pamphilos, this Jasmine, my fiancée. You already know Abu and this little sunshine is Iago," Aladdin introduced. They had agreed to save Genie and Carpet for later as they didn't know what Pamphilos' reaction to magic might be. The last thing they wanted was him to panic in public.
"Nice to meet you," Pamphilos said, turning to look at everyone. He still looked nervous, much more so than the previous day.
Aladdin frowned to himself. "Is something wrong?" he asked.
"What? Oh, no! Not at all. Or... um, maybe. I'm not really supposed to be here. My uncle would throw a fit if he knew," Pamphilos said sheepishly and rubbed his neck. He couldn't meet anyone's eyes.
"Why? Does he have something against Agrabah?" Jasmine asked. She didn't sound offended, even though it had been implied that someone detested her kingdom.
Pamphilos blushed a little. "No, I don't think so. He's probably just over-protective," he said. Aladdin found it a little odd that someone would worry that much over a man of his age, but he didn't comment on it. Maybe they had different kind of traditions over where Pamphilos was coming from.
"Well, you shouldn't worry about that. We won't tell him," he said cheerfully. "Now, are you ready to see the palace?"
"You're still trying to make me believe that she's a princess?" Pamphilos asked, pointing at Jasmine. She didn't look very impressive in her common clothes.
She smiled at him in slight amusement. "Looks can be very deceiving," she said. "Come. I'll show the way."
Boy, is he in for a surprise, Aladdin thought as they walked towards the palace. He noticed that Pamphilos was keeping a slight distance from everyone else and kept glancing around nervously. Something had to be bothering him.
"So, what do you think of Agrabah?" Jasmine asked.
"It's fascinating. Your architecture is so different from what I'm used to. Especially the palace. I love the round shapes and the towers," their guest replied. "The market is a little too crowded for my liking, though."
"Really? I love the buzz of people," the Princess said.
"I don't. It makes me feel uncomfortable to be surrounded by too many people," Pamphilos admitted.
Jasmine smiled at him. "Then you'll love the palace. There is so much extra space that you can easily get lost," she said.
"You know, you can stop this palace joke now. I may be new here, but even I know that princesses don't just walk around among the common folk," Pamphilos said, sounding a little irritated.
Iago landed on his shoulder and smirked at him. "You're a slow one, aren't you, kid? Look at her! Do you think a regular street mouse has that kind of skin or hair?"
"How should I know? I'm not an expert on women," Pamphilos offered.
"What a surprise," Iago muttered to Abu who chattered in amusement. Even Aladdin had to smile.
"Come on, why would we lie? And I told you, strange things can happen in here," he said.
They had now arrived to the gates. Iago flew over them to inform the guards of their arrival. His loud "The Princess wants in!" was easily audible to the other side. The gates started opening slowly, and at the same time Pamphilos' expression turned into wonder.
He turned to gawk at Jasmine. "You really are a princess?" he asked.
"Told you so," Aladdin chuckled. They walked inside and the gates were closed after them. Aladdin noted how Pamphilos was looking at everything like he was a man whose eyes had just been opened after years of blindness. It amused him a little, partly because sometimes even he found himself surprised by the palace's beauty.
"I'm so sorry!" Pamphilos hurried to say to Jasmine. He bowed in a hurry. The flush on his face told everyone just how embarrassed he was.
Jasmine laughed. "Don't worry. I wasn't offended. And you don't have to sound so formal. I'm just a human, too," she assured. She left them for a while to change back to her harem outfit and Aladdin led their small group to the gardens. He figured that was the best place to talk.
"I feel really stupid," Pamphilos admitted when they had settled down.
"You shouldn't. It must have looked like we were just joking. I wouldn't have believed myself either," Aladdin said. Truth to be told, he was starting to get a little tired of Pamphilos' attitude. Sure, he had been wrong. So what? It wasn't the end of the world.
Suddenly there was loud buzzing next to his ear. "Psst! That's him?" a mosquito-shaped Genie asked.
"Who else?" Iago replied.
"I think there's a huge bug right next to your face," Pamphilos said and pointed at Genie. He hadn't yet realised that he wasn't dealing with an ordinary insect. That would soon change.
With a loud puff Genie transformed into his real form. "So, you're the guy Al was talking about!" Within a second he turned into Socrates and gave the guest a wide smile. "Does this make you feel at home? Or are you a supporter of Plato instead?"
