The Storm
Disclaimer: Same as before, for the love of Christ don't sue me.
Doc took the key from his pocket and unlocked the door to the Morrowind's armory. Inside the room were gun racks where rifles from different manufacturers, but mostly British and American, lined the walls.
Andy followed behind him and said, "You know, these things are museum pieces in my time."
Doc replied, "I forgot, you and Prue come from a different timeline. For us it's the year 1942, for Prue it was the year 2001 when she was killed and reborn."
"And the last date I remember was 1999." Andy replied.
"Well, I hope you remember, Mr. Future Cop, how to use these things." Doc replied, as he passed Andy a bolt action 1903 Springfield together with a bandolier that contained five round clips of ammunition.
"The dangerous end is here, right?" Andy asked, sarcastically, pointing at the muzzle.
"Yeah." Doc replied.
Vinny entered the room as well with a 'child in the candy shop' expression on his face.
"You let Vinny in here?" Andy asked, incredulously.
"Only during emergencies." Doc replied, "And with the Axis forces and the Heartless at large, that qualifies."
"Right." Andy replied, "Stay where I can see you."
Vinny shrugged, "What's his deal?"
"Probably paranoid about yourinventing things again." Doc replied, as Vinny selected an M1 Thompson sub machinegun from a rack, and stuck a few fifty round drums into a satchel that was on a strap across his chest.
"Probably? Probably? Try very paranoid." Andy replied.
"Relax. Right about now we want a lot of explosions, preferably blowing up Nazis and Heartless and their allies." Doc replied.
The rest of the Morrowind's crew were lined up outside and Doc handed them weapons. Obviously Prue, Donald and Sora needed no armaments, and they stood off to one side watching their crewmates receiving arms.
Prue watched as Kolopak slung two bandoliers of .30-06 rounds for his Springfield rifle. Kolopak muttered something to himself as he loaded a five round clip into the weapon.
"What's wrong?" Prue asked.
"It is a prayer to the gods of my people. That I may be taken into the Great Forest and be forever reunited with my loved ones once again." Kolopak replied.
"You know your positions?" Kolopak asked his crew.
At several nods and muttered 'yes' statements he said, "I need not remind you, we are fighting not only for our lives, but for the innocents here. Vinny, you stay with Prue, Sora, and Donald when they head to face the Japanese. Andy, you, Doc, Cookie, and Bertha come with me. Audrey, stay with Vinny and Kida on the ship, we may need to lift off in a hurry."
"Did you hear that?" a British soldier said, from behind a barricade.
"Relax." Godfrey began, "When they get here you'll know it."
A fog settled over EPCOT that morning. The men on the forward Allied positions could hear echoes, shouts. Godfrey glanced to his left, and to his right. Many of these British soldiers were men from rear echelon, or administrative units here, mixed in with some recently recovered casualties or walking wounded hastily armed with rifles and sent to face the Japanese at the United Kingdom pavilion.
Godfrey chambered a round into his rifle as the shouts and war cries got even closer. "BANZAI!" came the shout as several Japanese soldiers came charging towards the British positions. Alongside them were a band of Heartless.
"Fire!" Godfrey shouted.
The British opened fire just then, raking the front ranks of the Japanese assault with rifle fire and the light machinegun as well. Godfrey watched a soldier to his right take two rounds through the chest. He leveled his carbine at the Japanese soldier who was currently reloading his weapon and fired a shot that drilled him right in the throat.
A Japanese officer with a katana raised his weapon, intending to cleave Godfrey's head off only to be practically torn in half by D'Artagnan emptying almost an entire twenty round magazine from his Tommy gun into him.
"Thanks mate." Godfrey replied.
"Any time." D'Artagnan replied, reloading a magazine as the Japanese closed with the front ranks.
Godfrey watched as the forward positions displaced backward towards the next fortified building, the Rose and Crown Pub. He followed four running British soldiers, being covered by others in another nearby building. The Japanese had crossed the International Gateway bridge, despite their numbers being drastically reduced by concentrated rifle fire together with light machineguns.
The plan was that the British would fortify certain buildings on the Japanese axis of approach with mutually supporting fields of fire. The light machineguns were blasting into the Japanese flanks. Already they had hit one of the British buildings.
