Disclaimer: All Disney works are the property of The Walt Disney Company. All other characters and settings are the property of their respective legal owners.
Author's note: Originally posted by Anon e Mouse Jr. on 2017-09-16. This is the first of two chapters posted today.
Author's note 2: Content has been edited from original posts. Original version indicated you could tell who was Pinging, or at least what Loop they came from; I have modified the sentences to remove this aspect.
Disney/Kingdom Hearts Loops, Chapter Four
4.1 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [The Twilight Saga]
SUNSET OVER FORKS: PART 1
Minnie grumbled as she tried to start up the red pickup truck and set off to school. Of all of the towns in all the worlds in all the Loops, Yggdrasil saw fit to dump her into Forks, Washington.
The Forks, Washington featured in the Twilight Saga.
As Bella Swan.
With no indication if Edward was Replaced or not.
The only things stopping her from writing the Loop off entirely were the presence of an Awake Charlie Swan, and the fact that she had detected at least a few other Loopers the last time she pinged. So she wasn't entirely alone.
"Still," she said to herself as the truck finally started up with a roar, "I think I'll try to do a better job than Bella did. Can't be too difficult."
Okay, this is a bit harder than I thought, Minnie thought, as she looked around at all of the kids gawking at her. "Um, may I help you?" she asked.
She then spent the next few minutes answering questions about her life in Phoenix, Arizona, since the student population of Forks had apparently never been to the big city before. During a lull in the questioning, she was able to get a good look at the table in the corner, and sighed to herself at who she saw sitting there. Oh, Mickey...
Mickey was sitting with a group of unnaturally pale and beautiful teenagers, who were apparently preoccupied with staring at the wall. Out of the school lunches they bought, only Mickey's showed any sign of being touched. He was also paler than normal, and he looked rather grumpy about the whole thing. He was writing something on a piece of paper.
Mickey noticed Minnie staring at him, and perked up immediately. He waved nonchalantly, and Minnie waved back as demurely as she could manage with one hand occupied with a lunch tray.
As Minnie smiled (possibly drooling a little. Possibly.) a voice piped up behind her.
"I see you found the Cullens."
She eeped in surprise and nearly dropped her tray. Man, Jessica could be sneaky if she wanted to be.
Weirdly, Jessica seemed to be replaced with a teenage version of Jessica Rabbit. And now that Minnie thought about it, a lot of the students in Forks seemed to resemble younger versions of various Disney characters. Must be one of these "Cartoon Cast" Loops, she thought to herself.
"Who are they?" Minnie asked, to get the exposition ball rolling.
As Jessica began to expound on the history of the Cullens, Minnie stole another glance at Mickey. He was, unbeknownst to his adopted siblings, holding up a crudely done sign reading "HELP ME!" in bright red ink. Minnie nodded slightly and winked at him.
Jessica caught the subtle interplay between the two Loopers. "Got your eye on Michael, huh?"
Minnie blushed. "Maaaaaaybe..."
"I gotta admit, he's pretty cute," Jessica continued, "but I wouldn't waste my time, if I were you. He doesn't date. Apparently, none of the girls are good-looking enough for him."
While Minnie pretended to nod in reluctant understanding, she was laughing inside her head. Oh Jessica, if you only knew...
4.2 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [The Twilight Saga]
SUNSET OVER FORKS: PART 2
Minnie was especially on guard today, as she pulled into the school parking lot. If what Charlie told her was true, then today was the day that Bella almost gets hit by a van, and Edward all but blows his cover as a vampire to save her butt.
The first thing she did upon parking the truck was to immediately get on the sidewalk, and distance herself from the parking lot. The second thing was to check if Mickey was on standby. He was, and waved at Minnie again, to the disdain of the other Cullens. She then started moving towards the school in a manner reminiscent of a soldier trying to stay in cover as much as possible.
She looked back briefly, and saw the van suddenly come screeching out of nowhere, and nearly crash into the truck.
Then, it stopped, and backed up a bit. The headlights gleamed blood-red, and Minnie could have sworn she heard it growl.
The van reoriented itself until it was pointed right at her, then, to her horror, it started forward again.
"Everyone move!" she yelled. Luckily, her popularity among the students of Forks seemed to lend her some sort of authority, and the students in front of the van hurled themselves out of the way as it screamed forwards. She faked left, then jumped to the right, clinging onto the chain-link fence surrounding the school, and scrambling up and over it. The van's headlights swiveled slowly back and forth, casting a pallid red glow on the surroundings as it looked for her. Minnie took the opportunity to access a few powers that she hadn't used in a while.
A magic curtain suddenly manifested around her, as she exchanged her trademark bow for an explorer's cap. At the same time, a small outlet appeared on a nearby telephone pole. "I hope this works..." she fretted.
Mickey had, by this point, shrugged off the other Cullens' entreaties to not get involved, and was already moving into a position where he could intercept the apparently possessed van. "I'll say this for Twilight vampires: they can sure move if they want to," he said to himself as he prepared to jump onto the roof of the van.
Suddenly, Minnie, all dolled up in explorer getup, tossed out a grappling hook, which latched onto the school roof. The van snarled as it finally got a lock on Minnie, and roared forwards. Right before it could run into Minnie, she shot up out of reach, rappelling up to the roof. The van grunted in surprise, as it suddenly felt a violent pull to the right. It tried to fight against it, its tires carving deep grooves in the schoolyard grass, but eventually its engine gave out. It let out a final, despairing groan as it slowly turned upside down, and slid over to the telephone pole. The engine sputtered and died, and the lights went out.
Mickey looked up at Minnie who was working her way back down to the ground, and sighed. "Well, so much for staying inconspicuous..." He went over to the other students and started checking up on them, while the sirens of the arriving ambulances echoed in the distance.
4.3 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [The Twilight Saga]
SUNSET OVER FORKS: PART 3
Later, in the hospital, Mickey and Minnie compared notes with Charlie Swan.
