The Search Begins
Disclaimer: Same as before…
"Are you alright, Donald?" Prue asked, several minutes later.
"I have a splitting headache…" Donald complained.
"Well, no wonder mate," Godfrey began, "That's what you get when you bang your head against a tree multiple times…"
"You should be more careful, mon ami." D'Artagnan observed, rubbing his brown beard with his fingers.
"I am careful!" Donald protested.
"Not from where I stand." D'Artagnan replied, "First you got your index finger into the electric deicer which put several volts of electricity into your body. Then you bashed your head multiple times into the palm tree."
"To be fair, that was intentional on the part of our fine, feathered friend." Godfrey observed.
"Still rather foolish if you ask me." D'Artagnan replied.
"Oh brother…" Donald grumbled, drumming his fingers on the side of the examining table.
"You're cleared to go, brother." Doc replied, grinning.
"I'll give you a heads up when we are ready to go, mon ami." D'Artagnan began.
Donald left the room grumbling about smart-aleck Frenchmen. "Nice bumping into you." Godfrey added.
Donald added another grumbled remark about smart mouthed Englishmen as well. "Normally they say we British are rather dry of wit." Godfrey remarked.
"That is only because the French taught you." D'Artagnan replied, smiling.
"Bollocks!" Godfrey replied.
"William the Conqueror? 1066? Hastings?" D'Artagnan replied.
"You wanker, William eventually became British!" Godfrey replied.
"I don't know, Godfrey," Prue replied, innocently, "If I remember, William the Conqueror was a Norman and that's about as French as you can get…to most historians. To be honest I'm more worried about Donald."
"Aw shucks," Goofy replied, "Don't worry about it. He does that all the time when he gets frustrated. I can't remember how many times we've had to fix dents in the castle's wall every time a spell backfires."
I've joined a damn circus. D'Artagnan thought. Two Disney characters, a witch, a princess, a mad bomber…
"Vinny! Yer daid you stinkin' varmint!" Cookie's shout could be heard echoing through the halls.
Just then an Italian man with a black mushroom cut and mustache with a black sweater and a metal breastplate came running by them at high speed. Prue yanked him back with her telekinesis.
"What did you make this time?" Prue asked.
"A cantaloupe cocktail." Vinny replied, "Save me from that insane frontier's man, please!"
"What?" D'Artagnan asked.
"That's Vinny." Godfrey began, "He has a tendency to make all kinds of crazy inventions when he's bored. Most of them are of the explosive or incendiary variety."
"What's a cantaloupe cocktail?" Prue asked.
"I loaded a hollowed out cantaloupe with nitro-glycerin but then I had to go on duty. I left it in the kitchen and…" Vinny replied.
"There yah are yah stinkin' varmint! Prepare to die!" Cookie shouted, waving a wooden spoon with a crazed look in his eyes. He was covered in cantaloupe juice and fruit rinds.
"Wait a second!" Prue shouted, "Kill each other later, what happened."
"I was mindin' mah own business, cuttin' some cantaloupe for desert when one of those things explodes and sends fruit pulp and cantaloupe rinds all over mah kitchen!" Cookie shouted.
"Oh no…" Vinny groaned.
The sounds of fighting could be heard as Cookie proceeded to beat the tar out Vinny over the exploding cantaloupes.
"It would appear explosions are commonplace here." D'Artagnan replied.
"More than you realize." Prue replied.
"Hold him down Cookie!" Andy shouted, "Let me hit him for a few hours!"
"Andy, what's going on?" Prue asked, intercepting him, "PU! You smell!"
"I went into the kitchen for a sandwich and when I opened the refrigerator I got splattered with pressurized liquid limburger cheese"
"Eh-heh heh…" Vinny said, "Behold the power of cheese."
"Behold the power of a pissed off ex-quarter back." Andy countered.
"Andy, calm down." Prue replied, she turned to Vinny and Cookie, who she separated using her telekinesis, "Why did you invent a pressurized liquid limburger cheese sprayer, Vinny?"
"I was bored." The Italian replied.
"Off for a quiet moment?" Goofy asked when he walked into the lounge, to find Godfrey taking in the view of the grayish clouds blowing over EPCOT, and again writing in a small notebook.
"I've always found the view to be quite lovely outside of this window." Godfrey replied.
"It helps to have a place to get away from what bothers you." Doc added, as he walked in, "How are you holding up?"
"I'm alright. We've got a mission and Vinny's definitely provided his share of comic relief." Godfrey replied.
"I know these past few days haven't been easy for you, Godfrey." Goofy replied.
"Excuse me." Godfrey replied, "I don't know what you're talking about."
"It can't be easy to care for someone who loves another man." Goofy replied.
"I'll be alright." Godfrey replied, "I'm busy enough."
"You can't keep running, Godfrey." Doc replied, "Sooner or later you're going to have to be honest with this."
"And what, lose Prue as a friend." Godfrey replied.
"If you're really friends," Goofy replied, "you can be honest with each other."
"I do think this is a slightly different situation." Godfrey replied, "May I ask why this is such a pressing matter?"