Pamphilos backed away until he almost fell into the fountain. He had a terrified expression on his face and it looked like he might faint. "Uh..." he managed to say.
Genie-Socrates' face fell. "Never seen magic before, huh?" he asked. He puffed back to his original form.
Pamphilos could only shake his head.
"Well, no worries!" Genie turned into a male high school teacher with glasses, a blackboard and a pointer. "We'll have you educated in no time!" With another puff Pamphilos was sitting behind an old school desk. This was when Aladdin decided to interfere before their guest died of shock.
"Genie, I think that's enough for a start," he said with a chuckle. Genie turned back again and all the magical items disappeared, making Pamphilos fall to the ground. He got up quickly and dashed farther away from Genie.
"What is that?" he asked in fright.
"Not what, who. As for the answer, just call me Genie; your regular, magical jack-of-all-trades," Genie said brightly.
"You don't have to be afraid of him. Genie is a friend," Aladdin assured. Pamphilos didn't look convinced, but he did manage to get something like a smile on his face when he turned back to Genie.
"My apologies. I've never seen anyone like you before," he said.
"Well, they say I'm one of a kind," Genie replied modestly and checked his nails. "But hey, you haven't seen good old rugman yet!"
"More magic?" Pamphilos asked. Right then Carpet came from behind a tree where he had been hiding. He landed a few feet away from Pamphilos and looked up at him in curiosity. Perhaps he was a little nervous too, considering how the Ikenian had reacted to Genie. He shouldn't have had to worry. Pamphilos looked relieved to see him and Aladdin suspected he had been expecting something awful.
"I think that's it for the surprises," he said. "We didn't want to introduce Genie and Carpet to you before because we didn't know how you'd take them."
"That was wise," Pamphilos admitted. "I still can't believe I'm standing this close to something magical!"
"You have no magic in your homeland?" asked Jasmine, returning to the others. She was now wearing her regular harem outfit and looked like a real princess again.
"We do, but I've never dealt with it myself. I prefer staying in the city where nothing strange ever happens," Pamphilos replied.
"You know, I think I'm starting to like this guy," Iago said.
They settled down and Jasmine ordered some fruit to be served to them. Abu and Iago devoured their share in an instant, but nobody else seemed to be very hungry. Aladdin noted how Pamphilos didn't even take a bite of his apple, merely played with it in his hands.
He glanced over at Jasmine who shrugged helplessly. Aladdin doubted it was their company that was making their guest so withdrawn, but he had no idea what he could do about it.
Fortunately, Jasmine, being the diplomat, saved the situation. "How long are you planning on staying in the area?" she asked.
"Not very long. I think we might be returning in a few days," Pamphilos replied.
"Oh? That's a pity," the Princess said.
"Not really," their guest said. Within a second he seemed to realise what he had said and corrected himself quickly. "I mean, not that it wouldn't be nice to learn to know the city and people a bit better, but I don't really like travelling."
"Then why did you come here?" Aladdin asked. He couldn't understand how someone couldn't like travelling. Had he been able, he would have spent all his time exploring strange lands and kingdoms with Jasmine.
The question seemed to surprise Pamphilos and it took a few moments before he replied. As if he needed time to come up with a good answer, Aladdin noted.
"My aunt insisted on it. When she gets something in her head, there is little anyone can say about it," the Ikenian said.
"Ooh, sounds like someone I know," Genie said and winked at Jasmine.
There was a moment of silence, so Aladdin decided to change the subject. "I think Jasmine would be interested in hearing your plans for re-building the streets of Agrabah," he said.
Jasmine turned to look at him with lifted eyebrows, but her smile didn't disappear for a second. "Oh, yes, that would be delightful," she said politely.
Pamphilos didn't need to be told twice. He got into a passionate monologue about how much easier the everyday life would be if all streets were in perfect lines, if there were no back alleys taking space and creating a breeding ground for problems, if angular shapes were used instead of round and if a bridge was built over the marketplace so that traffic could pass it without bothering the trade.
"All in all, the city would be much more organized that way," he said. That was when he seemed to realise that Jasmine hadn't said anything but "Really?" and "Interesting" for the entire time, that Iago was snoring loudly and that everyone else's eye lids were drooping.
He grinned sheepishly. "I'm boring you, aren't I?"
