Marvel Cinematic Universe is owned by Disney. So are the Royal Dirty Dozen (what my daughters call the Disney Princesses).
"There was once an idea; to bring together a group of remarkable people so that when we needed them, they could fight the battles...
…that we never could."
- Admiral John M. Smith, Director of Operations, D.I.S.N.E.Y.
In the depths of the ocean, a titanic figure observed all through the use of a magic mirror that revealed all. In front of the figure was a woman bathed in blue light.
"The DJINN… has awoken. It resides along the sea, in the surface world. The surfacers would use its power…"
The figure turned to look at the woman who stood there, clasping a necklace in her hands.
"But our scion knows its works as the surfacers never will. She is ready to lead. And our forces, our Fomhoraigh, will follow."
Beyond the titanic figure was the ocean floor littered with sea creatures armed and armored… ready for war.
"The Seas and Lands shall be hers. And the Great Beyond mine. And as for the surfacers?"
The titanic figure smiles as cruel smile drags across that sinister face, eyes alight as a pale hand clutched at the magic mirror as it showed the World Above.
"What can they do but drown?"
THE AVENGERS: DISNEY PRINCESS EDITION
Song I: From The Depths Below
Nighttime, Project: HELIOS, Undisclosed Location, Calais, France, September 5, 1888
On the ancient shores of Calais, France, where once a foreign power invaded to conquer a Kingdom in a battle known as Agincourt, there existed a cavern by the sea where the cliffs of Calais and the Normandy Coast protected a secret location known only to a few, an underground laboratory set within a sea cave and populated only by a very few. Built twenty years ago in an already existing cave, the interior had been adapted for scientific research and development in a world where the newest and latest technological marvel was espoused on broadsheets and wired radio, where the new nobility was the inventor and the scientist, where firearms had mostly replaced the age of swords and the world was powered by steam. Inside the cave was one of the most advanced scientific labs in the world.
And what they were studying was, of all things, an object that looked to be a brass oil lamp.
A steam-powered yacht crashed through the waves of the French coastline as a man stood at its bow with a black long coat covering his body, but not well enough to disguise the long sword upon his left hip or the 1873 Colt .45 Single-Action Army dubbed the 'Peacemaker' at his right hip as the single-eyed man planted his foot on the spur of the bow as the boat sped through the chop of the sea with his adjutant just behind him, a woman dressed in a suit garb more befitting a man. The boat crested waves sweeping out for the coming of low tide as the deepening gloom of night settled on the French Coast as the pilot steered the twenty-foot yacht at full steam ahead, the kerosene-fueled boiler an upgrade from the more-common coal-burning steam engine ships of the world, able to travel faster and lighter than a coal vessel of the same size, giving it greater speed as well as eliminating the telltale smoke stacks of their filthier cousins. The yacht pushed ahead to the coast in good time as the one-eyed man watched intently with a steely gaze as he stood at the bow with the experience of a lifelong Navy man of Her Majesty's Royal Navy, having spent twenty years serving Queen and Country and then electing to serve a different sort of organization.
The Directorate of Intelligence and Supply, Nautical Enforcement Yard.
The yacht was piloted as close to the Calaisian shore as possibly, no dock or quay existing upon the sandy strip as the one-eyed man leapt from bow to sea, landing in the ocean waters with his waterproof leather wader, seawater splashing as the man walked upon the sandy bar of the shore, exiting the English channel with his adjutant just behind him, having disembarked in the same fashion. They splashed from sea to sand where a man in in a dark evening coat over a dress shirt waited for their arrival, patiently standing in the sand with a small spotlight lantern in his hand to signify his location while disguising his position from others. The man in the black long coat approached the man with the candle-burning spotlight, his remaining eye intense, made more intimidating by the eye-patch that covered the missing one that no one ever asked how it was lost.
Most were too afraid to asked the Director of Operations, Rear Admiral Jonathan Mel Smith. Not because of the man, but the potential answer.
"Agent Darling. What are we looking at?" Director Smith asked as he got within a certain distance of Commander Michael Darling, his thick English-Irish accent always giving his voice added presence whenever he spoke, like that of a caged beast waiting for the hint of freedom to cause carnage.