"As a friend, I'm worried about you." Doc replied, "You're caring a lot about Prue's feelings but you're ignoring your own."
"It's absolutely ridiculous. Telling her would only exacerbate things." Godfrey argued.
"If you tell her that you respect her feelings for Andy, she'll understand." Goofy replied.
"Things could well be awkward for us both." Godfrey replied.
"You'll get over that." Doc argued back.
"Didn't you say it's wrong to deceive someone you care about?" Goofy replied.
"This is a slightly different situation." Godfrey replied.
"If you really care for her, you'll tell her." Doc replied, "At the very least you'll get this of your chest."
"I'll keep that in mind." Godfrey replied, as he walked out of the room.
"That went well." Goofy noted.
Gefrieter Matthias Vossman winced as the cast was removed from his arm. "You're on light duty for the next month, and soon you will be back to the front." The German doctor began.
"Thank you, herr doktor." Vossman replied.
Three other patients had been cleared, a sergeant from the Grossdeutschland Division and two panzergrenadiers from the 15th Panzer Division.
An Oberscharführer from the SS-Totenkopf walked in just then, and extended his right arm to salute the doctor. The doctor absently returned the salute, and the NCO turned on the four soldiers.
"You are on temporary duty on the German security squadron until you are to be shipped back to your units. I am Oberscharführer Haendler, your direct superior." Haendler replied, "Unterfeldwebel Nattermann, you are the sergeant of the guard. Vossman, you and those two panzergrenadiers are on security patrol duty from 13.00 to 18.00 (1 PM – 6 PM), effective immediately."
The four men proceeded out of the hospital and into the Germany Pavillion. Outside the hospital stood two Italian riflemen, a Search Ghost, and an Italian officer. Haendler saluted the Italian officer who returned the gesture, a look of scorn just barely concealed on his face. We've had to bail your worthless hides out everywhere. Greece, Albania, North Africa. You wouldn't have taken Greece had it not been for German help. Haendler thought.
They proceeded to the consulate's armory where they received their rifles and Natterman received his pistol and sub-machinegun and the combined Italian, German patrol began their roving search.
"If this is neutral ground," Prue began, "Why are they carrying rifles?"
"Just because it's neutral ground, it doesn't mean that either trusts the other." Doc replied, indicating the patrol of four British soldiers wearing red berets that marched by Spaceship Earth.
"A tough lot as well." Godfrey replied, "Those chaps are Paras."
"Paras?" Andy asked.
"Soldiers from the Parachute Regiment," Godfrey explained, "England's toughest troops."
"For neutral territory there sure are a lot of guns." Andy quipped.
"Several of the countries represented in the World Showcase are at war with each other." Kolopak replied.
"Doesn't EPCOT have its own security force?" Andy asked.
"They do." Kolopak replied, "The EPCOT Security Force."
A trio of blue uniformed men, with white caps carried American made M1 Carbines marched briskly by them.
"Speak of the devil." Godfrey noted as they marched past.
"OK, we'll split up into teams." Kolopak said, "Milo, you stay with me, Mole, and Andy. Prue, you stay with Sora, Goofy, and Donald. Godfrey, Doc, D'Artagnan and Vinny you form the third team. I'll start with Spaceship Earth, Godfrey, your team starts with The Living Seas and work your way towards my team. Donald, your team starts at the Universe of Energy and head towards us. We'll meet at Spaceship Earth. Now, I want you to get as much information as you can from cast members, ride operators and anyone who might know where the Dreamfinder is." Kolopak began.
The teams were about to head off in their respective directions when D'Artagnan asked, "Would it not be more prudent to go straight to Journey into the Imagination? That is where the Dreamfinder makes his home."
"He's obviously not going to be there, but we should search for either clues of his whereabouts or if he might be hiding at those pavilions." Kolopak replied.
"Unlikely. The Germans will likely have searched them all." D'Artagnan replied, "They would presume that was the first place he would hide."
As if to prove his point, a mixed patrol of Germans and Italians walked out of Spaceship Earth. The nearby Paras shadowed the German patrol until it marched back towards the World Showcase, where a combined patrol of British and American troops shadowed them until they crossed into the Germany pavilion.
"Why are the paratroopers following them?" Prue asked.
"To keep the Germans from getting out of hand." D'Artagnan replied, "It's maintaining a balance of power here. They do the same to our patrols."
Prue couldn't help but imagine that beneath the neutral and seemingly peaceful exterior of EPCOT lurked a powder keg.
The Dreamfinder glanced out of the copse of pine and palm trees he had hidden. For days he had remained hidden from the Germans and Italians and their damnable Search Ghosts. Tears made channels into the grime that covered his face. His own dream of a neutral world where nations could have some measure of peace was in jeopardy. Armed soldiers were shadowing one another around the World Showcase Lagoon, and he watched as a German and Italian patrol was shadowed by a mixed unit of British and Americans.
This wasn't what he intended when he willed the idea of a Neutral Ground into the imaginations of the League of Nations. The organization had collapsed shortly after the war. What man was capable of imagining could be both wonderful and terrifying. What the Dreamfinder was seeing was bordering onto the terrifying side. He was the subject of a massive manhunt, many of the nations represented in the World Showcase were at war with each other, and armed soldiers were present.