"Of course not!" Jasmine hurried to say, but Aladdin had to admit that her act wasn't quite flawless.
"No, it's alright," Pamphilos assured. "I'm used to it. But I see I've been the subject all this time. I don't want to take all the attention, so why don't you talk about yourselves now? For example, are the tales of adventure true?"
"I thought you didn't like adventures," Aladdin said.
"No, but hearing about them is different than having them."
"Hey Al, why don't you tell him about the time when Mozenrath tried to make his Wind Jackal destroy Agrabah?" Genie suggested. He quickly transformed his head into that of Mozenrath's and did his best imitation of the sorcerer.
The next hour was spent with everyone telling about their favourite adventures to Pamphilos and Genie acting out various scenes to make them seem more real. Everyone was having fun and all earlier tension was gone. Genie even managed to make the Ikenian laugh at his imitation of Abis Mal.
"Are all these stories true?" Pamphilos asked after Iago had told him about the time when he had almost been turned into stone - though Aladdin noted that the parrot made his slight changes to the story to make himself look better.
"Of course. I told you life here is exciting," Aladdin said.
"Aren't we missing someone?" Iago realised suddenly. "You know, someone evil and insane?"
Genie started counting the villains with his fingers. "Mozenrath, Mirage, Saleen, Abis Mal... Oh, Al! We haven't told Pamphilos how Mechanikles tried to iron the desert!" With a puff he had turned into his version of the inventor and started his imitation of the Greek's rant about hating wrinkles and bumps.
The smile on Pamphilos' face froze and died. The young man was staring at Genie with a look of horror and Aladdin realised that Mechanikles wasn't probably the best subject of their stories.
"Genie," he said and gestured his friend to stop. Genie understood the message and puffed back to his true form.
"Sorry about that," he said to Pamphilos and smiled. "That wasn't meant to say anything about your people. Mechanikles is a rotten egg." To emphasize his words, he changed into a huge basket of old eggs left in the sun for too long. Everyone had to cover their noses.
"Genie!" Aladdin said again, more sternly this time. He proceeded with telling Pamphilos about their fights against Mechanikles and how the inventor had tried to take over Agrabah. He noted that Pamphilos was looking sicker with every word and Aladdin starting getting worried the young man might throw up.
Fortunately, the situation didn't go any further because the Sultan came running to them. "Aladdin!" he said. The tone of his voice told everyone that something was going on.
Aladdin was the first to get to his feet. "What is it?" he asked.
"I was just informed that some merchants have been attacked in the desert. Nobody was killed, but they lost almost all of their merchandise. Also, they claim that a huge monster did it," the Sultan explained.
Well, I thought this day was starting to look abnormally peaceful, Aladdin thought. "I'll take a look," he promised. "Come on, Carpet!" Within a minute he and all his friends were ready to go.
"I think you should stay here with the Sultan," he told to Pamphilos who looked lost in the middle of all the action.
"No, I think I should return to my family. I've been away for too long," the Ikenian said.
"That's not a good idea. You're staying outside of Agrabah, right? As long as the monster is on the loose, it's not safe to leave the city. Stay here, we'll be back soon," Aladdin said.
"But -" Pamphilos tried to insist, but the heroes had already flown away.
What a time for the monster to appear, Aladdin thought as they were flying towards the canyon. They hadn't seen any signs of anything strange yet, and the desert looked peaceful in all directions.
"I wonder what kind of creature it is," Jasmine said. "Father didn't say anything about it."
"It's probably one of the sand creatures that roam the deserts. What else could it be?" Aladdin replied.
Iago glared at him in irritation. "Do you really have to ask? Knowing our luck, it's huge and evil with big teeth and an appetite for the avifauna!" he snapped.
"Nah, it can't be that bad. I mean, how many times have we faced anything that wanted to eat you?" Genie asked and pulled a complete episode guide from his pocket. Iago tried to take a look, but Genie quickly snatched the guide from him. "No, no, birdman. You don't want to spoil next week's episode, do you?"
With that he flipped through the guide until he slammed it shut which caused it to disappear. "Well, I guess you were right," he admitted with a smile. "Whatever we're going to find is most likely going to make barbecue out of you."
"I knew it! I should have stayed at the palace!" Iago snapped. He might have continued with that, but Aladdin gestured everyone to be silent. They were now in the canyon and Carpet slowed down.
"I don't see anything," Jasmine whispered.