"We'd best reinforce that lot." Godfrey ordered, leading the other four soldiers towards the Rose and Crown Pub.
Godfrey ran at the lead, just as a Japanese soldier lobbed a grenade at the knot of British soldiers. "Get clear!" Godfrey shouted.
The grenade exploded and flung Godfrey into the planter. One of the other British soldiers lay on his stomach, groaning, his hands holding his midsection. A Japanese soldier ran up to the wounded Brit and shot him in the head.
"You bastard!" Godfrey shouted and shot the Japanese soldier in the belly.
One of the other British soldiers not wounded by the grenade ran up to the wounded Japanese soldier and beat him to death with the stock of his rifle.
Already several Japanese soldiers had entered the Rose and Crown and were duking it out with British soldiers in hand to hand fighting. Godfrey shouted, "Grenades."
The three surviving British troops each flung grenades into the Japanese soldiers and Heartless charging inside the pub, killing several of them.
"Kyah!" a shout behind Godfrey sounded.
Godfrey turned, and saw a Japanese soldier about to run him through with a bayonet. A heartbeat before the bayonet would have imbedded itself in his midsection a concrete garbage container went flying and hit the hetai with full force, knocking him down.
"As I said, Godfrey, watch your back." Prue said.
Godfrey nodded and raced over to help the other British soldiers fighting the Japanese in the U.K. pavilion. Prue could hear the sounds of grenades exploding, the blasts killing friend and foe alike in the confines of rooms and buildings.
As Prue, Sora, Goofy, Donald, and Vinny ran towards the heart of the fighting they passed the two sprawled corpses of a Japanese soldier and a British soldier. Several Heartless and Japanese reinforcements were crossing the International Gateway Bridge.
"Vinny! They're crossing the International Gateway Bridge. Do you think you can stop them?" Prue replied.
Vinny hefted his sack full of walking cherry bombs. "Cover me!" Vinny shouted.
Vinny began to wind up the Walking Cherry Bombs and lit the fuses, sending them walking towards the charging Japanese and Heartless on the bridge. Explosion after explosion sounded, the bombs killing many attacking troops.
Despite the help of Vinny's explosives cutting down the numbers of Japanese and Heartless the British and Free French defenders of the United Kingdom Pavilion were starting to loose ground. They were giving it slowly, retreating from building to building, room by room, floor by floor. The British were even cutting holes in the walls of adjoining buildings, moving into the neighboring structure and pelting the Japanese that went through the holes with grenades and gunfire.
Bullets, grenades, fists, knives and rifle butts were being used in the fighting. Godfrey kicked a Japanese grenade outside before it exploded, and promptly was knocked into a wall by a Japanese soldier charging through a hole in the wall of the toy shop he and several British soldiers had ducked inside to regroup.
Godfrey managed to raise his shorter barreled carbine up and fired a shot that took the enemy soldier down with a bullet in the kneecap. Another British soldier, this one a survivor of the Singapore defeat earlier that year, aimed his rifle and shot the Japanese soldier in the forehead. A second Japanese officer decapitated the avenging Brit with his katana only to be rushed by Godfrey.
All around him the British soldiers were fighting hand to hand with the Japanese unit that charged into the building. Godfrey bashed the Japanese officer's head into the floor three times before the Jap bit him in the fingers savagely and turned. Godfrey was now on his back on the floor, as the two officers were wrapped in a no holds barred two man war. Godfrey head butted the Japanese soldier in the face, blood gushed from the man's nose.
The Japanese soldier grabbed a small dagger from his belt and raised it over his head with a savage cry. Godfrey grabbed the knife hand with one of his own, as the Japanese soldier pressed down on his throat. The knife was headed straight for Godfrey's left eye and the Japanese soldier began saying words in another language as Godfrey felt his vision fading from the lack of air. Godfrey drove a knee upward into the Jap's crotch, disrupting the assault and he swiftly drew his .38 from his holster, aimed, and shot the Japanese officer in the forehead. He grabbed his carbine off the ground and led the British troops back to the next rallying point, towards the Canada pavilion.