His stomach growled, a couple crackers and a handful of water was not a decent breakfast by any stretch of the imagination. Talk about one hell of a diet. Dreamfinder thought. One more week of this and my suits will stop feeling so snug around the midriff.
He heard the sounds of reeds being crushed as boots crushed down on them. The Dreamfinder grabbed a hollow reed and lay on his back, closing his eyes and sticking the reed in his mouth, breathing through it. Less than three feet away he could hear a German officer shouting orders.
The stagnant water became turbid as the boots of a German soldier were visible. He was so close that Dreamfinder could here him talking to his fellow soldier.
"Fucking grass." The soldier grumbled, "Fucking heat. Fucking swampland."
"Save the fucking for the brothels." Another soldier replied.
This occasioned some laughter from the other German soldiers before an NCO hissed at them to be quiet. Little did the German sergeant who dressed his men down realize that his foot was atop the Dreamfinder's hand.
The soldier that had begun grumbling started a new series of complaints, as he slogged through the knee deep water ahead of him. The rest of the patrol followed after him, slogging through the bog.
That was way too close for comfort. Dreamfinder realized yet again he'd eluded capture by the Germans by a hairsbreadth. He desperately hoped that the Morrowind's crew would find him before the Germans or the Heartless did.
"How hard can it be to find a fat, bearded old dreamer?" Oogie Boogie demanded.
"Harder than it looks." Imhotep shot back, "With the forces we have there."
"Why do you insist on using humans to track the Dreamfinder down?" Jafar insisted, "If we used Heartless…"
"If we used Heartless, the Charmed One would know the true importance of the Dreamfinder." Imhotep replied.
"Why not take over that pathetic little world?" Oogie Boogie replied.
"We don't want to spread ourselves out too far." Imhotep replied, "As it stands, our allies, even with the help of the Heartless, are having trouble on numerous fronts. The Americans have landed in North Africa, the British are rallying there as well. Rumors of counteroffensive operations in Burma are rife among the truth. The Chinese guerilla movements are becoming more than an irritant…"
"Pfah." Oogie Boogie replied, "We'll crush them like bugs."
"You said the same about Mayapore, but the British and Indians were able to throw the Heartless back. The Japanese are coming under pressure from the Americans as well." Imhotep replies.
"The human allies are of little consequence. They're simply holding up large numbers of Allied troops." Oogie Boogie replied.
"We will find the Dreamfinder." Imhotep replied.
"And his power of Inspiration will be ours." Jafar replied, "Strengthening our hand."
"I didn't know that EPCOT let garbage in." D'Artagnan commented as they passed by a fellow in the blue uniform of a French gendarme (police officer), a member of the Millce, or the Vichy France government.
"Careful, D'Artagnan…" Vinny warned.
"Excuse me, monsieur." The gendarme replied, "Are you addressing me?"
"Perhaps." D'Artagnan shrugged.
"Are you aware you are addressing a member of the French government." The gendarme replied.
"The true French government left with Degaulle!" D'Artagnan replied, "And you dare call yourself a true Frenchman, you collaborator!"
"It is better to be at the devil's side than in his path." The gendarme replied, "How long do you think the Allies can last fighting the combined forces of the Axis and the Heartless. It took less than three weeks to take France…"
"And elevate you to a position of some mock importance." D'Artagnan huffed, "As a true Frenchman you should have joined the Free French Forces and fought for our Fatherland."
The gendarme replied, "What chance do you think the Allies have of victory? The Heartless take worlds day by…"
A blow from D'Artagnan's fist shut the man up. The gendarme was offended and swung back, missing D'Artagnan by inches. D'Artagnan hit him again in the stomach and within a few punches he was pummeling and kicking the other man.
"Bugger off!" Godfrey shouted to the gendarme as he helped Doc pry D'Artagnan off of the Frenchman.
"Godfrey," Doc began, "We'd better go."
As Doc spoke, the bruised Vichy French official was racing off to a trio of his buddies and they rushed over towards the group.
"This isn't good is it?" Vinny replied.
"It appears we've a brawl on hand, gentlemen." Godfrey said, rolling up his sleeves.
The four Vichy Frenchmen launched themselves at Godfrey and the others and a proper scuffle ensued.
As they fought, a bunch of ESPOS with night sticks came running. "Oh bollocks…" Godfrey groaned as the EPCOT security police took the eight men to the lockup…
TBC
Gefrieter – German for Corporal.
Grossdeutschland Division – A German division consisting of men from all over Germany.
Oberscharführer - A staff sergeant in the Waffen-SS, a fairly senior non-comissioned officer. He outranks Matthias and his buddies.
Panzer – Tank or armored unit.
Panzergrenadier – The equivalent of a private, they served as riflemen in German Panzer divisions and typically rode half-tracks into the fighting.
Unterfeldwebel – A German infantry sergeant.
Vichy France – The portion of the French government that cooperated with the Germans during World War II. In this story, they're aligned with the bad guys.