"Good, maybe it's gone," Iago said.
A minute later they arrived to the spot where the merchants had been attacked. "This must be the place," Aladdin said, glancing around.
Genie left the others to go and admire a neat pile of purple silk. "Hey, look at this. The monster was nice enough to collect the fallen merchandise so that it won't be ruined," he observed.
Aladdin looked at the perfect piles of goods and frowned to himself. Something was wrong. "This is not natural," he said. "Either someone gathered them so that they can come back for them later, or we're dealing with -"
He was cut short when something attacked them from below. They all fell off Carpet and scattered around the sandy ground. Aladdin shook his head to clear his thoughts and quickly glanced around to see if his friends were alright. Nobody seemed to be hurt, so he turned his eyes to their attacker.
A slender mechanical earwig stood before him. It had appeared from underground with no warning. The thing had little feet, two sharp stingers at the end of its tail, vicious-looking tusks and it was currently standing still, as if anticipating their next move.
"Mechanikles," he finished his earlier sentence and scanned around to find the inventor. He shouldn't have bothered because a fit of maniacal laughter revealed the Greek's position soon enough.
"You again!" Aladdin heard Jasmine snap. She was the first to stand up and was glaring furiously at the enemy.
"Indeed, Princess! Though I can promise you, this will be the last time!" Mechanikles declared as he grinned down on them.
"What do you want?" Aladdin asked. He stood up as well and went to Jasmine. He glanced at the earwig but kept his attention on the lunatic. The machine was different from the ones they had faced before, but - unless Mechanikles had some new tricks up his sleeve - he doubted it would cause too big of a problem.
Mechanikles smirked at him. "Why, isn't that obvious? Kill you, of course! Getting rid of the Princess and putting a stop to the royal bloodline is a nice plus, too."
"That is not going to work!" Aladdin promised. It was nothing new, but threatening Jasmine always angered him. Much more than it seemed to affect her, in fact.
"Oh, really?" was Mechanikles' calm answer and the next thing Aladdin knew was that the earwig was moving again. At first he didn't know what the thing could do since it lacked most of the outer weapons he had expected. However, he learned the answer very soon when the thing smashed him to the ground with one swift slash of its tail.
"Aladdin!" Jasmine exclaimed and ran to him.
"I'm alright," Aladdin muttered through gritted teeth as he got up. His back and chest protested against the sudden movement, but it didn't feel like anything was broken. "Watch out!" he called suddenly when the bug was attacking them again. He pushed Jasmine out of the way and rolled over, just in time to avoid another blow.
"Give up, street rat! You can't win this time!" Mechanikles taunted, but Aladdin ignored him. He backed away from the earwig until he had the chance to eye it more carefully. The tail was the most dangerous part. It was flexible, fast and he didn't want to know what the stingers would feel like.
The machine was completely covered in metal plates and he couldn't think of a way to get under them to the machinery. The only possible weakness could be the mouth. On the other hand, if it wasn't covered there had to be some nasty surprise waiting for him.
"Genie! We need to stop it!" he shouted at his friend.
"I'm on it, Al!" Genie turned into his trademark cowboy and threw his lasso around the earwig's neck. "Yeehaaw!" The earwig struggled and pulled, but couldn't get rid of the trap it had fallen into. While Genie was keeping it busy, Aladdin took his chance and leapt on the bug's back.
"Whoa," he said when he realised how smooth the surface actually was. It was nearly impossible to remain riding when the thing was moving. He tried to find a way to push his fingers under the plates, but there was nothing. I need something I can stuff into the mouth, he realised. Experience had shown him that pushing things into Mechanikles' inventions usually made them blow up.
Unfortunately for him, at that exact moment the earwig slashed its tail at Genie's lasso and cut the rope. Genie flew backwards into the canyon wall and the machine was free again. Aladdin grabbed the rope that was still around its neck and that was the only thing that stopped him from flying right over the thing's head.
"Aladdin!"
He turned his head to where Jasmine was. "I'm alright!" he assured her. The earwig was having trouble now that its main target was out of sight. It wasn't attacking anything at the moment, only glancing around. Aladdin doubted it actually saw anything, though. Not even Mechanikles could make machines act like living things.
"He's on your back! Smash him!" the inventor shrieked from above them. Aladdin didn't remain in one spot long enough to see if the machine responded to its master's voice, but took his chance and jumped off the thing's back. Not a second too soon. Before he had even picked himself up from the sand, he could hear the thud from the earwig's tail hitting its back.
