Disneyworld Vacation
Part One, Chapter Four
DISCLAIMER: These boys ain't mine. Disneyworld ain't mine. The Beatles ain't mine. The brochures and this story ARE mine (I swiped the brochures from the hotel and let the guys borrow 'em...). And this duster is mine, too, which I'll be using shortly... :-P
Dick walked quickly down the dirt path, barely even stopping to admire the scenery of the quaint little island. Well, okay, he had paused a moment to watch a few ducks walk by, but he got over it and went on.
Before long, he arrived at the entrance to some sort of cave. There was a little sign at the entrance in the 'handwriting' of Tom Sawyer, playfully warning everyone about the danger within. Dick ignored the sign and walked straight in to the dark cavern.
Before long, however, Dick found himself tilting to one side, almost falling into the wall. The tunnel seemed to become increasingly crooked as he walked on. For a second, Dick thought he'd been drugged. But then, he realized.
"The floor is crooked!" Dick mumbled. He chuckled to himself and tried to keep going without falling over. At least there was only one tunnel to go down, so he was no danger of getting lost.
As he got farther down the passageway, the lanterns hanging from the ceiling became more and more scarce. Dick was trying not to have too much fun—he was looking for a stalker, after all! But hey, he was in Disneyworld. It was kind of hard not to have fun.
Dick was so preoccupied with the slant of the floor, the darkness, and trying not to have fun that he almost missed the small scrap of paper on the floor to his right.
It could have been nothing.
But it wasn't.
-
Roy checked his watch for what seemed like the thousandth time in five minutes.
"He's late!" Roy exclaimed.
"You've said that twice already! I know, okay!" Wally yelled back, startling a blackbird into flight. He grinned.
"Blackbird singing in the afternoon…" he sang softly to himself.
"Oh, shut up."
At long last, Dick came running up to the pair. He had a piece of paper in his hand. Wally noticed, but Roy was too busy fuming at Dick's tardiness to see it.
"And where have you been? If you insist on making the rules, then the least you can do is—"
"Hey, this was important, okay?" Dick insisted, trying not to look annoyed. "Here. I found it in one of the caves."
Wally and Roy literally put their heads together so that they could both read what was on the paper. The text had been typed, eliminating the possibility of tracing the handwriting.
Wonderful, Roy thought sarcastically:
Splash Mountain
Jungle Cruise
Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show
Mickey's Philharmagic
Soarin'
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad…
Dick had already recognized a pattern.
"Hey, this is all the stuff we planned on doing this morning outside our hotel room!" he exclaimed. "This guy must have been listening in then, too… maybe that's the real reason the rabbit was scared off! Somebody was in the bushes!"
"But he missed the Tower of Terror. We wanted to go on that one, too, remember? Why did he skip that one?" Wally wondered.
"You got me… maybe he doesn't like rides with 13-story drops," snickered Roy.
The boys sat staring at the paper for several seconds, deep in thought.
"Hey, I just thought of something," announced Roy.
"That's a first," Dick laughed. Roy glared and made one little comment about Dick's surprisingly high-pitched giggle…
"Alright! Fight, fight, fight!" Wally hollered, bouncing up and down. Luckily, they were relatively alone on that part of the island, so there was nobody to give them weird looks. Or, worse yet, arrest them.
Finally, Dick brought himself to his senses (or maybe he just got smacked in the head by his wrestling partner) and stood up. Roy followed his example. Neither one was looking very happy with the other.
"Aw, it's over already?" sighed Wally.
"Alright, Harper, what have you got?" Dick asked at last.
"I just figured out why you thought our stalker looked so familiar," the boy explained. When he got expectant stares as an answer, Roy went on, "The hat he's wearing looks like the same kind Harrison Ford wore in the Indiana Jones movies."
"That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Wally told him.
"Holy sudden realization! No it's not!"
That came from Dick, oddly enough.
"Lemme see the brochure for the Disney-MGM Studios, Roy."
"I didn't bring it. I only have the one for Magic Kingdom. Why do you want it?"
"The way I see it, the fact that he's wearing that hat may be a clue. Maybe our man works by the Indiana Jones Stunt Show, and that's where he got the hat. Maybe Disney-MGM Studios would be as good a place to check as all of the places on this list."
Wally and Roy had to admit that this made sense. So they decided that they'd first check all of the places on the list that were located in the Magic Kingdom, then they'd take the monorail over to the Epcot Center and visit Soarin'. If they found nothing there, they'd head over to the Indiana Jones show and poke around.
Satisfied with their plans, the boys got up and headed for the docks. The raft was already there—packed with people once again—and they had to make a mad dash for it to avoid being left behind.
"Ack, you're suffocating me!"
"Quit whining, Grayson! At least you don't have Roy's elbow in your back!"
"Again with you guys complaining about my elbow!"
"Oh, man, are we in trouble!"
Wally and Roy snapped to attention at Dick's outburst. They followed the black-haired boy's gaze and instantly felt alarm.
On the opposite shore stood Oliver Queen, waiting for the raft to come in. And he did not look pleased.
