AN: Stay until the end for a very important author's note! Also slight, minor spoilers for Amphibia (it's really minor, though)?
Race 8: Atlantis
"Hope you brought your exploration gear, because today's race in the Magical World Grand Prix is taking us to the lost city of Atlantis!" Mickey announced.
"Didn't they bring the city up to the surface, though?" Lightning asked.
Mickey shrugged. "Eh, they can move it up and down as much as they want. Plus it being underwater makes the race more interesting."
"Fair enough," Lightning nodded. "Anyway, we don't want to keep our racers waiting too long. Let's get down there and see all the action waiting for us today!"
[***]
"Okay, so we all have come together with our knowledge on the mystery saboteur," Gabriel said as all the team leaders were gathered around. "So far, here's all we know: this person clearly has it out for us, has enough skill to either bribe and/or disguise themselves as a Tusken Raider, the knowledge to build and use robots, and likes them animal shaped to boot."
"And they probably had something to do with Logan being infected by a Heartless as well," Rachel said.
"That was mostly myself, but thanks for looking out for me anyway, Rachel," Logan said sheepishly.
Gabriel nodded to Rachel. "Okay then, we also now have data back from both Gary the Gadget Guy and Stark Industries and the results are… inconclusive."
"The saboteur did a good job and scrambling the exact makeup of the robot," Adam confirmed. "It's not consistent with any one metal, instead being more like someone took a bunch of scraps and melted them down into some hodgepodge of a material."
"So, do we have any guesses as to who it might be? I'm open to all options," Gabriel asked. Aline raised her hand first. "No Aline, it's not Belos. He doesn't even use robots, and the Abomatons don't count." Aline put her hand back down.
"On a similar note, maybe King Andrias?" Toren suggested. "I mean, he did have the technology stuff going on…"
"It's not him," Aline shook her head. "Sprig and all the other Amphibia characters are still recovering from the big series finale they just went through, so I doubt Andrias had any time to mess with us."
"I'd like to put out Doc Ock," Logan said. "He likes robots and makes them animal themed too. Plus remember the "Master Planner" arc from the comics? He can disguise himself or use a robot to do so."
"I think it might be David Nix," Adam said.
"Who?" everyone at the table asked.
"The main villain of Tomorrowland," Adam replied. "Did none of you guys see that movie?" Everyone shook their heads. "Well, it could be him, that's all I'll say."
"I think it might be a Spider-Man villain, but instead Mysterio," Beth said. "The whole distraction thing reminds me of him, especially his plan from Far From Home."
"I think it's Turbo, aka King Candy," Rachel said. "Disguises, robot animals, and the fact that this is a race all line up to me."
"…Is it wrong of me to say Maleficent?" Silver said. "I mean, we've never fought her before, and it's weird that we've never done that before, right? It has to happen eventually."
"Actually, Maleficent's been hanging out as her Live-Action version recently, where she's more of an anti-hero than a villain, despite what the title of the second movie wants you to believe," Gabriel said. "That's why I haven't had to fight her yet. Though there was one time during my training as Dream Keeper… but that's another story."
"What about you, Gabriel? Who do you think it might be?" Rachel asked.
The raven didn't get to answer as the buzzer calling them all out to the track rang. "We can discuss this afterwards," Gabriel said. "For now, we race and hope the saboteur reveals themselves to us."
[***]
With everyone in their vehicles, the launch bay opened up to reveal that the race was going underwater this time. Logan looked nervous even POOF turning into his owl form from the stress. "Woah, you okay there, kid?" Scott asked.
"I don't do well with being underwater," Logan said.
"Aren't you dating a whale shark though?" Dastan pointed out.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," Logan muttered.
Della held Logan's wing. "You want me to drive so you don't get nervous?"
Logan slowly nodded. "Yeah, that would help," he said.
The two swapped places before activating underwater mode on the car, which put a bubble dome over the seating area and added a jet propellor to the back for easier control underwater.
3
2
1
GO!
"Heart of a Jaquin takes the leading dive onto the track, followed by Concerto Comet and Gracious Bird!" Lightning announced.
The racers all drove out of the boat carrier and down into the waters near Iceland, heading deep underwater as their headlights shone the way, along with some helpful markers to guide their path. Grabbing the first set of items, Toren boosted ahead for a further lead, just out of reach of Logan's bomb, though Gabriel wasn't as lucky. Adam and Silver were both in the back of the pack, and both of them used a banana to equally disrupt the other.
"Hey, if we're underwater, how come bananas affect our driving?" Silver questioned.
"Cartoon physics," Elsa shrugged.
After going deep enough, the racers past through into an underwater cave, breaking out of it onto dry land and into the lava tubes leading towards Atlantis. Some Atlanteans could be seen on the side, watching the racers as they zoomed past. The caves soon cooled, and with it came the next bunch of items.
"Boost time again!" Toren cheered as they zoomed out of the caves, Atlantis now in sight.
"Watch out for us!" Logan called. He used his special move to fly the car into first place, thanks to his owl form.