"Let me get this straight: the van chased you when you got out of the way?" Charlie began.
Minnie nodded as she sipped a cup of hot chocolate. "That's right. There were also signs of the car acting like it was alive. And angry."
Charlie nodded slowly. "I talked with Tyler while you were getting your drink. He's the kid that was driving the van."
"What'd he say?" Mickey asked.
"He said that he initially thought that he had lost control of the vehicle due to the ice, but he panicked when the car started operating its own gear shift."
He turned to Minnie. "The poor kid's still in shock about what happened. Maybe you could talk to him, let him know that what happened isn't his fault."
"I'll get right on that, Mr. Swan," Minnie replied.
As Minnie got up from her comfy seat and went to go check up on Tyler, Charlie realized something. "Oh gosh. If this is happening here, then what's happening to the other Loopers?"
"You're joking."
Oswald stared at Leah as they sat around the campfire. In the distance, Oswald could hear crickets chirping. Rather loudly, too.
Leah shook her head. "I'm afraid not. You're the third wheel in a love triangle."
"Aw, for crying out loud! I got enough of that in the soap opera loop!"
Leah snorted. "Welcome to my life. Everything seems to revolve around those two idiots and their relationship, whether it wants to or not."
"Must be a rough life," Oswald sympathized.
"You have no idea."
Leah paused to think for a moment. "At least this isn't the movie variant. I get dropped in lava near the end of the Breaking Dawn phase when that happens."
Oswald shuddered. He knew the sensation of getting burned alive well enough to know it was one of the worse ways to end a Loop. "Well, let's try to keep the exposure to lava to a minimum, then, hey?"
Leah smiled. "Yeah, that's usually a good idea."
Oswald clapped his hand together. "So! On to a much lighter subject: is there anything funky about werewolves in this universe? I'm not as up to snuff on this series as I would like."
"Well, the only major thing you have to worry about is imprinting. Other than that, you basically can change into a wolf and back whenever you want."
"I'm going to deeply regret asking this, but... what is imprinting?" Oswald asked.
Leah sighed deeply. Hoo boy, Oswald thought. This wouldn't be pleasant.
"Well, it's like this..." Leah began...
A FEW MINUTES LATER
Leah watched on with some concern as Oswald set up a great number of restraining devices in the middle of the clearing, ranging in complexity from simple pairs of handcuffs and rolls of tape, to what appeared to be a stasis field and several robot drones.
The fact that he kept saying the word "Nope" over and over while he was doing so only added to the concern.
"Um, Oswald? Are you sure this is all necessary?"
Oswald paused in the middle of locking himself into a straitjacket with telekinesis. "If this imprinting thing is as integral to the minds of shape-shifters as you make it out to be, then removing it is going to put a lot of strain on the mind, yes?"
"Wait...Oswald, are you planning on removing the imprinting mechanism from your mind?" Leah asked warily.
"Yes. Is that a problem?"
Leah looked at the various chains, straps, stakes, and varieties of tape that were currently pinning Oswald to the ground. "Well, it's going to be extremely difficult. I needed the wolf-like part of my soul basically redesigned from the ground up to get rid of it, and it took me a few weeks to essentially relearn how to be a wolf afterwards."
"But you're fine now, right? Know all the ins and outs of being a wolf, right?"
"Right...?"
Oswald nodded firmly, as he finished buckling himself into the straitjacket with a flourish, before he settled himself in the middle of his elaborate containment devices. "Then you could teach me once I wrap up here, right?"
"I suppose I could..." she agreed. Her voice then hardened noticeably. "But this is going way too far! I mean, you're basically going to be doing the psychic equivalent of open-heart surgery on yourself, with a butter knife! I know how much imprinting sucks for people like us, how much it can hurt. But surely, rearranging your entire psyche to get rid of it would do a lot more damage in the long run?"
Oswald looked Leah in the eye, and the werewolf could feel the utter seriousness radiating off of him. "Leah, I appreciate the sentiment. I really do. It means a lot to me that you're concerned about my mental health when for all intents and purposes, this is the first time we've ever met. But Leah, you've got to understand: I'm a Toon. Our relationships define darn near everything about us. Do you think Mickey would still be Mickey if he didn't love Minnie with all his heart? Do you think Yosemite Sam could still be Yosemite Sam if he didn't hate Bugs Bunny with the passion that he does?"
His eyes started to fill with tears. "And do you think I'll still be Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, if I just gave up Ortensia for the monstrous spawn of Edward and Bella? I might die trying to do this, Leah, but at least the Loop reset will take care of that. I'm not so sure about the imprinting, and frankly… I don't want to find out."
The clearing was silent for several tense seconds, as Leah mulled over this information. Oswald's ears began to droop, just a little.
At last, Leah relented, sighing deeply. "I have enough food in my subspace pocket to last us both several weeks. I'll stay here and make sure that you don't go crazy, or kill yourself while you do this."
Oswald smiled, and wiped his eyes with his ear. "Thank you,' he whispered.
He steeled himself for the task at hand, and closed his eyes.
As Mickey, Minnie and Charlie left the hospital (having secured permission from Carlisle to let Mickey sleep over at Minnie's place), they heard what sounded like faint screaming, coming from the direction of La Push.
"Does anyone else have a sense of foreboding, or is it just me?" Charlie asked.
"I've got it too," Minnie replied.
"Same here," said Mickey. "I sure hope that other Disney Looper is okay..."
"Well, I'm going off to La Push in a couple of days, to check up on the Quileute tribe living there and make sure that the Cullens aren't planning anything," Charlie offered. "I'll be going over the weekend, so you two can come with if you like."
"Sounds good to me."
"Sure thing!"