Meanwhile the Germans and Italians, together with a large force of Heartless had already driven the Free Norweigan forces out of the Norway pavilion. They crashed headlong into the positions of the American 1st Infantry Division.
Kolopak dropped to one knee behind a planter, aimed his Springfield at a running German, giving the charging soldier a little bit of lead before squeezing the trigger. The rifle cracked loudly and the German soldier hit the ground, as the bullet tore through his skull. Kolopak was already working the bolt on his Springfield rifle and looking for another target. He saw a Soldier Heartless heading behind an American machinegun post.
Kolopak breathed in, a deep breath, aiming at the Heartless, the butt of his rifle solidly on his shoulder. He slowly squeezed the trigger, making small corrections to give the Heartless just enough lead to run smack into the bullet. CRACK! Kolopak's rifle spoke again.
Jesus. Andy thought. Two shots. Two dead enemies easily over four hundred yards away. Kolopak's face bore no discernable expression as he scanned for another target, after chambering a third round.
"Kolopak." Andy warned as he ducked as a burst of machinegun fire chipped away at the planter he and Kolopak hid behind.
Kolopak was unbothered, he held his fire as three American soldiers ran past his line of fire. He saw a German soldier with a Schmeisser MP40 sub machinegun reloading. He had been firing his weapon at Kolopak and Andy's position before running out.
The German was a hundred and fifty yards away, ducked behind a pile of rubble, only a little bit of his head showing. Wait. Kolopak thought.
Another burst of gunfire sounded from another direction. "Kolopak…" Andy warned. Andy had been trading shots with an Italian soldier with a rifle three hundred yards away.
Calm. Focus. Kolopak thought. The German soldier with the Schmeisser raised his head and weapon to fire, only to be shot through the right eye by Kolopak's shot. Kolopak worked the bolt on the Springfield and then shifted his aim to the left, at the Italian rifleman and squeezed off his fourth shot, killing the Italian.
An explosion struck the planter, just inches from their heads. A German Panzerfaust team had zeroed in on their position. "Kolopak…bazooka team, aiming at us right now." Andy replied, as he snapped off shots at the Germans, hitting the assistant gunner.
Kolopak took aim. One bullet in the magazine, and if this German had the Panzerfaust reloaded, that meant a rocket would be launched this way, and not miss this time. Kolopak noted the German soldier, dropped to one knee, aiming the anti-tank rocket and peering through the sights. Kolopak aimed the weapon, squeezing the trigger. CRACK! The Springfield sounded again and tore a ragged hole into the German's head, just below his nose.
"Nice shooting, Tex." Andy remarked as Kolopak loaded a fresh clip of five .30-06 rounds into the weapon.
"I agree, saw the whole damn thing from back there." Another voice remarked. Kolopak turned to see an American serviceman, with a gray band on his helmet with a USN on the front.
"A little far from the sea, aren't you, sailor?" Kolopak remarked.
"Not if your job is blasting obstacles for landing vessels." The American replied, "Lieutenant Evan Coleridge, Navy Combat Demolition Unit Seventeen."
"Kolopak. I'm the captain of the airship, Morrowind." Kolopak replied.
"We're here to reinforce the guys defending this area." Coleridge replied, "There's about fifteen of us."
The sixteen American sailors were joined by a group of soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division, Lieutenant Sutherland's unit. "Germans have broken though the line towards Future World East." Sutherland began. We'd best quit yapping and plug the gap."
"Agreed." Coleridge replied. The mixed group of 10th Mountain soldiers and NCDU sailors rushed up towards the gap.
Bertha and Cookie were running towards the planter from another location. They had been pinned down by the five enemy soldiers Kolopak had just dispatched in rapid succession. They were nearing the planted when…
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
"Flak gun! 20 mil! 20 mil!" Sutherland shouted, as the flak gun opened up, the 20mm anti-aircraft rounds tearing Private Willard in half and decapitating Private Carter.
"Scatter! Take cover!" Coleridge ordered.
Kolopak took aim at the weapon and squeezed the trigger, the .30 caliber round smacking ineffectually against the milled steel plate shielding the German gunners. He kept firing, bouncing rounds off of the armor plate on the weapon.