"Look at you, making your curse your advantage," Eda said, watching from her team. "Maybe I should see if that kid wants to join the Bad Girls Coven."
Gabriel got a banana to attack Aline, but then he was in turn attacked by a firework from Beth. "Man, we are not on our A-game today," Rocket shook his head.
As the race took them closer to the city, the teams all soon stopped as Cruz and Guido waited for them.
"Pitstop!" Guido called.
"And today's challenge is all about the wonders of Atlantis," Cruz explained, gesturing to a wall full of runes. "We have a copy of the Atlantean language thanks to Milo Thatch, so your challenge is to translate these ruins and bring it back to us."
"Jasiri, Rocket, you two do that," Gabriel said. "Lop and I need to discuss something with the others."
"Okay, be careful out there," Jasiri said, giving her boyfriend a lick on the cheek for good luck.
Gabriel and Lop went off to meet with Rachel and Bruno, the two of them overlooking Atlantis from the side of the road. "So, do you have an idea of who the villain might be? You never got to give your answer," Rachel asked.
"There is one, but some of the pieces aren't adding up," Gabriel said. "I was thinking that we could figure this out while we're here in Atlantis. They have their special crystals that have immense energy, so I was thinking Lop could use the Force to tap into it and reach out for the answer."
"I can feel the Force all around us here," Lop confirmed.
"Good thing I'm friends with Queen Kida then," Rachel said. "Bruno was thinking of doing a vision ritual here as well."
"Oh yeah, the waterfalls have that nice calming vibe for a full vision," Bruno nodded. "Not as good as sand, but it'll work for us."
"As for my theory…" Gabriel paused and gave a hum. He turned around and reached out with his magic, creating a net and pulling towards him whatever he had heard. In the net was a crab, which snapped and snipped at being caught.
"Huh, a crab," Rachel said.
"I was going to say that the robot bug leg might in fact be a crab leg instead," Gabriel said. He conjured up an image of the robot part to compare. "See? They're very similar in shape."
"Yeah, I can see it," Lop agreed.
"And there's only one Disney villain that comes to mind when I think of robots and crabs," Gabriel said. "It's-"
"And we're done here!" Rocket called. "Gabriel, get your feathery butt back here so we can race."
"Darn it! I'll tell you later," Gabriel said.
Rachel and Bruno shared a look before going back to their team. "So, what was the rune translation?" Rachel asked.
"Would you believe me if I said it was a dad joke?" Vanellope answered dryly.
Heading out of the ruined outskirts, the next set of items came up just as they got to the outer parts of the city.
"Bombs away!" Ant-Man said, tossing the item right at Heart of a Jaquin.
"And bananas away!" Stitch laughed, his item hitting the Concerto Comet, though Gabriel threw up a shield to block it.
"Time for some supercharged action!" Iron Man called, boosting the SEA Racer all the way up a few places.
"Sorry Gabriel!" Silver apologized as he tossed a bomb their way.
"And now we're in last place," Rocket sighed.
"It's weird, considering that we've been in the front of almost all the races up to now," Jasiri mused.
"At least we get see all this scenery," Gabriel shrugged, looking around at the Atlantean architecture.
The teams got closer to the palace, weaving through the bustling streets of Atlantis at high speeds. The Blue Royale raced ahead thanks to a special from Aurora, though Logan's team was able to keep focus thanks to Della's special.
"The finish line is just ahead!" Mickey announced. "Go, go, go racers!"
"At least we gave it our best," Lop sighed.
"Keep on going forward to victory," Adam said.
"And never look back until you win," Aline nodded as Silver passed her up.
"Still, who is the saboteur," Cinderella wondered.
"Don't want to fall behind now," Nico called.
"Hey, we're not in the back this time!" Beth cheered. "Go team!"
"But this is a win for us," Rachel mused.
Suddenly, a burst of speed came from the Gracious Bird, all thanks to Ant-Man and his Pym Particles shrinking a rocket engine to give them a huge boost. Logan zipped across the finish line, coming to a skidding stop as the confetti and music played.
"And Gracious Bird makes its first place victory today, followed by Sweet Vision in second and the Toon Buggy in third!"
Logan jumped out of his car in slow motion, joy on his face as he transformed into his owl form and basked in the glory. "We Are the Champions" by Queen played in his mind as he cried tears of joy, though to everyone else they just say him jumping around without any such music playing.
"So, is he going to be okay?" Daisy asked as she walked up for the interview. "He's crying a lot over there."
"It's his first win, let him have this one, Daisy," Della said, watching as Gabriel and Toren tried to calm Logan down.
"I'm just so happy right now guys," Logan said, pulling his friends in for a hug.
"Oof! Aline was right, you are super fluffy like this," Toren chuckled as he was squeezed like any oversized doll.
"I dunno, I think I still prefer a Baymax hug," Gabriel said.
"I want to thank my friends, family, and everyone that supported me for getting to this moment," Logan said.