4.4 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [The Twilight Saga]
SUNSET OVER FORKS: PART 4
Oswald blearily opened his eyes, squinting at the bright sunlight. He was lying upside down against a nearby tree, and was bleeding a little bit from his nose. Every single one of his restraints had been busted, and his straitjacket was in tatters. There were claw marks and tooth marks all over the wrecked restraints, and the robot drones were all smashed.
"Morning, sunshine," Leah quipped, as she strode out from behind one particularly clawed-up tree.
"What... happened...?" Oswald mumbled as he slowly rolled onto his side.
"I still don't know how you did it, but your little mental surgery worked. Your wolf aspect is now one hundred percent imprint-free."
"How do you know?" Oswald asked, as he sat up, clutching his head and wincing in pain.
"You're a really powerful psychic that was doing nothing to prevent his thoughts from being projected throughout this entire clearing. It wasn't hard."
Oswald flinched. "Sorry."
Leah waved him off. "It's fine. I needed the practice to maintain my personal shields anyway."
Oswald pulled out an Elixir from his subspace pocket, and chugged it. He sighed in relief as his nose stopped bleeding and his headache cleared up. "Did I do anything weird, or bizarre, while I was sorting things out?"
Leah leaned against the tree to think, counting on her fingers. "Well, around midnight, you were gabbling in some weird language I didn't quite understand. Then, about fifteen minutes later, you screamed really, really loudly. I wouldn't be surprised if they heard you down in Forks. After that, you shifted for the first time, and gnawed through the restraints."
"You are one speedy wolf, let me tell you," she continued. "Tough, too. I had a hell of a time trying to keep you from running off into the woods. I eventually had to tap into some Force mojo, and slam you into a tree to stun you. You kept on whimpering until around one, when you shifted back, and conked out."
"That explains where I woke up," Oswald replied, as he got to his feet. Just then, his stomach growled. Loudly. Oswald looked down and then blushed. "Uh, do you still have that food you mentioned?"
Leah nodded. "Yep."
She then pulled out what appeared to be a large bag filled with fresh meat. Fresh, raw meat. Fresh raw meat that looked like it had very recently been alive.
Oswald sighed. "Of course. I have to re-learn how to be wolf, don't I?"
"I figured that learning what wolves normally eat would be a good place to start."
Oswald nodded, then tapped into his Looping memories, trying to remember how to shift into wolf form-
And suddenly a rather stout little wolf with black fur was sitting on his haunches in the empty clearing. Curiously, it looked more like a wolf that stepped out of an old cartoon from the days of black and white, than it did an actual wolf.
Leah had to suppress a giggle at the sight of Oswald in wolf form looking confusedly around the clearing, his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth. He's really like a big old puppy, isn't he? she thought to herself.
She decided to speak up to get Oswald's attention, which was currently focused on his new fluffy tail. "Oswald."
Oswald looked up from chasing his tail. [Oh, man,] he responded telepathically, [this is awesome! I think I can smell the lake from here! And I have a TAIL, and it's LONG and FLUFFY and-]
"Oswald."
Oswald had the decency to look sheepish. [Sorry. New body comes with new instincts, it seems. Strong instincts.]
"Yes, that's one of the details that takes some getting used to, especially for a new shifter. Let's get you fed up, then we can practice for a while, okay?"
[Sounds good to me!]
Oswald drooled happily as Leah pulled out a dog bowl, and filled it with meat. As Oswald began mauling the food, Leah gave him some pointers. "Remember, Oswald, wolves don't have molars like humans do. You have to rip the meat apart into smaller chunks that you can swallow whole."
Oswald looked up, with a large chunk of meat hanging out of his mouth. [Mmmf ffmmf fm?]
"...How is your voice muffled? You're speaking telepathically!"
Oswald shrugged, which looked rather odd on a wolf. [Mmmf mfmmmf mffffmf mffmm mmfmff.]
Leah pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm not gonna ask."
LATER, THAT VERY SAME PLOT...
It was a glorious, not-at-all-rainy evening as Mickey, Minnie, and Charlie drove over to La Push. Charlie had explained to the two mice that this was usually when Bella would meet Jacob for the first time, and hear his "scary story" about the existence of vampires.
"I never really got how she would instantly come to the conclusion that her boyfriend was a vampire, even if a lot of the stuff in the story matched up with what she knew about the Cullens," Charlie said. "Heck, I thought that they were just a bunch of rich snobs that didn't get out much, before they up and told me that they were vampires."
"Well, I know a bunch about what vampires can do, thanks to Loop memories," Mickey began, "but I still don't know a lot about the other supernatural stuff around here."
"The only other major supernatural faction around here are the werewolves," Charlie replied. "There's quite a few packs around here, all descendants of the Quileute tribe. I made a point of getting in touch with Leah Clearwater at the beginning of the Loop; she's the go-to person to learn about this stuff if you don't want to deal with the Cullens' bull."
"Who's Leah?" Minnie asked, while polishing her Voice Stealer.
"She's the Anchor of this Loop. Only female werewolf in this universe. Nice girl, if a bit moody at times. But then, given all the crap she's been through, I can't blame her. If those ponies hadn't helped her out..."
Mickey and Minnie shuddered. They knew what could happen if an Anchor went crazy.
"Maybe we should have a talk with her," Mickey said after they drove a while in silence. "If we're going to go off the rails-and I feel like we're going to go off the rails sooner rather than later-then maybe she has a few ideas."
4.5 (Mr. Egret; addition by wildrook): [Disney] / [The Twilight Saga]
SUNSET OVER FORKS: PART 5
Mickey, Minnie, and Charlie walked along the beach, towards a small campfire burning in the distance. Mickey's special vampire eyes could tell that the smoke was a vivid blue, for some reason. Charlie just shrugged when he pointed it out. "I don't really know why it does that," he admitted. "Chemistry never really was my strong suit."
"Are you sure that Leah's campfire over there?" Minnie asked.
Charlie paused for a moment, then slapped his forehead. "I knew I forgot to do something," he muttered, as he proceeded to pull a large flashlight out of his subspace pocket. He pointed it at the campfire, then switched it on and off three times in rapid succession.