"That's the problem, Director. We just don't know." The London-born man replied in his crisp, clean Good Queen's English, his eyes touching upon the woman who stood just behind and next to the Rear Admiral, Agent Jane Minnie Porter. Darling motioned for the two to follow him as Michael stomped through French sand towards a sea cave a dozen meters away where a mining cart and a pair of tracks led deeper into the underground entrance, the metal cart with its springed seats tended by a man in a servants' black livery. The three of them reached the cart and got inside, with the Director and Darling in the front seat while the Director's adjutant occupied the back seat. With the three of them inside the mine cart, the lever was pulled for the oil-powered cart to travel deeper into the cave. "Doctor Fredrickson observed a strange… phenomenon occurring around the object approximately around early evening around three bells, Director. It's been going on for the past four bells without stopping, so I made the call to evacuate the laboratory." Michael explained as the cart traveled deeper into the cave, lit by oil sconces to illuminate the rocky tunnel as the tracks stopped a few moments later into a large cavern where a stone-build facility existed within its confines. Several men in sailor-like garb were pushing hand-typed documents into portfolios while others placed artifacts into cotton-lined trunks and waterproof barrels for transportation, several carts held in a line for evacuation.
"The Admiralty didn't approve of any testing, Darling." Smith reminded the man sitting next to him as the three of them exited the cart, now to be used to load more equipment out.
"He wasn't testing DJINN, Director. Bloody hell, he wasn't even in the same room!" The man replied as they walked towards the stone facility in which its door was guarded by two red-coated men armed with .303 Mk. I cartridge Magazine Lee-Metford bolt-action Service Rifles, the very weapon that the United Kingdom was going to put into service later that year to replace that Martini-Henry Rifle. "Unassisted activation." Michael Darling explained, not a man to give into rash decisions or beliefs as they past by the two armed Royal Marines, saluting the Admiral as they passed through the portal that led them deeper into the laboratory.
"Are you saying that it just turned itself on?" Jane Porter asked in disbelief, her eyes wide.
"What's it doing now?" The Director asked, more focused on what they could do as oppose to how it happened.
"Increasing. You can even hear it." The man replied as he led them towards the main chamber. "When Fredrickson couldn't figure out what was causing it or leech away the growing energy, that's when I called for the evacuation."
"How long to get everyone out?" John Smith asked, his remaining eye boring on the male Agent at his side.
"Two quarter-bells until the laboratory is fully evacuated and everything inside removed, Admiral."
"Do better." The Director commanded, his tone saying it all; achieve the possible or face his fury. Michael Darling saluted him and turned to do just that.
"Admiral, evacuation may be futile." Jane said softly, her eyes on the coxswains and bosuns' mates loading up gear into hand-pulled carts to bring it to the evacuation point. There was still a great deal to be removed.
"We should tell them to take a break?" Smith asked with a snort as they walked deeper inside the laboratory, almost to the main chamber.
"Sir, if we can't contain or control DJINN's activation, there may be no way of predicting how far of a disaster this might be." Porter had read the transcripts of the last time DJINN had been used, what had sparked a meteorological event in the middle of a battle nearly a quarter-century prior. Smith had to admit to himself that Jane was likely correct in her assessment. The last time DJINN had been activated, the world had been threated (and subsequently saved) by a hot-air balloon aviatrix. It was his job to make sure that such calamities never happened again.
"Jane, I need you to make sure that all of the prototypes are secured and shipped out." Smith turned to his direct subordinate, leveling his remaining eye at her.
"Is… that really a bloody priority right now?" Porter asked, a little tiffed at the thought that equipment, not lives, were more important.
"Until such time as the Rapture comes, we will ensure that everything in God's green earth will continue on, Deputy Director." John replied a little frostily, though he couldn't blame Jane her sentiments. He needed her for her sentimentality, something he had lost long ago. "Clear out the prototypes, and make sure that every pieces is on a boat and gone."
