Chapter Sixteen: Search...For a Legend
"I don't think we have much time left though, from what I could see last night, they're getting bolder. The sooner we figure out what the pen can do, the sooner we can stop the Overtakers." Jess spoke up, stirring her ice cream with her spoon, looking highly concerned about the rather bold move Maleficent and her followers had pulled just this morning... being out in broad daylight. Well, at least broad dawn light.
Maybeck crossed his arms, looking a smidgen disgruntled as he leaned back in his seat. "Yeah? And what do you expect us to do? Yell on the rooftops that we have it?"
"We need to figure out what it does. Kind of hard to make a strategy if we don't know what we have in our arsenal!" Willa pointed out, sounding slightly irritated.
Murmurs of agreement rippled through the group at that, all eyes turning down to the slowly melting bowls of ice cream that they were eating out of. Finn scooped up a bite, savoring the flavor as he pondered on what to do. Swallowing, he glanced over to where Bossy was swimming in slow circles. Wait a minute... "Didn't Wayne say he didn't program the ITEMs to do any of the stuff that they have done to choose us...and with the creating of new ITEMs?"
"Yeah...so?" Philby fed a bite of his ice cream to Potion, raising his eyebrow skyward.
Finn bite his bottom lip, his mind now whirling at several miles a minute. "Someone must have done that... and I bet they probably know a thing or two on what's going on too. If we can find whoever is behind all of this, we can probably learn more about the pen."
"Okay... I can't go tonight. Mom wants to stay up to see if she can't see us in action... and she's making it a family deal." Charlene warned them, even as she took a rather large bite of her ice cream.
Finn shrugged, a thoughtfulness overtaking him. "I can tell my parents that I'm staying at Dill's for the night and go. If you can make it, meet up at the Warehouse. I'm headed over to the Kingdom at half past midnight."
Finn sighed as he glanced at the small gold watch that was part of his Kingdom Keeper get up. It was five minutes past the time that they had agreed to meet up with him... and no one has shown up yet. "Well... time to get this show on the road." Walking over to where the portal was located, he activated it, quickly leaping through.
Surprise flashed through him when he landed not in front of the large castle like they normally did, but rather in some bushes next to it. Frowning to himself, he turned around, trying to see if he couldn't figure out why the new location. From his advantage point, he could see patrols from the Overtakers meandering around like usual, waiting for a chance to kill him... but he knew from experience that he could easily slip past them to safety. "Okay... why did you bring me here?"
There was a bright flash of light, and then suddenly he found himself looking Bossy in the eye. Bossy circled around him for a minute, before suddenly starting to headbutt the wall behind Finn. Confused, Finn tried nudging his Item away from the wall. "Hey...don't do that Bossy. There's nothing th..." Finn broke off suddenly, now close enough to see a faint outline of a doorway via the pale glow coming from Bossy. "Wait... what's this?"
Running his hands over the walls, he eventually found a a small indention in the wall, that when he pressed down on it, caused the hidden door to swing open. Swallowing hard, he glanced behind him briefly, before closing the door. He had an Item to follow. "Here Bossy... here boy... you are a boy, right?" Finn inched along the dark hallway, eyeing the glow of Bossy that was just ahead of him. A minute later he entered a large room that had multiple staircases in it... the only catch? Some were sideways, and others still were completely upside down. A few appeared to lead to nowhere, while others went on forever. Some went down, while others went up. "Whoa... what is this place?"
Bossy twisted around, suddenly landing on a sign that was almost hidden away from any potential sightseers. Finn walked over, quickly reading the sign out loud. "Escher's Keep. One misstep will be your doom. Not really, you will be dumped into a slide that will take you to the moat." Finn blinked at that, wondering if that was an attempt by whoever built this to discourage anyone from going into it. Turning to Bossy, he raised his left eyebrow upwards. "So... do you know the way through this maze?"
Bossy nodded, as if saying yes, before swimming up one of the many staircases. Finn hesitated, the Item could fly after all, before cautiously following him up the steps.
Finn blinked as he stepped into a dark room, just in time for Bossy to remerge with him. Back in his Kingdom Keeper armor, Finn felt a bit more prepared for anything, even as he glanced up to admire the clear night sky that was above him... and getting closer. Wait...what?! "Um... why is the sky getting lower? Or am I getting higher..?" Unfortunately, no one was there to hear his question, or answer it. Leaving him to make a wild guess on what was going on. A wild guess that a quick glance at the walls provided a very good clue as to what was going on. "A wall-less elevator. Ingenuous if not a bit freaky if one doesn't know what's going on here."
A minute later, Finn found himself standing in what appeared to be a living space in some kind of apartment. Walking over to the window, he peered out of it to see that he was still in the castle... only now he was in the highest Tower. Turning, he eyed two phones, both of them corded landlines, that were sitting on a table near the door. One was a bright red, while the others was a blinding yellow. Walking around the room, Finn tried to figure out if he could leave it another way besides that of the elevator that he just took. Somehow, he suspected that there will be patrols down there waiting for him if he dared exit the same way that he came in at.
As he searched for anything to explain where he was at, he bumped a small statue of the giant mouse that appeared to be rather dominant in the Kingdom. Immediately, a hologram similar to the one Wayne used when he first got the FISH Item, appeared out of nowhere. "Good day... well I possibly should say night. In case you don't recognize me, my name is Walt Disney... founder of the Kingdom. If you are here, then that means all of my precautions have been realized... that Wayne actually built them, using the code I gave him to do so. And that you, wonderful child, not only happen to be the Leader of the Kingdom Keepers, but you already have found my pen. My pen that was used to bring this entire place to life, and can do so much more. After all, the pen is mightier than the sword. My blueprints are hidden in this very room. When the time comes, place a drop of ink from my pen onto the blueprints and it will reset everything back to normal and we can reopen the gates. But first, before you do that, you and your new friends must capture Maleficent. The pen can help you to do that... it'll burn her if it touches her while you are holding onto it. Do not let her regain her strength. The best way to do that is to lock her up somewhere warm, she needs the cold to catch her spells." Taking in a deep breath, the hologram smiled suddenly, amusement dancing in his eyes. "I chose children, unlike Wayne who would surely prefer adults to solve this, because one must use their imagination... and who has a better imagination than a child? Good luck... and may all your dreams come true..." With that said, the hologram flickered off, leaving Finn alone once more.
Finn gave off a shaky laugh, hurriedly wiping his hands on his armor. "Well... that just happened... and explains so much."
A/N: Done! Okay... sorry about the wait. Brain didn't want Finn to find an old recording from Walt Disney that explains what the pen can do. Why it's so important. Finally got there... after double checking that I haven't had them explore the Escher's Keep yet. Since Finn and Bossy, the name stuck as Finn put it, had to get there first. Also, you all now know why teenagers and not adults got the Items. Imagination is key here. Oh well. Everything is almost ready for the final battle... once that's done this story will be completed unless you all want an Avengers crossover with this. (It'll be the Earth's Mightiest Heroes Universe since I know that one better than the MCU)
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