The campfire proceeded to go out and light up again three times. "A signal?" Mickey asked.
Charlie nodded as he put the flashlight away. "Yep, Leah and I came up with a system a little while after I started Looping. That signal lets me know that she's not with any non-Loopers."
The campfire then went out and lighted itself again two more times. Charlie started. "Mickey? Minnie? You said there was at least one other Looper here, five total counting us, right?"
"Yeah...?" Minnie responded, wondering where he was going with this.
"Well, it looks like he met up with Leah. That's the signal for 'Other Looper present'."
Mickey and Minnie promptly took off running. Mickey, forgetting about his vampire speed, suddenly shot forwards, kicking up a large cloud of sand, before tripping on a stray piece of driftwood, and falling flat on his face. Minnie and Charlie, being mere mortals, ran at a much more sedate pace, and did not trip on anything at all. Minnie stopped to help Mickey get to his feet.
"Well, that was embarrassing," Mickey grumbled, as he spat out some sand.
"Even vampires need to watch where they're going sometimes, Mickey," Minnie playfully replied, while she brushed sand off of his clothes with a feather duster.
Oswald fidgeted restlessly as he waited for the three figures in the distance to reach him and Leah. Even with his fancy new eyes, he couldn't make out who they were in the gloom.
Plus, he was smelling something sickly sweet, like a dose of cherry-flavored medicine, that he just couldn't place.
Leah set aside the blanket that she was using to obscure the campfire. "Okay, that was Charlie's signal. He's coming this way, and he's brought friends," she announced. "He knows you're with me, too."
"Well, that's fine and dandy," Oswald replied. "Do you smell something weird, or is it just me?"
"Yeah. Disgustingly sweet, right?"
"Yep."
Leah cursed softly. "Okay, that means at least one vampire. It's unlikely that Charlie got himself turned this early if he's Awake, so that means that one of his friends is a vampire. Poor bastard."
Suddenly, one of the figures started approaching the campfire at speed, a large cloud of sand rising behind him, before he abruptly fell on his face. Leah blinked. Vampires in this universe were far too graceful to just trip while running, even at that speed. "I think we found one of your friends," she said casually.
"Most likely," Oswald agreed, equally casually.
At last, the three figures moved into the light of the campfire. Leah recognized Charlie, and nodded easily to him, but the two other figures had her and Oswald doing a double-take.
"Mickey?" Oswald asked tentatively. "Did you get in an accident at the stained-glass factory or something?"
"Very funny," Mickey replied dryly. The light from the campfire, to his dismay, was making his skin sparkle again, and he was not happy about it.
Leah looked at Mickey, then to Minnie, who was holding a feather duster for some reason, then finally at Charlie. "Don't tell me..."
"Yeah; they've Replaced Edward and Bella," Charlie affirmed.
There was a pause, then Oswald suddenly yelled in disgust, and sprinted for the lake, diving in, and scrubbing all over himself with a bar of soap.
"What's with him?" Mickey asked.
"I imagine it has something to do with what happens at the end of the Breaking Dawn phase of our Loop," Leah replied.
"Breaking Dawn phase?" Minnie asked quizzically.
Leah passed out paper copies of the Twilight Saga to the two mice. "It's the last book in the series. Long story short, the person Oswald's replacing is destined to become the soulmate of the child of the two people you're replacing."
There was a pause.
"AW, GROSS!" Mickey and Minnie shouted in unison, before they sprinted off after Oswald. "Wait for us!"
Leah and Charlie just watched the three Disney Loopers try in vain to wash the disgust off of them. "They took it well," Charlie quipped.
(wildrook)
Leah just looked at Charlie with a deadpan expression. What DIDN'T help was that George Boy's "The Crying Game" was playing on one of the radios.
4.6 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [The Twilight Saga]
SUNSET OVER FORKS: PART 6
It was a few weeks after the Campfire Incident, and Minnie was feeling antsy as she walked down the street. "Ohhh, where is that restaurant?" she fretted aloud.
According to the books that Leah gave her and Mickey, this was around the time when Edward swooped in on his shiny silver Volvo to save Bella from some ne'er-do-wells. Despite the infuriatingly patronizing and frankly creepy way that Edward acted then, the books treated it like a Romantic Moment.
The universe, Minnie thought to herself, was far too attracted to what it thinks are Romantic Moments.
While she could definitely defend herself if it came to a fight, Minnie didn't want to deal with that right then, so she kept to the main streets, and moved as fast as she was able to without attracting attention, while she looked for the restaurant where she was to meet up with Jessica. She jogged pasts store after store, dodged errant traffic, and weaved in and out of crowds of people, all while trying to remain as inconspicuous as possible.
Unfortunately, she was Bella Swan's stand-in, which made her the center of attention wherever she went. If she ran into a guy, he tried to get her number or just swooned over her. If she ran into a girl, she either tried to become her new best friend or spat hatred and malice at her.
This last group, Minnie noticed, was composed entirely of blondes.
Eventually Minnie dodged an autograph seeker, took a wrong turn, and found herself in one of the seedier parts of town. "Of course," she sighed. "Why did I expect anything else?"
Suddenly, her mouse ears picked up the sounds of footsteps. Three pairs of feet, she reckoned. "It's starting," she whispered.
She turned to face the approaching figures. They were dressed like a bunch of everyday thugs, but their faces… their faces were utterly obscured by a strange blurring. No matter how hard Minnie focused, she couldn't make out any features. They didn't move like humans normally move. They reminded her of CGI figures that hadn't been properly rendered.
One of the figures stopped, and appeared to sniff at the air, his head twitching back and forth. Then, all three figures suddenly looked at Minnie. She gulped. "Uh oh."
Suddenly, the figures sprinted forwards, just a little bit faster than was humanly possible. Minnie was already off and running, but she knew that the figures would catch up to her before she could reach the end of the block.