"Shit." Andy replied as he and Kolopak dived out of the way.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
The German gun crew turned the wheeled flak gun against Kolopak and Andy and the two men dived out of the way.
"We've got to flank that thing." Doc began.
"Agreed." Sutherland replied, "Tella, use that Molotov on them."
"Yes sir." The soldier replied, lighting the fuse on the Molotov cocktail and running to flank the weapon.
CRACK! A single rifle shot sounded, and Tella hit the ground, spinning in a last pirouette as a bullet tore through his head.
"Bertha! Wait!" Doc shouted, "Damn it!"
Bertha ran, grabbing the lit Molotov cocktail before Doc could stop her.
"What is that crazy old bat doing?" Sutherland asked.
"What you wanted Tella to do. Covering fire!" Doc shouted. Doc fired bursts of gunfire from his Tommy gun, hoping to keep the sniper that had just taken Tella out down.
Bertha ran like a woman many years younger, the lit petrol bomb in her hands. She knew she had only one shot at this entire thing and lobbed the weapon at the German gun crew. The bottle burst, spraying liquid fire on the Germans.
Inhuman cries of agony and pain resulted as three human torches ran away from the flak gun. The burning soldiers ran, stumbling madly towards the World Showcase Lagoon.
Andy aimed his rifle only to have one of the 10th Mountain soldiers smack his rifle down. "Don't shoot! Let 'em burn."
One of the Germans landed in a planter, the shrubs and trees catching fire from the flames on his clothing and skin. The German gunner screamed again as the fire consumed him alive. A second gunner managed to get into the Lagoon, extinguishing the flames, but because of the burns and the weight of his gear, he couldn't stay afloat and sank to the bottom. The third gunner got into the water, and managed to discard his gear where he floated, severely burned but still alive…
CRACK! Another rifle shot sounded and Bertha hit the ground. "God damn! Where did that come from?" Andy shouted.
"Sniper!" Sutherland commanded.
A soldier with a BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle) opened up, firing the twenty round magazine at the position to his front.
"Bertha! Hang on! I'm coming to get you!" Doc shouted, standing up only to have Sutherland yank him down.
CRACK! A third bullet sounded, missing Doc by half a hairsbreadth.
Kolopak impassively eyed the area ahead of him before they fell upon the Mexico Pavilion pyramid. "That's where I'd be." Kolopak began as he crept towards a pile of rubble on the other side of the burning flak gun.
"Cover him!" Sutherland ordered and two squads of American infantry, the sixteen sailors, as well as Andy and Doc opened up.
Hiding in the small maintenance shack atop the replica pyramid where he had moved in the night before, the German sniper surveyed the area where several of his compatriots were fighting against the American front lines. He had taken down the woman, but not before she had hit the flak gun with the Molotov cocktail.
He searched for a target. Hopefully he could locate an officer, or one of the troublesome American machineguns holding up the German advance. He aimed the crosshairs at the old woman he had shot. She lay on the ground, moving feebly, an M1 Thompson gun at her side.
Kolopak lay hidden in a pile of bricks and rubble. He aimed his rifle at the top of the pyramid. "Show yourself, bastard." Kolopak began.
Sunlight shined off the lens of a telescopic sight. Kolopak aimed at the glass, well aware he had only one shot and if he missed the German sniper might well claim him as the next victim. He could see Bertha was still alive, wounded, but still alive. She'd bleed out if he didn't kill this bastard soon. Kolopak aimed at the glinting light, and began to squeeze the trigger.
The German sniper knew that a sniper's worst enemy was another sniper. The Americans had been quiet. They had sent a burst of suppressing fire, but he assumed it was so a medic could treat the wounded old woman. He saw no medic anywhere near her. They could only have been covering for another sniper. He glanced around the area to his front, hoping to spot the bastard before he had been discovered.
He glanced at the burning flak gun. But no experienced sniper would use such a thing as cover. He aimed at a relatively innocuous pile of bricks when he saw the head of a man wearing a brown full brim hat with a feather in it. CRACK! The last thing the German saw in his sights was the muzzle flash of an American rifle.