"Aye aye, Admiral." Commander Jane Porter saluted him, her fingers to her brow with her palm facing outward as she turned to execute his commands as the Director sighed, knowing that later on he was going to have to pay with a little feminine wrath for his decision. Yet every man and woman who had joined the Directorate of Intelligence and Supply, Nautical Enforcement Yard knew that their lives were expected to be given to the greater good, for Queen, God, and Country. In the ear of ever-advancing technology and more dangerous weapons, the British Empire was the defender of its people, its colonies, and the light in which humanity followed. In order to stop the threats from ever happening, the Directorate stayed on top by means of intrigue, espionage, nautical power, and advanced weaponry to keep countries in line to prevent more devastating wars and mishaps from happening. With that thought, Rear Admiral Smith turned towards the last door needed in the laboratory to where the testing chambers held a device of unmeasurable magical properties.
A mystical brass lamp that went by the name of Codename: DJINN.
Director John Smith entered the testing chamber of the secret facility to find an ancient man walking with the assistance of a four-legged walker moving to a pressure gauge, his eyes made to appear larger behind his thick glasses as he monitored the gauge. The man was suited as if he had just stepped off the Oxford Campus, wearing a traditional laboratory coat as a few other researchers and scribes annotated what was happened. Smith saw the ancient doctor with his full head of white hair and wrinkled face frowning at what he was seeing as he turned a knob to let off steam from a nearby value to either drop the temperature or pressure from a specially-made boiler that didn't contain water or fuel.
"Doctor Carl Fredrickson, talk to me." Smith asked the old Doctor of Advanced Theory, one of the pioneers of the steam engine and the telegraph. A master innovator and the creator of over a dozen advancements, Fredrickson had been hired to study DJINN for its potential use in energy containment and usage. The one-eyed man looked to the object of question, what looked to be a highly-polished brass oil lamp complete with a curving handle and lid. Where it had come from and what had created it (or specifically, what was inside it) was up to both guesses and legends, anything from a prison made by the Gods or a house for a supernatural force. Smith only believed in one God, and He certainly didn't vacation in a fluted pot. "Is there anything we know for certain?"
"DJINN is misbehaving." Doctor Fredrickson replied, his rheumy eyes and warbling voice attracting Smith's attention, barely louder than the insistent headache-producing noise coming from the glass container that housed a lamp but made strong enough to contain something far worse if necessary.
"Are you taking the piss?" The blond-haired man asked the Doctor.
"No, it's not meant to be funny at all." Fredrickson replied as he adjusted another valve, grumbling. "The lamp is not only active, she's misbehaving. I'm getting readings that make no sense to me or to anyone else, and she's continuing to grow."
"How soon until you deactivate the power source?" The Director asked.
"The power is self-generating; the lamp is producing it itself." That had Smith frown; this was almost exactly like what happened a quarter-century prior. "If she continues to produce energy that we can't leech or draw away, she'll reach what I call critical mass."
"We've prepared for an eventuality like this, Doctor." John reminded the old man, looking at the glass container that held the lamp and the boiler meant to contain what it could produce. "Ninth Wave energy."
"We don't have the siphon." Fredrickson reiterated, frowning at a dial as he tapped on it to ensure accuracy. "Our theory is hardly complete. Now she's pulsating with power, weak radiation force. Nothing harmful, low levels of natural energy."
"Natural energy can be harmful." Smith replied, thinking of an incident in the Pacifica only a few years prior. "Where's Nikolaevna?"
"Ha! The Orphan?" The old man turned his head slightly and jutted his chin at a particular direction as he adjusted his monocle. "Over in the shadows, as usual." Smith turned to see that one corner of the laboratory where shadows prevailed, and even his steely gaze couldn't find the woman in question. Which… was half the point of her trade craft, after all. He never needed to say her name as an auburn-haired woman wearing a dark green leather jacket and a black Greek Fisherman hat emerged from the shadows, her jacket hardly concealing the presence of the many revolvers she had on her, curved hilts sticking out from her sashed waistband, from under her arms, and the pair strapped to her thighs. The woman whose name was whispered as Orphan Black slid out of the shadows and walked towards the Director, his little Russian gunslinger coming into view.
"Agent Anastasia Romanov, I gave you this duty so you could keep a close eye on things." The Director told the auburn-haired woman, her tresses tucked into her Greek hat as she stood before him.