"It was a team effort really," Della said. "I'm just glad thet kid- I mean, young adult, is back to his old self."
"Nice save there," Scott gave a thumb's up. "As for me, just want to say hi to my girl Cassie back at home! See you soon sweetie!"
"Time was on our side today," Dastan nodded. He then looked around as he felt something strange in the air. "Wait, something is amiss here…"
Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked around. Suddenly the ground began to shake, and a giant lobster-like robot emerged from the water, flying around the city and up towards the Heart of Atlantis.
"It's the Leviathan!" Adam said. "The guardian of Atlantis!"
"I was wondering where the giant robot of my childhood nightmares was," Gabriel said.
"Citizens of Atlantis and Racers of the Magical World Grand Prix!" called a voice. A hologram beamed down from the Leviathan, showing the image of an anthropomorphic polar bear with a googly-eyed crab at his side. "I am Herbert Percival Bear, Esquire, and I have commandeered this machine for my own perposes."
"I knew it!" Gabriel shouted. "I wanted to say that I suspected it was Herbert that was behind this."
"Oh look, the Dream Keeper figured this out, big shocker," Herbert said sarcastically. "So then, how did you know it was me?"
"Well, your sidekick is a crab, and you like making gadgets and robots to do your biddings, so that checked out," Gabriel explained. "Second, you build everything out of the scraps you find on Club Penguin, so that was why none of us could identify the materials you made the robot out of. And third, you once became Darth Herbert, so that was how you convinced the Tusken Raiders to attack us."
"What I want to know is why you were trying to stop the race," Rachel said.
"Yeah, this doesn't fit your usual MO, Herbert," Jet Pack Guy nodded.
"Oh Sword Mage, I didn't need to top the race, just make it more interesting," Herbert shook his head. "As you know, my goal is to stop those pesky penguins from having so much fun so that I can finally have a tropical paradise to relax in. So one day at a villain garage sale I came across this nifty thing."
Herbert pulled up a hologram to show off his newest invention. "Is that… Is that a bunch of laser pointers put together?" Beth asked.
"This baby is the Melt-Inator 6-5000, originally made to melt chocolate, but modified by me to melt all of club Penguin in one fell swoop," Herbert explained.
"Ah, so it's from Doctor Doofenshmirtz," Toren said, Agent P nodding as he recognized the invention.
"Didn't you already try this plan before?" Rookie asked.
"Well, yes, but this time it will work for sure!" Herbert insisted. "Anyway, the Inator needed a lot of power, so I arranged for my assistant, Klutzy, to secretly install sensors that collected the energy your vehicles give off when racing to power my machine. As a bonus, the harder you push your cars to the limit the more power it generates, thus why I did all that sabotaging as well."
"So we were played from the start," Adam frowned. "What's with the Leviathan though?"
"What? Giant sea-themed robots are cool," Herbert crossed his arms. "However, seeing all of you race has put me in a good mood, so I'll give you my ultimatum: I hired two of the best (and cheapest) racers I could find to distract you long enough for me to power up the Melt-Inator. If you can beat them before I'm done charging the weapon, I'll challenge you to a race for who gets Club Penguin Island."
"Do you guys think we can really risk all of Club Penguin for this?" Silver asked. "I mean, there's a lot of people and penguins that live there."
"But we have to! We're the good guys, and good guys always beat the bad guys," Beth said.
"Don't worry teams, the EPF will keep Herbert distracted while you take on his challenges," Jet Pack Guy said. He pulled out his phone and dialed a number. "Director, put us on Code Red and call in all the agents you can get. Herbert is back and he has big plans that will take everyone to stop."
Gabriel looked to the others, the team captains nodding with determination. The raven smiled, then turned back to Herbert, holding up his hands and summoning Fantasia to his side. "Okay Herbert, we accept your challenge. You better watch out, though because these teams aren't going down without a fight!"
"The Force will see us through," Lop said, igniting her lightsaber.
"Plus our teamswork isn't to be underestimated," Rocket nodded, cocking his blaster.
"And the Circle of Life will guide us all," Jasiri ended, summoning her own magic.
Herbert smirked. "Well then, Racers, see you on the track. Your first challenger will be arriving soon…"
Total Points
Gabriel (45)
Rachel (42)
Logan (42)
Toren (37)
Aline (32)
Silver (32)
Adam (30)
Beth (28)
Author's Note
Dun, dun, dun! That's right, Herbert P. Bear is the main antagonist, and he rigged everyone's cars to power up his heat ray! Luckily, he's decided to give our racers a fighting chance, but who did he hire to race them and where will these races be? Hopefully the EPF can keep the dastardly polar bear distracted long enough for our teams to make it to the end.
Now then, I have an important announcement to make: I'm going on vacation! My family is taking a personal trip, so I'll be away from my computer for a week. This means that there isn't going to be a chapter next week. The next chapter should be posted on May 30 (that's Memorial Day for those of us in the USA) so I'll see you guys then!
Next time: Herbert's first challenger is in a world of machines and circuitry. Watch out for the grid lines!