Kolopak worked the bolt of his weapon after firing the single shot. No longer did the sun glint off of the telescopic sights of the German sniper. "Doc, you're clear!" Kolopak shouted.
Doc immediately raced up to Bertha. She'd been shot in the right shoulder. He propped her up and began to dress the wound. "I'll be OK, Doc, it's not as bad as it looks." Bertha winced as Doc put sulfa powder into the wound to clean it.
"I'll stay here with Bertha." Doc began.
"What's the situation?" Sutherland asked as he called up Allied HQ, based at Spaceship Earth on the radiotelephone.
"We've got Germans in the Horizons and World of Motion pavilions, but we've managed to contain them there. We're having a helluva a time clearing them out." Came the response, "Where the hell are you, Sutherland?"
"I'm at the border area between the Mexico pavilion and Future World." Sutherland replied, "Sir."
"New orders. You are to contain any German or Italian reinforcements to Future World. The rest of the company and the First Infantry Division boys will try and clear the Germans out of their toehold in Future World." Captain Watkins, the company commander of Able Company, 10th Mountain Division.
Kolopak took up the radio telephone on Andy's back and contacted the other detachment, "What's the situation on Future World West?"
"Kolopak," Prue's voice could be heard on the other side of the radio, "Are we glad to hear from you. It looks like the British, French and Canadians have contained the Japanese and Heartless from breaking into Future World."
"It sounds like they've got everything in hand over there." Kolopak replied.
BLAM! "Not exactly." Prue replied.
"Nice understatement." Sora groaned, as a stray bullet zoomed past them.
Vinny fired a short burst from his Tommy gun as a gang of Soldier Heartless managed to slip past the British defenses. They were being pushed back into the Canada pavilion, where soldiers from the Canadian Royal Winnipeg Rifles joined in the fighting.
The three Soldier Heartless were shredded by the .45 caliber rounds fired in a burst from Vinny's weapon. Afterward two Canadian soldiers were assisting a third, wounded Canadian between them.
Behind them came a group of about fifteen British soldiers, including Godfrey. Recognizing his friends, he said, "You'd best pull back, or at least warn Kolopak to get ready to lift off in a hurry."
"Godfrey, we're staying here." Prue replied.
"We've got Japanese troops and Heartless having overrun the UK pavilion and the Canada pavilion as well. We seem to have them contained for now but I'm not guaranteeing it's going to stay that way." Godfrey replied.
"What's your status?" Kolopak's voice sounded from the radio telephone that Goofy was carrying.
"Godfrey's telling us they've got the Japanese and their Heartless allies contained." Prue replied.
"We could use your help over here." Kolopak replied.
"I'll see you back at the Morrowind." Godfrey replied, as he and the group of British soldiers ran back into the fighting.
"Godfrey." Prue began, "Be careful."
"Right." Godfrey replied, as he turned back and ran towards the fighting.
Prue, Vinny, Donald, Goofy, and Sora raced across the park. As they ran, they saw smoke issuing from the World of Motion pavilion. Outside the pavilion, Prue saw a squad of American soldiers from the 1st Infantry Division about to enter the building, to remove the Germans and Italians that had barricaded themselves inside.
Two American stretcher bearers carried a limp, unmoving third soldier between them as they ran from the area. Prue used her telekinesis to send the butt of a German soldier's rifle into the underside of his jaw as he tried to take aim at Donald. A second German popped up, with a sub machinegun and opened fire. Goofy flung his shield up, and the 9mm rounds bounced off in several directions.
"Thunder!" Donald said, electrifying the German attacker. The group continued to run past, towards the sound of heavier fighting.
Andy sprinted, feeling like a duck at a shooting gallery. Around the back of his neck were several belts of .30 caliber ammunition for a machinegun. As he sprinted to the convention center area, he could feel the breeze as numerous bullets whizzed past his head.
He dived into the machinegun nest where he saw two soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division holed up. "Thanks Mac." One of the soldiers said.
As the soldier reloaded the ammunition, a group of German soldiers, followed by a band of Shadow Heartless came running across one of the walkways. The machinegun opened up, and Andy unslung his rifle and fired, as did the assistant machine gunner.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
"Shit!" One of the soldiers shouted.