One point for us, he realised when he saw the dent the bug had given itself.
Mechanikles wasn't feeling happy. "No! Don't hit yourself!" he screeched feverishly at his invention. "Him!" He pointed a finger at Aladdin. The young man had returned to his friends by now.
"We've got to get something into its mouth. It's our only chance," he was telling them.
"Then what's the problem? Can't he come up with something?" Iago asked and pointed at Genie who had got himself back together.
"That'll be easy!" Genie promised enthusiastically.
"Then do it fast! It's getting closer!" Iago shrieked. Everyone scattered when the earwig attacked them again. It concentrated on Aladdin which gave Genie a chance to do his trick. While Aladdin dodged yet another attack, Genie turned into a wooden cork and jumped into the earwig's mouth.
"Alright!" Aladdin exclaimed, but it was too soon. The earwig shot a long sword out of its mouth and impaled Genie-cork on the wall.
"Are you alright?" Jasmine asked in worry and ran to their blue friend. He was looking a little dizzy, but turned back to himself with a puff.
"I don't want to see a wine bottle opener ever again in my life!" Genie announced and made sure there were no marks on his chest. "That idea didn't work after all. We have to come up with something else."
"Can't you just blow it up? You know, with those fire crackers you have," Iago asked.
An expression of enlightenment appeared on Genie's face. "Oh, you mean dynamite! Yes, that would work." Then his expression darkened. "But first we've got to slow it down a little." He pointed at Aladdin who was doing his best at avoiding the earwig's attacks.
"This new toy of yours is just like the other ones! It's going to break down sooner or later!" Aladdin taunted as he jumped out of the tail's way.
"Oh, really?" Mechanikles asked, sounding bored. "Then why is it giving you so much trouble?"
"It's not! I'm just getting warmed up."
Suddenly, the machine stopped, lifted its head and shot something to where Aladdin's head was. He leapt to right. When he turned back to look, he saw that the wall was melting away with an angry hiss.
"By the way, did I mention that this beauty spits acid?" Mechanikles asked.
"You know, I have the feeling that your brother is causing trouble somewhere right now," Simonides said to Aspasia. They had just finished looking around their camp site in search for the trash Mechanikles had mentioned, but had found nothing worth picking up. Now they were enjoying what they knew to be a rare moment alone.
Aspasia laughed. "Don't be silly! He's such a warm-hearted spirit! He couldn't hurt a fly." She bent closer to give her husband a soft kiss. "I bet he's just playing somewhere with his toys."
Back with Aladdin's friends, Jasmine came up with an idea. "I know! Look at its legs! If we turn it on its back, it shouldn't be able to get back up again! Then we can destroy it," she exclaimed.
Iago didn't look impressed. "Come on! That's such an old -" he started, but Abu interrupted him by kicking him off the rock they were both sitting on.
"Good idea!" Genie agreed. "I know how to do it!" With that he flew to the purple silk that had stood ignored during the encounter. He opened one pelmet and spread it on the ground. Then he turned into a miner with a shovel and quickly covered the fabric.
"I know what you're thinking," Jasmine said. She, Abu and Iago ducked out of sight while Genie took the form of Aladdin, just like when they had fought Jafar in the past.
"Yoo-hoo, ugly! I'm here!" he shouted and waved at the earwig. The machine turned its head in confusion, not knowing what to do with two different Aladdins. The real one took this moment to creep away from the bug and ran to Jasmine.
"What are you doing?" he asked. He hadn't had the time to see what his friends were up to.
"Watch," was all that Jasmine said.
Now that there was only one Aladdin left, the earwig had no trouble deciding what to do. It rushed to Genie-Aladdin, despite the angry orders of its creator. Mechanikles had seen everything from above and knew his masterpiece was heading for a trap.
"No, don't go there! It's not him!"
Fortunately, the machine didn't listen. Once it lay its feet on the sand-covered silk, Genie grabbed the fabric and pulled hard. The earwig lost its balance, did a mighty spin in the air and landed perfectly on its back. It tried to get up, but its short feet were of no use.
"Yes!" the heroes cheered and rushed over to the defeated machine. Jasmine was the first, happy for that her idea had worked so well. She turned back to look at Aladdin and opened her mouth to say something.