Luckily, she had prepared for this encounter all of last week.
Minnie dove into a nearby alleyway, and ducked behind a dumpster. "Looks like it's time to break out that costume..." she muttered.
The three figures slowed their run when they saw their target enter the alleyway. There was nowhere she could run, now. They could take their time getting there, and build up some dramatic tension before the vampire swooped in to rescue her. After all, it wasn't like she could defend herself, right?
The lead figure slowly peered into the alleyway. If it had eyelids, it would have blinked.
Minnie was gone. Nowhere to be seen at all.
The three figures walked confusedly into the alleyway, their limited minds trying to make sense of this recent development. If Minnie was not present for them to almost ravish, then they couldn't fulfill their role in the script. If they could not fulfill their role in the script, then what were they to do? The script was everything to plot devices such as them. Without the script... what use were they?
As the figures considered this, they slowly slumped to they knees. They could not fulfill their directives. As such, they had no purpose. Purposeless plot devices were to remain sleeping until they had a purpose once more. But this time, something was... different.
For the first time in their relatively short existences, the three figures wondered if they would dream.
Minnie looked down from her hiding spot on the roof and watched the three figures fall quivering into the fetal position. She was dressed up in her Cowgirl outfit, complete with popgun and stick-horse, and she was seriously considering doing the three figures a kindness and KO-ing them with magical cork-bullets. "Okay," she mused to herself. "I have to admit: out of all of the possible responses to me bouncing up here, I was not expecting that."
Different plot devices reacted in different ways to main characters going off the rails, she realized. Mechanical plot devices worked themselves to the breaking point, while biological plot devices had existential crises. "But how would other plot devices react?" she asked herself, as she bounced from rooftop to rooftop. "I'd better ask the others about this."
Just then, her stomach growled. She pulled a face. "Oh yeah; I came out here to go get a bit to eat..."
She put her question out of her mind for the time being, and began looking for the restaurant Jessica was at. "Okay, it's gotta be around here somewhere..."
4.7 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [The Twilight Saga]
SUNSET OVER FORKS: PART 7
"I wonder where Oswald went," Leah mused, as she walked away from the Emily's shack. She had been making a point of visiting Emily more often, but she could only stay in a house full of Sam Uley and company for so long before she had to leave or punch him in the face. Luckily, she was able to leave this time.
Leah looked at the note that Oswald left her, when she woke up in their tent, and couldn't find him in the campsite.
Leah,
Sorry I wasn't there for breakfast. I had to go off to La Push to pick up some supplies for the baseball game. I'll be back before lunch.
Take care,
Oswald
The only baseball game that Leah could think of was the Cullen ball game, which always went to hell one way or another. Either it cued the introduction of that coven led by James the Tracker, prompting Bella and the Cullens to bugger off to Arizona or some such nonsense, or it led to the Cullens bringing the wrath of the Volturi down on their heads early, if the universe had some form of logic outside of "Bella Swan and Edward Cullen are always right" that Loop. Either way, it just meant more shit to deal with.
Of course, that was when she and Charlie were the only Loopers present. Aside from Twilight Sparkle and company, Loopers from other universes weren't very common, but when they showed up, the Loop tended to go wildly off the rails at that point.
Leah's train of thought was interrupted when her unnaturally sharp ears picked up the sound of clanking and grinding gears coming from the campsite. "What's that, now?" she asked herself, as she took off running into the woods.
Leah just stared at what was left of the campsite. "What the fuck."
Oswald popped his head out of the chassis of the robotic dragon and pointed at her. "Oi. Language."
"No, I think it's appropriate for this situation. What the fuck is all this?"
Oswald clambered out of the chassis, and jumped to the ground. "With any luck, it's the answer to the whole 'vampires everywhere' situation," he replied, as he wiped off some oil stains with a dirty rag lying on a nearby log.
Leah stared at Oswald. "The solution for the vampires is a giant robotic dragon."
"Yep."
"That is the stupidest idea I have ever heard."
Oswald grinned. "That's the beauty of it: it's utterly idiotic. That's why it'll work."
Leah sighed heavily. "I'm going to regret asking this, but... why is it good that it's a stupid idea?"
"It's simple. Given the oh-so-clever and oh-so-speshul nature of those insufferable Cullens (Loopers excluded, of course), any rationally-planned attempts to fight them are doomed to failure. The only plans that have any shot of succeeding are the ones that they cannot possibly expect, which are, by default, the stupidest plans imaginable. They'll be expecting Mickey turning on them, and a couple of werewolves hunting them down. They won't be expecting this baby."
Oswald patted the dragon's leg affectionately, while chuckling. One of the dragon's wings snapped off, and hit the ground with a thud.
Leah and Oswald looked at the broken wing for a few seconds. Leah then slowly looked back at Oswald, with an expression of cynicism usually reserved for long-time politicians.
"It's meant to do that," Oswald said, though he didn't sound as certain as before.
Leah sighed again. I hope Mickey and Minnie have a better plan... she thought to herself.
4.8 (Mr. Egret; addition by wildrook): [Disney] / [The Twilight Saga]
SUNSET OVER FORKS: PART 8
Minnie had experienced many types of pain over the Loops. She had been hit with the Cruciatus Curse, by Voldemort himself, when she had replaced Bellatrix Lestrange. She had been partially de-rezzed during a Tron loop gone sour. She had even been Dipped, and then reconstituted, during a particularly nightmarish Loop in a Toontown gone mad.
But this pain was an agony that surpassed all others.
"Ooh! This dress looks absolutely stunning on you! Much better than that tacky red one!"