"Flak gun!" The other shouted, just as a 20mm shell blew off his head, splattering Andy with blood and brains.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
"That 20 mil's killing us." Andy began.
"What was your first clue?" Kravitz, the gunner, said.
Andy heard a thump outside, the sound of concrete hitting metal. He glanced up just in time to see a concrete trash bin go flying and whack the German gunners at high velocity.
"Miss me?" Prue said, as she helped Andy to his feet, and giving him a quick peck on the cheek.
"Yeah." Andy replied.
"How'd you do that, lady?" Kravitz asked.
"Magic." Prue replied.
"I'm lucky I'm not you, pal." Kravitz quipped, in an upstate New York tone, "I'd hate to be around you two when you have a fight."
"Uhm, yeah, I've gotta see if the machinegun still works." The New Yorker replied at Andy's glare.
Kolopak's rifle spoke again, from across the bridge, and a Heartless that had survived the barrage of machinegun fire toppled into the lake.
"Nice shot, Kolopak." Prue quipped.
Kolopak waved from nearby. "You should have been there when he was picking off Nazis left and right." Andy remarked, "It was insane."
"Hey," came a shout, "What are these civilians doing here?"
Lieutenant Sutherland came over, just then. "They're members of the Morrowind's crew, sir." Kravitz remarked.
"Corporal," Sutherland said, with a Southern twang, "I don't care if they're the President's entourage. They're civilians and they shouldn't be here."
"Well, sir, the flank was saved by these 'civilians'." Kravitz replied.
"Kravitz…" Sutherland began.
"Guys, we've got bigger problems on our hands!" Prue remarked, grabbing the officer's collar and pointing at a German self propelled gun, an artillery piece on a tank chassis.
"Gotcha…" Vinny began, as he wound up three Walking Cherry Bombs that headed for the German vehicle.
The German vehicle fired a shell and the group scattered, just as it exploded into the side of the building. The Walking Cherry Bombs attached themselves to the treads of the vehicle and exploded, freezing the vehicle in place.
Just then a soldier from the 10th Mountain Division aimed a bazooka at the vehicle and fired a rocket, blowing it apart.
Matthias Vossman heard the officer give the order to retreat. After the breakthrough and the occupation of the two buildings in Future World East, the Americans had managed to reconstitute their lines and hold off almost every attempt at reinforcement.
Battered German and Italian units pulled back to their respective pavilions. Sergeant Haendler had been killed earlier in the fighting by the man with the feather in his hat. He was a rifleman of quite a lot of skill, for he had knocked off many Germans and Italians approaching Future World with single rifle shots, many of them to the head or neck. There was no choice but to retreat, regroup and fortify the Germany and Italy pavilions.
"The Axis forces are bottled up in their pavilions. We can keep them there indefinitely." Major Waverly said, "We can tell our forces to stand down after we've driven the Germans and Italians out of Horizons and World of Motion."
"Negative, Waverly." Lt. Colonel Briley, an American battalion commander with the 1st Infantry Division, "The Axis will use this time to regroup and will go after the Future World tech labs again."
"Agreed." Colonel Waters, a British officer and commander of all Allied Forces in EPCOT, "Order your forces to drive into the enemy pavilions. Root them out of there and then expel them from our territory."
"Yes sir." Waverly replied and called the Allied units to assault. British, Canadian and French forces were to attack the Japan pavilion, with the Americans coming in from behind. Meanwhile a joint American, Norwegian and British force would hit the Germans and Italians simultaneously.
The group had headed back to the Morrowind without Godfrey and D'Artagnan, because both men were being committed to the fighting against the Japanese and surviving Heartless. As they walked back, they saw that Horizons had been retaken, because the Americans put up their flag onto the roof. A line of German prisoners were being led off by a unit of MPs from the 1st Infantry Division.
There were still a few isolated grenade explosions coming from World of Motion, as the 1st Infantry was still attempting to retake it from a stubborn knot of Waffen SS troops that had beaten back four separate attacks.
"What's the verdict?" Prue asked Kolopak.
"We wait for Godfrey and D'Artagnan." Kolopak replied, "In the mean time, we'd best rearm. Vinny make some more bombs just in case."