"Okay, everybody, uh, don't panic!" Roy ordered, sounding pretty nervous himself. "He doesn't know who sent those reporters after him. Just play it cool, okay, guys?"
The other boys nodded, although the fear was evident on Dick's face. Roy inwardly groaned. Dick was certainly no actor, and if he didn't pull it together, Ollie would tear them all to pieces. Especially Roy.
The boys were silent for the rest of the ride, much to the relief of the other passengers. But all too soon, the boat docked and everyone began filtering off the raft to make room for the next group of passengers.
Slowly, the trio of terrified teenagers approached Ollie.
"Hey, Ollie, where've you been?" Roy said with a big smile.
"I was about to ask you the same question."
"Well, we found Dick—apparently he thought he saw Mickey or something—and were on our way back when we saw a swarm of paparazzi and didn't want to get caught in the middle of it," his ward explained, cool as a cucumber. Wally and Dick nodded, Dick trying not to break out in a cold sweat. He was a horrible liar and he knew it.
Luckily, Mr. Queen didn't seem to have Alfred's awful ability to see through anything. Besides that, Roy was just too good. He must have had a lot of practice, making Dick wonder exactly what Roy had been up to recently.
"Well, I'm glad your morning wasn't ruined," was Ollie's only comment on the subject. "Look, it's about time for lunch. What do you say about eating at Pecos Bill's?"
The boys murmured in agreement and followed Ollie to the restaurant.
-
Aside from the fact that they didn't find the stalker and that the burgers at Pecos Bill's were dry enough to rival the Mojave Desert, the boys had a good time. They had gotten around to doing most of the rides they wanted to at the Magic Kingdom, except for Pirates of the Caribbean, which was closed, and Splash Mountain, which they didn't have time for.
When he heard that last bit of news, Roy was crushed.
"Don't worry, we'll get to it," Oliver had reassured them upon seeing the devastated look on Roy's face.
So there they were in the hotel room, gazing at their brochures and the list of rides that Dick had found. Oliver was in the shower, leaving the boys free to figure out how to get rid of him tomorrow.
"I wouldn't try the paparazzi trick again," Dick cautioned.
"Maybe we can sneak out early tomorrow morning?" suggested Wally.
"Naw, then he'd suspect something. We need to get him out of the way and make it look like we had nothing to do with it," Roy insisted, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
"And how do you suggest we do that?"
"You guys leave that to me. Just work out a plan of attack for tomorrow," Roy instructed. "And don't worry. I've got it covered."
"I was afraid of that," mumbled Dick. Nonetheless, he and Wally continued poring over the brochures, trying to figure out how best to capture their stalker and find out what he wanted with them.
Eventually, it was decided that—if Roy followed through with his end of the deal—they'd split up and explore the three Disneyworld theme parks that they had planned on visiting. Dick would go to the Disney-MGM Studios, Roy would return to the Magic Kingdom, and Wally agreed to poke around Epcot.
But how would they get Ollie out of the picture?
Me: And that's the big question that I will hopefully answer next week.
Dick (sounding happy): Hopefully?
Me: Yup. Later today I'll be ordering the next Nancy Drew computer game--you know, 'Danger by Design', the one that I've been WAITING for OVER A YEAR NOW?
Dick: Yeah.
Me: It's finally out! And I won't be updating again until I've SOLVED THAT CASE!
Dick: Oh. (happily under his breath) That oughtta take a couple centuries...
Me: And people? No matter how much you review, I'm not gonna tell you who the stalker is. Sorry, but I can't spoil anything!
Dick: Yeah. You wouldn't believe the amount of reviews we've gotten asking if Bruce is the stalker. (whispering) Hey, everybody! The stalker is--
(Panamint smacks him over the head with her keyboard)
Me: I'll teach YOU to spill my secrets, you little weasel! Guess I'll do the replies now...
Reviewer Replies
Skoellya-Yippee, thanks for the compliments! (big cheesy smile) I'm glad you liked "The Sidekick Strike" and I'm glad you like this one! Thanks for reading!
caltha-That's okay, I don't review every chapter of everything I read either. (dives under desk to avoid angry authors). I'm glad you're back, though, and I hope you had a good time this weekend!
Zarz-Well, it would be rather tame if they were just watching it... (cough) Sorry, that's all I can say! Thanks for the review!
myrina-Aw, you're not a bad person! You updated your story, didn't you? Expect a review for that sometime today... anyway, I'm glad to hear you like my stuff! Please keep reading (and writing)!
CrazyInsomaniac-Yum, cookie! (bites cookie) Thanks! And thanks for reviewing! And don't worry. I get weird looks from my sister all the time for just existing. ;-)
Nightwing Gurl-Roy can be a bit of a jerk sometimes, but he's still fun to be around (mostly). Thank you for all the kind words!
Yourperfectdisaster-Yeah. The poor guys. (snicker) I feel most sorry for Ollie, though. And you're the second person to like the paint incident! I'm glad it's so popular! Thank you!
Robin Knight-Dick says hello. XD And your theory should be either proven or disproven in a few more chapters. Thanks for reviewing!