Yggdrasil on high, grant me the strength to withstand this trial... Minnie prayed to herself, as she looked in the mirror at the unbelievably gaudy blue dress that Alice had forced her into this time. Her favorite dress, the red one with white polka dots was lying on top of a pile of similarly discarded clothing. Next to that pile was a much smaller pile of "acceptable" clothing. Minnie's inner fashionista wept as she saw that the dresses were all extremely expensive brand names, and not at all suited to her body shape. Or Alice's body shape, for that matter.
Still, she thought to herself, as she tuned out Alice's squealing over the supposedly appalling state of her shoes, it could be a lot worse. Mickey had to live with this awful woman.
Speaking of Mickey, Minnie wondered how he was holding up right now.
Mickey sat in stony silence while Carlisle and Esme lectured him on the impropriety of actually making friends with members of the Quileute tribe.
Well, Carlisle lectured. Esme just sort of stood in the corner, frowned prettily and occasionally chimed in.
Fortunately, it seemed that Carlisle loved the sound of his own voice, to the point where he was too caught up in his lecture to see if Mickey was actually paying attention. This gave Mickey time to think of a way out.
His hand strayed towards the salt shaker on the table. I'm not sure how effective some salt in the eyes will be on a bunch of vampires, he thought, but it should buy me some time for me to go grab Minnie and bug outta here...
His train of thought, along with Carlisle's speech, stopped abruptly when a sound not unlike a tea kettle coming to boil was heard coming from upstairs. Ignoring Carlisle's protests, Mickey went over to investigate. He had barely set foot on the first step when Alice and Minnie came tumbling down the stairs, causing a tremendous ruckus. Alice was hugging Minnie to her chest, and gabbling something about "future visions" and "the kewlest future ever," while Minnie was doing her level best to break out of Alice's grip.
Mickey was by her side almost immediately, and quickly pried her from Alice's grasp. "Are you okay?! What happened?!" he asked urgently.
Minnie coughed a few times. "We were *cough* trying on some of her dresses, when she *cough* got one of her freaky future vision things. I tried to sneak out of the room when she squealed, then tackled me and we *cough* fell down the stairs."
"But it was such an AWESOME vision!1!one! She was going to marry Mikey and be a VAMPIRE, and there was going to be a WEDDING with lots of DECORATIONS and PRETTY DRESSES and and and-"
Mickey and Minnie slowly backed away from the clearly deranged vampire lady while she was babbling about the right shoes to go with Minnie's theoretical wedding dress. "Well, guys, it's been fun," Mickey said hurriedly, "but I gotta get Minnie back to her father before he starts getting suspicious."
"But couldn't we turn Minnie now so Alice's vision can come true?" Carlisle asked.
"With all due respect, Mr. Cullen, I wouldn't let myself be turned if you paid me," Minnie answered primly.
Carlisle just looked at her confusedly. "But you'll be immortal! An angel among men! You'll be able to stay with Michael forever..."
"Actually," Mickey interrupted, "I would prefer being a mortal with her."
Carlisle chuckled in what was obviously meant to be a paternal way. "Michael, you know that's impossible. Once you become a vampire, there's no turning back."
Mickey frowned. "Then I'll cherish what little time we have together before she ultimately passes on. It's her decision to become a vampire or not, and she said no. Now, if you'll excuse us, father, I have to get Minnie home."
Carlisle flinched as if he had been hit. While Mickey had been responding, his posture and demeanor had unconsciously changed. He seemed to utterly exude sheer gravitas, the kind that one would associate with an emperor issuing a decree to his subjects, rather than an upstart teenager talking back to his parents.
With magnificent disdain, Mickey turned away from Carlisle, and offered his arm to Minnie. "Shall we, my dear?"
Minnie gratefully looped her arm through his. "I would be delighted, Mr. Mouse," she replied with an exaggerated posh accent, spoiled at the last minute by a giggle. Mickey was just so cute when he tried to act his age.
Noses firmly in the air, the two mice spun on their heels and strolled out of the house, with the nonchalant ease that only several lifetimes of running kingdoms and media empires can provide.
Carlisle and Alice just stared at the retreating backs of the mice with jaws agape, utterly shocked that someone could dismiss their radiant presences so readily. Esme, in the meantime had wandered into the kitchen, and was making cookies. Everyone ignored her.
(wildrook)
Oswald then chuckled as he put away the camera and sneaked off.
"This would be entertaining to pass to the other loopers," he replied. "Can't exactly send this to the host of America's Funniest Home Videos, though."
And to think, he was close to bringing in Ashton Kutcher for that one moment.
4.9 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [The Twilight Saga]
SUNSET OVER FORKS: PART 9
On the grassy plain, the standoff was absolutely rife with tension. The six Unawake Cullens stood on one end of the field, all dressed up for a game of vampire baseball, and obviously wanting to get far away from here. On the other end of the field, three slovenly vampires glared at the Cullens, with equal parts jealously and general malice. It was plainly obvious from the way that they flexed their fingers and jaws in anticipation that they would have dearly loved to rip the Cullens limb from limb.
The only thing preventing them from doing so, and the only thing holding the Cullens in place, was the third group on the field.
Smack-dab in the middle of the two parties, stood five extremely odd figures.
The most normal person in the middle group was a Caucasian man with an average build, dressed in a policeman's uniform. His mustache hid the grim smile creeping up on his lips, and he bore several sets of handcuffs in his hand. His pistol rested in his holster, and nobody present doubted he would use it if he had to.
Next to him, a slim young woman of Native American descent glared impartially at both parties on both sides of the field. She was dressed in a simple white tank top and jeans and she bore no visible weapons. From the way she was openly smirking, one got the impression that she didn't need them.
However, the most concerning members of the small band were three small, cartoonish figures who were paying no attention to the two clans of vampires in the slightest.
"Are you sure you don't need me to call up Murphy?" Oswald asked, while fiddling with his remote control.
Mickey thought about it for a moment, while straightening out his tux. "Better have it ready. I'm pretty confident that this'll work, but a robot dragon makes a good Plan B."