As Kolopak spoke, he took several five round clips and loaded them into his bandoliers. "As if you need many reloads. It was spooky how you kept picking off Germans and Italians." Andy replied.
"One bullet. One kill." Kolopak replied.
"Way to understate that." Andy replied, "You drilled that German sniper right through the scope, with one bullet."
"And saved Bertha's life." Doc commented, "That's some scary talent you've got there, Kolopak."
"How is Bertha?" Kolopak asked.
"I've got her stabilized. The bulled passed clean through, but she'll be on light duty for a couple of months." Doc replied, "I'm keeping her under observation and bed rest for one week."
"Everyone, stand down, but keep your kit close to you. Be ready to go at any second. Grab some food and rest…" Kolopak ordered.
Prue went into her quarters to grab a few minutes of rest. "Nigel." She said.
A flash of orbs came in and Nigel appeared, "I see things are winding down in EPCOT."
"It sounds like it. But two of our crewmates are going to finish the job against the Axis…" Prue began.
"Godfrey and D'Artagnan, I know." Nigel replied.
"And then there's the matter of Andy." Prue replied, "Wait a minute…I just had an idea."
"And what would that be?" Nigel asked.
"Remember the Book of the Dead brings people back from the dead." Prue replied, "Well, if we can some how get it away from Imhotep…"
"Are you out of your mind?" Nigel asked.
"Since when do you act like Natalie?" Prue replied.
"Since you suggest suicide operations." Nigel replied, "Imhotep isn't likely to give it up easily, and with power over the sands and the force of the Twelve Plagues of Egypt, you could well be drawing yourselves into a battle you can't win."
"We've defeated demons, powerful demons, before." Prue protested, "We did defeat Shax."
"Yes." Nigel replied, "But hasn't it occurred to you that because Maleficent brought Andy back to life, that she calculated that you would try and save Andy. That's what I would do. I know, and she definitely knows, you're desperate to save Andy and what better bait than the Book of the Dead. Prue, I ask that you at least think this through before going after Imhotep."
Nigel orbed away then as Prue stared out at the EPCOT landscape, where smoke poured from several attractions damaged in the fighting.
Godfrey watched as several British soldiers around him received magazines for their rifles, and several of them fixed bayonets. Godfrey took some .30 caliber clips for his M1 Carbine as the British units formed up to close on EPCOT.
A line of Japanese soldiers, many with fixed bayonets, readied their weapons as they knew the British were coming their way. Safety catches on rifles were turned off as the British approached.
The British line moved forward, coordinating with an American line advancing towards the Japan pavilion from the east. As they moved towards the Japanese lines, bullets whizzed by the British soldiers. One zipped by inches from Godfrey's left ear.
A British soldier fired off his rifle, but Godfrey didn't see anything as he aimed his own weapon about.
The Japanese skirmish line moved forward towards the line of British troops with a loud war cry. The British opened fire immediately before the two skirmish lines collided with each other and the fighting became a hand to hand affair, with bayonets and rifle butts doing their fair share of killing.
The British broke through the Japanese line and into the pavilion itself. From nearby buildings several Japanese soldiers rushed out and charged the British line. D'Artagnan cut down a charging Japanese soldier with a short burst of gunfire.
A machinegun fired in bursts, killing several British soldiers before it was destroyed by hand grenades. Godfrey saw a Bandit Heartless about to fling his sword before he fired three shots, killing the creature.
The Americans on the eastern flank had already broken through, but isolated pockets of Japanese resistance remained. A running American soldier was ambushed by a Japanese soldier who bayoneted him, only to be gunned down by other Americans nearby.
After a few hours it was over. The Japanese who surrendered were herded out into the middle of the pavilion where they were searched for arms and the wounded were treated. Godfrey stood, watching the entire affair as medics treated the wounded, Allied and Japanese alike.
The sun set that day on a free EPCOT. The storm had passed before that day ended, with the technology of Future World spared from the hands of the Axis Powers and the villains.
End (Up Next. Things will really come to a head as our heroes race to try and save Andy's life...)
Hetai – A Japanese soldier.