Aladdin was the first who saw the danger. "Jasmine, look out!" he warned when the earwig drew back its tail and slashed with it. Due to the unfortunate position of the bug, the hit wasn't as strong as it could have been, but still enough to smash Jasmine against the wall. She let out a pained moan and collapsed to the ground.
The earwig completely forgotten, Aladdin rushed to her side. She was awake, but so dazed that she couldn't respond to his call. She had hit her head on a sharp rock and a small trickle of blood was flowing down her temple.
"Jasmine, speak to me! Are you alright?" Aladdin asked feverishly. He had collected her in his arms and all he could think about was her safety. Why had he let her come along? He should have known that this adventure would be too dangerous for her! What would he do if she had got badly hurt?
What would he have done if she had died? No, he didn't want to think about that.
"I'm fine," Jasmine muttered dizzily. She tried to get up, but Aladdin forced her back down.
"No, lie still. I don't want you to get any more hurt," he said.
An annoyed frown appeared on Jasmine's face, but she didn't resist for once. Aladdin knew he would be in for a scolding once she got better, but at that moment he was too worried to care about that.
While he had been paying attention to Jasmine, Genie had planted a tube of dynamite into the earwig's mouth. He grabbed Iago, Abu and Carpet, flew over to Aladdin and Jasmine and turned himself into a huge blue bomb shelter to cover them.
There was a loud boom, a desperate "No! My baby!" from Mechanikles and the evil machine was no more. Broken pieces of metal fell on them as they got up. Jasmine tried to say that she could stand on her own, but Aladdin insisted on her leaning on him.
"Well, that's another evil ploy stopped," Genie said in satisfaction. "Hey Jasmine, are you alright?"
"Yes, just a little dizzy," she replied.
Genie turned into a handsome young doctor. He winked at Jasmine as he said, "Ah, good thing nothing worse happened. My treatment will have you in perfect shape in no time!"
Aladdin wasn't sharing his friend's enthusiasm. He felt angry and frustrated. Jasmine had been in danger many times before, but it wasn't every day that she got hurt on their adventures. He felt like a fool for not realising that something was bound to happen sooner or later. I should have taken better care of her, he thought to himself.
He glanced to where he had last seen Mechanikles. To his surprise the inventor was still there instead of having fled with the help of his other inventions. He felt a new kind of hatred for the villain. Jasmine should have never got hurt just because the lunatic wanted to have revenge on him.
"Carpet, take me up there," he told his friend. Carpet jumped a little with surprise and looked at him with a questioning pose.
"What are you going to do?" Jasmine asked.
"Someone could have got killed just now. It could have happened before and it could happen next time. I'm going to stop him before something really happens," Aladdin said darkly. He hopped on Carpet who took him to where Mechanikles was.
The Greek was currently writing down something and muttering to himself. "Never ever be cocky enough to forget an escape plan." When he noticed Aladdin, he took a look at the young man with his eye piece.
"What do you want, boy? You may have won now, but next time -" he started in irritation, but Aladdin didn't let him finish.
"There won't be another time! I'm taking you to Agrabah so that you can be sentenced for your crimes," Aladdin said sternly.
"What? You can't do that!" Mechanikles looked appalled that Aladdin would even suggest such a thing. "I'm not a common criminal!"
"No, you're a safety hazard!" Aladdin wasn't really in the mood to listen to Mechanikles' worthless blabbering, so he just caught the weaker man by his tunic and pulled him on Carpet. The Greek tried to fight back, but it was a lost cause. He could do nothing to Aladdin.
When they got back down, Aladdin realised that everyone was staring at him. "What?" he asked. "We should have got him locked up a long time ago."
Genie scratched his chin. "I know, Al. It's just so strange to see you blow up like that," he said.
"Yeah, well, I've had enough of his plots. He's too dangerous to be let roam free," Aladdin said. Now that he thought about it, he realised that if they had tried to capture Mechanikles before and not just stop him, Jasmine wouldn't have got hurt at all. Why had he been so stupid? He wondered briefly what the Sultan would say.
"Let's get back to Agrabah," he decided.
The trip was unusually quiet. Jasmine was having a headache and didn't feel like talking, Aladdin was too wrapped up in his dark thoughts to say anything, Mechanikles was sulking and spreading bad mood all around and even Genie thought it was the best to remain silent.
To be continued…