"All the instruments are in place, Mickey. We can start at any time!" Minnie said, while pulling out a baton.
"Thanks, Minnie! Leah, Charlie, you know what to do, right?"
Charlie nodded, while Leah gave Mickey the thumbs-up.
James the vampire looked at the motley collection of humans and unidentifiable creatures. "What the hell are they doing?" he snarled. Didn't they know that they were in between two packs of vampires? They should be frightened out of their wits!
"I don't know," his second in command Laurent replied, "but whatever it is, it's driving the Cullens nuts. Carlisle looks like he could pounce at any second."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the clearing, Carlisle was internally panicking. They had to get Minnie out of there. Didn't they realize that James could track them across several continents? They needed to get a head start when they still had a chance!
Behind him, his remaining family members watched the scene anxiously. They dared not act without his word. They wouldn't know what to do.
Of course, Mickey knew all of this. Telepathy had its uses, even if it was irritatingly speshul vampire-telepathy. "Okay, I think the others are ready! Places, everyone!"
Quick as a wink, he pulled out his Sorcerer's Hat from his subspace pocket, and put it on his head. Suddenly, three things happened at the same time.
First, scores of musical instruments of all varieties, from violins to trumpets to snare drums rose up off the ground, enveloped in a soft blue glow. When Minnie began to wave her baton, the instruments began to play of their own accord, launching into a rendition of The Firebird Suite by Igor Stravinsky.
Second, swarms of Wasteland Guardians began to materialize around Mickey's hands, before scattering all over the area, looping and swirling in miniature galaxies of blue and green.
Finally, James's group, taking advantage of the Cullens' open astonishment at this turn of events, surged forwards, eyes gleaming with hunger and rage, fangs bared-
Only for two outsize wolves to hit James and Lauren out of nowhere, driving them away from Charlie and the two mice. Victoria shrieked in shock, and cowered away from the transformed Oswald and Leah. Why didn't her enhanced self-preservation ability see them coming?!
"Good work, you guys!" Mickey shouted. He made a few short gestures, and swarms of Tints started to converge around every single vampire present, himself included.
"Wh-what?! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!" Carlisle roared, as he frantically flailed at the Tints that were surrounding him and the Cullens. "MICHAEL, AS YOUR FATHER, I ORDER YOU TO STOP THIS AT ONCE!"
Mickey only laughed in response. "Nonsense, Carlisle! This isn't meant to hurt you! It's meant to help you! You made me immortal, so I thought I'd repay you in kind!"
Minnie suddenly stiffened, as she caught something out of the corner of her eye. "Watch it, Mickey! Victoria's trying to run for it!"
Indeed she was. While Leah and Oswald were busy herding James and Laurent away from Mickey and Minnie, Victoria was taking the opportunity to slip closer to the edge of the woods.
Mickey shook his head. "Well, we can't have that, can we? Let's start the second movement!"
Mickey and Minnie stood back-to-back, and raised one arm each in tandem. Then, with a flourish, Minnie brought her baton down to begin the second movement of the Suite, while Mickey called upon a particularly potent magic used by his old enemy, Mizrabel.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, the clearing was surrounded by a tremendous ring of fire, its flames reaching higher than any vampire could leap. Charlie jumped in shock. "HOLY CRAP! Mickey, what the hell did you do?!" he shouted over the roar of the flames.
"Don't worry, Charlie; it's just an illusion I cooked up to keep the other vamps pinned down!" Mickey responded cheerfully. He was now half-covered in Tints, but showed no sign of letting up in his performance anytime soon.
"Are you kidding?! I can feel the heat from here!"
"It's a very good illusion! Never do anything by halves, that's what I say!"
The vampires certainly didn't think it was an illusion either. Every time they tried to breach the flames, the heat flared up, and they fell back towards the center of the field, hissing in pain and fear. If any vampire, hunter or Cullen, looked like they were getting too close to Mickey and Minnie, Oswald and Leah intercepted them, and the vampires flinched away from the snarling werewolves.
Mickey could feel the sweat running down his back as he focused on directing the Guardian swarms and playing the instruments according to Minnie's cues. "Are you almost ready, Minnie?" he asked.
Minnie wiped her brow with her free hand, but her baton was steady as ever, and the time didn't slow a beat. "We're just about ready to head into the final movement! Are the Tints in place?"
"Yep!"
"Okay! Here we go!"
The music swelled to a crescendo, and then Mickey and Minnie suddenly waved their hand sharply. All at once, the music stopped, and the ring of fire vanished instantly. Without the harsh light of the flames bathing everything in orange, Charlie could see that there was absolutely no damage done to the surrounding area at all.
Oh, and every vampire in the clearing was now covered in Tints. Rather hard to miss, that.
Mickey took hold of Minnie's hand, and squeezed it gently. "I think it's time to wrap this up, don't you think, Minnie?"
"I would love nothing more, Mickey."
The music started out softly, but as Mickey played on and Minnie conducted, the music started to swell triumphantly. The Tints began to glow more and more brightly, until every vampire in the clearing was shining like a star in the sky. Charlie pulled out a pair of sunglasses to wear, while Minnie, Oswald and Leah simply averted their eyes.
As the piece went into its glorious finale, the light suddenly flared up, then died away. Charlie just stared in undisguised shock.
A miraculous transformation had overcome every single vampire in the clearing. Their skin was no longer reminiscent of sparkling marble, but instead looked like how human skin ought to look: natural, soft and healthy. Their eyes were no longer either brightest gold or deepest red, but were now the usual mixtures of greens, browns, blues and grays that one would expect from normal human eyes. Most noticeably, when the vampires were once supernaturally beautiful, to the point of being alien and terrifying, they were now only as beautiful-or as hideous- as they were before they were ever turned.
Minnie felt the side of Mickey's cheek, and the two mice shared matching grins when she felt the warmth that he was missing from the beginning of this Yggdrasil-forsaken Loop. "It worked!" she squealed, before pulling him into a kiss. The instruments faltered for a split second, as his concentration was shattered in the best way possible.