"Well, I work better in the dark." The daughter of Nicholas replied with a little bit of a smirk, a talent she had unfortunately learned from a rather difficult Russian mystic who had the extraordinary knack of being impossible to kill.
"Have you seen anything that could explain the cause of this?" The big issue was the obvious; someone touching DJINN and rubbing it. That was the last thing anyone needed.
"No one's even gotten close to the case, much less the lamp." Ana replied, her tone dead serious. "No wired telegraphs, no letters or couriers, not even small talk between employees about what it is or what it can do." Romanov wasn't the only thing best left in the dark, Smith thought with no pun intended. "If there was any kind of interference, it wasn't from our side of things, Admiral."
"Our side?" John caught the phrase. Like both himself and Michael Darling, Anastasia Romanov had brushed with superordinary forces and knew there was more to the world than met the eye.
"The lamp is a container for a pocket world that houses some supernatural deity, right? Means there's someone on the inside knocking on the door." The Russian woman replied, her blue eyes on the object in question. Doctor Carl Fredrickson began cursing as he backed away from the monitoring devices as John Smith looked over to DJINN to see a slowly expanding bubble of energy growing within the glass cube in which the lamp was placed in, almost as if it were filling with water. Both he and Anastasia backed away as the container was completely filled with… whatever it was, the metal hasps and glass walls creaking and splintering as bolts groaned with effort to contained what was within as the container failed, erupting in shards of glass and metal with a thunderous clap of power as Smith staggered back, shielding his face with a hand as he looked over to where the lamp sat exposed.
And standing in front of it was a scantily-clad armored woman with white hair, sinister blue eyes, and a polearm in one hand.
Author's Note: Uh oh!
DISNEY FACT: Snow White is the only Disney character to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the first fictional character to do so.
MARVEL FACT: Samuel L. Jackson portrays Director Nick Fury in two different medias; Sam Jackson's likeness was used in Earth-1610/Ultimate Universe to recreate the aging look of the original Nick Fury. When Jon Faverau added the teaser-trailer at the end of Iron Man well after production, Sam was asked to play the real-life version of a comic portrayal based on his own likeness.
REAL LIFE FACT: Walt Disney Company acquired Marvel Entertainment on August 31, 2009 for $4.24 billion dollars. I think they probably made their money back since then. About five times over.
WHY ISN'T THIS A CROSSOVER? Because there isn't a 'singular' category for the princesses, each of them with their own movie. And since Disney owns the Avengers anyhow... I found a loophole ;-)
Recreating a sort of steampunk Victorian-Era 1880's was a bit fun, and I think I'm going to enjoy delving into SteamTech. Especially when you meet some of the rest of the persons involved.
Calais, France is a real-life location, where Henry V invaded France in the Battle of Agincourt to conquer a large portion of that country (later liberated by the Saint of Lorraine, Joan d'Arc). This is also the location that Hitler was all but dead-certain that D-Day/Operation: Overlord would occur.
John Smith is the male protagonist from the movie Pocahontas. Voiced by Mel Gibson. Jane Porter is the female protagonist from the movie Tarzan. Voiced by Minni Driver. Michael Darling is the youngest male protagonist of the Darling Family from the movie Peter Pan. Doctor Carl Fredrickson is the older male protagonist from the Pixar movie Up. Anastasia Romanov is the female protagonist from the movie Anastasia (as well as being a real-life person). She is not the Hawkeye, but the Black Widow. The lamp (DJINN) is the lamp from the movie Aladdin. Ninth Wave Energy comes from the live-action movie John Carter. Radiation hadn't been 'discovered' by Madame Marie Currie yet.
Weak Radiation Force is, in fact, a real-life thing, and one of the four powers of the universe, along with gravity, electromagnetism, and strong radiation force.
Carl mentions that 'low levels of natural energy' weren't harmful, but John Smith indicates they, in fact, can be dangerous. This is a hint for another Princess.
Middle names are based on the voice actors of the movies save for Anastasia; she is known as 'Nikolaevna', which means 'daughter of Nicholas' in Russian.