Charlie whistled in admiration, before he went over to the Cullens to press charges. Never do anything by halves, huh? he thought to himself.
Oswald, who had shifted back to rabbit form, was cutting a victory jig. "That's my little brother for you! Oh man! Lugging all of those instruments from the school was totally worth it!"
Leah shook her head in disbelief as she shifted back into human form and got dressed again. "Well, I have to say, that was one of the more creative ways of dealing with the Cullens that I've ever seen."
"I think this calls for a celebration!" Mickey announced. "Let's meet up at Charlie's place, then we'll go out for drinks! My treat!"
The other Loopers agreed, with much enthusiasm, and said their goodbyes, before Leah went off to help Charlie keep an eye on the recently humanized Cullens, while Mickey, Minnie and Oswald gathered up the instruments to take them back to the school
James, Laurent and Victoria stood to the side forgotten. After a pause, Victoria asked the question that was on her former coven-mates' minds. "Well, now what?"
Laurent sighed as he massaged his temples. "I don't know about you losers, but I'm going to drink until I forget Forks is anything but an eating utensil."
"Same here," James replied.
"That makes three of us," Victoria sighed. "Let's get out of here, while they're still busy."
"Right."
The three hunters quietly slipped back into the woods, determined to put as much distance between themselves and Washington state as possible. It was way more trouble than it was worth, even before the wizard mice showed up.
4.10 (Mr. Egret): [Disney] / [The Twilight Saga] / [Fifty Shades of Gray - non-Looping setting]
SUNSET OVER FORKS: PART 10 (EPILOGUE)
The Loopers had decided to celebrate the end of the Loop with a barbecue at Charlie's place. While Charlie was serving up some freshly-made hamburgers and hot dogs, Mickey took Leah aside for a moment.
"So, Oswald, Minnie and I were talking," he began.
"What about?" Leah asked.
"Well, we Disney Loopers have a tradition of giving our fellow Loopers a little souvenir at the end of a Fused Loop, and we had some trouble deciding what it should be this time."
"That's okay, Mickey; you didn't have to get me anything," Leah replied.
"Still, it seemed like the neighborly thing to do, and, well, we're all neighbors in a metaphysical sense. So, on behalf of the rest of us, I'd like to give you this."
And Mickey handed Leah a large glass jar that held a bunch of shimmering blue and green motes. Leah gasped. "A jar of Wasteland Guardians?"
Mickey nodded enthusiastically.
"...Are you sure that you want me to keep this?" Leah asked, as she stared at the jar filled with tiny little spirits of creation and destruction.
"Sure I'm sure!" Mickey replied happily, while helping himself to more mustard on his hot dog. In the distance, Minnie, Oswald and Charlie were engaged in a lively discussion about vampire-killing methods.
"I just don't know if I can accept something like this, after all the stuff that you've gone through in my home Loop-"
Mickey waved her off. "Just consider it payment for helping my big brother keep his sanity while he was dealing with the imprinting thing. Besides, once you take the godawful romance out of it, this Loop's actually kinda nice. Those puppies should help you with the "taking out" part."
Leah considered the point for a moment, before smiling and nodding. "I see. Thank you, Mickey."
"Anytime!"
Mickey then looked over at the others. "Hey! I think Charlie's getting ready to take the group photo!"
Charlie was indeed setting up the camera on a tripod, while Minnie and Oswald looked on with interest. It was one of those old Polaroid jobs, the kind that printed out the photograph immediately after the picture was taken. "Okay everyone!" he called out. "If you want to be in the picture, now's the time!"
Leah carefully put the jar away in her subspace pocket, before she joined Mickey in running over to get in front of the camera.
After some jostling, the five Loopers arranged themselves in a decent pose for a group shot. Charlie, who was holding the remote button for the camera, stood next to Leah in the back, while Oswald, Mickey and Minnie stood in a line in the front.
"Okay, everyone; on the count of three, say 'Cheese'," Charlie instructed. "One... two... three!"
"CHEESE!"
POOF!
After Mickey, Minnie and Oswald bid their goodbyes to Charlie and Leah, they were walking along the side of the road leading to La Push, while waiting for the Loop to end. The sun was setting, so it would be any minute now.
"Well, that was one of the stranger Loops we've done, huh fellas?" Mickey asked.
"Yeah, I with you there, bro," Oswald replied. "Still, I like the wolf thing, now that the imprinting's a non-issue."
"You're keeping the lycanthropy?" Minnie asked quizzically. "I'd have thought you'd ditch it at the first opportunity."
"You kiddin'? Being a wolf is awesome! I can't wait to start messing with that Phantom Blot jerk!"
Oswald looked at Mickey. "How about you, bro? You keeping anything from this Loop?"
Mickey shook his head. "Nothing except memories. Honestly, I'll be satisfied if the next few Loops had some less contrived-"
And then the Loop ended.
In the central HQ of Grey Enterprises Holdings Inc., Michael "Mouse" Grey Awoke in the middle of looking over some employment application forms. "-romances." he said, before blinking a couple of times. "Man, I hate it when a Loop ends mid-conversation."
He looked around the frankly opulent office he was sitting in, on the top floor of a rather large skyscraper. "Okay," he noted. "I'm the owner of a rather large company, with no particular focus on any one industry that I can make out. It's a step up from 'immortal high-schooler', anyway."
Then the Loop memories came in.
Mickey took a few minutes to process what had just entered his mind, then buried his face in his hands. "Me and my big mouth."
All of a sudden, the tie he was wearing felt a lot less comfortable. And a heck of a lot dirtier. He planned on burning it when he got home.
At least he wasn't a vampire anymore.
4.1-4.10: The "Sunset Over Forks" arc in its entirety, in which the Disney characters do their best to derail a setting that tries to railroad them.