JUSTICE LEAGUE INFINITE

by Bennie Stardust

A mega-crossover anthology series starring characters from all corners of fiction. Heroes from across the multiverse join forces to combat evil, do good, face their own demons, and, if they can, have fun. Season 1: The Mistress (Complete!) Season 2: A New League (in-progress)

8. S1E7: Fantasy

Season 1, Episode 7:

Fantasy

I

How many were there?

Thousands?

Millions?

Billions?

He wondered if there were more appearing every moment, or if they were all dying out one-by-one with still too many existing for him to notice.

He wondered what they looked like up close. He wondered how far away they were.

He thought he might be distracted by the ruins of Midgar in the distance, glaring at him like a long-decayed corpse at a barely surviving cellmate, but he had almost forgotten that they were there.

Almost.

For now, there was only the stars.

"May I join you?"

Cloud Strife was torn from his stargazing. He turned on his back against the mixed ground of rock and grass, keeping a hand near his cumbersome Buster Sword lying beside him.

He found an old friend smiling at him. An old friend on all fours, with blazing orange fur, a black mane, and yellow eyes which seemed petrifying at first, but which Cloud had come to be warmed by.

"Evening, Nan." Cloud patted the stone ground beside him, and Nanaki came to lie there.

"Evening?" Nanaki chuckled as he curled into his seat, his tail thumping the ground in front of him.
"It's closer to morning now."

Despite his feral appearance, his voice was gentle. For Cloud, the sound of Nanaki's voice and the sight of the stars was the perfect combination.

"Is it?" Cloud sighed. "Time gets away from me these days...How long has it been since we defeated Sephiroth?"

"Barely more than a month." Nanaki's answer hit Cloud like a slap bringing him out of a drunken stupor; he thought it had been half a year at least.
"I thought you might be helping the survivors from Midgar develop their new city...What name did they decide on, again?"

"Edge…" Cloud sat up and looked down at the two cities in the distance.

To the right; a small but bustling town, dotted with lights and teeming with life. To the left; a towering, dignified, rotting corpse.

"They seem to be doing fine on their own…" Cloud continued. "I'd like to help, but I don't know how. When I was a kid, I wanted to be a soldier. Then I wanted to find Sephiroth. Then I wanted to find out what I really was...Now I'm here. I've done all the things I set out to do. I know I should be happy, but I just feel...Empty…"

He kept looking out at the ruins of Midgar and the blossoming Edge, and felt Nanaki's paw on his hand.

"Sometimes I dream about Professor Hojo…" the beast began. "About the experiments he performed on me. About every vile liquid he smothered me in, every needle he sank into my flesh. And I dream about you and your friends finding me...Do you remember? There were alarms blaring and all kinds of noise and chaos surrounding us...But when I dream of it, it is one of my most peaceful dreams, because it means you're coming to end my suffering and give me my freedom…"

Cloud looked down at nothing in particular. A faint smile had spread across his face.

"That's what you mean to so many people down there, Cloud. At one time, they were suffering, and now they're free, and in between, there's you...You still have a role to play, Cloud. It may seem as though your usefulness to the world has run its course, but I promise you, there are others out there who need your help. You only need to seek them out,"

Cloud looked back up at the stars, enjoying their company for the better part of a minute.

"Thank you, Nan," he said, turning to look at his friend.

He found a gaping maw with orange fur fading to black, and yellow eyes melting to red.

He also found a black-furred monster with long ears like bat wings. Its arm was sunk into Nanaki's back as if into water, sending ripples through his fur, and grinning at Cloud with a forest of sharp yellow teeth.

Though it was a warm night, Cloud was suddenly freezing.

He darted up and turned around, reaching out just in time to catch a plunging arm. Its owner appeared to be a living shadow donning a fedora.

Cloud rolled to his knees and looked at what he held. He expected to find a fist, a claw, or a sword, but instead he found some long, squirming appendage like a tentacle or a whip.

"Relax, kid," the shadow snarled. "I'm not gonna hurt ya." Its tendril elongated in Cloud's fist, reaching for his neck.

Cloud grasped the handle of his Buster Sword and swung it at the tendril, severing it.

He rolled up to his fighting stance, both hands on his sword with the tip glaring at his opponents. He hadn't assumed this stance in weeks, but he shifted effortlessly into it; not so much like riding a bike as climbing into bed after a tiresome journey.

To his right, a grinning hound of a creature helped a blackened Nanaki to his feet. To his left, a shadow man looked at his steadily regrowing tendril-arm, as if observing a bug crawling on his sleeve. Behind the shadows, pillars of darkness reached up from the ground, widening into shapes like archways.

"So you wanna play rough?" the shadow growled, glaring at Cloud from under the rim of his fedora.

More shadows emerged from each of the archways.

A long-haired woman who had gun barrels instead of fingers.

A man whose jaws were even wider and sharper than Nanaki's, giving him a grin that was both cocky and vicious.

A seemingly younger one balanced on some kind of hovering board, circling the air above the group like a vulture waiting to dine on the loser's remains.

A woman with metallic legs in the bent, jagged shape of a velociraptor's.

At the head of the group, a bald shadow who seemed more machine than man. One of the few organic parts of him, his crimson left eye, glared at Cloud as if trying to reach out of its socket to claw at him.

Behind the group, shrouded in black fog, was a tall, horned figure, her body like a blade raised in the darkness. Cloud couldn't see her face, but he could see her yellow eyes like two stars dragged down from the sky.

For the first time in a while, Cloud felt something festering inside him. Something he had not felt since he had faced Sephiroth for the last time.

"Alright," the tendril-handed shadow growled, rolling its shoulders. "We can play rough…Nanaki, right?"

"Yes...Dr. Jones," Nanaki snarled. He paced around Cloud, his crimson eyes narrowed and his black teeth bared.

Cloud had seen this face often enough, but always from the side, directed at a common enemy. He had never felt it directed at himself. He couldn't tell if his fear came from the face's genuine intimidation, or from knowing that the face was supposed to be his friend's.

"Sick 'im," Jones said dismissively.

Nanaki lunged at Cloud, who rotated his Buster Sword into a guarding position. He was already sweating.

This was what he got for being bored.

Nanaki was stopped by a wall of purple light. He swiped at it, but his claws only bounced off of it.

Cloud glanced up; it was not a wall, but a translucent bubble surrounding him.

He wanted this to be a good thing, but in the back of his mind, he knew that he had most likely only jumped out of the frying pan.

He saw the raptor-legged woman grin at him and then sink into the ground.

The air in the bubble was suddenly freezing.

Cloud spun around, swinging his sword.

The shadow woman caught it.

"What a big sword you have," she sneered, tilting her head and licking her black teeth.
"Are you compensating, Strifey?"

Cloud pulled on his sword, and the shadow pulled back.

"Damn," he whispered.

The purple bubble blinked out of existence.

"Get 'er, Dash!" a young woman's voice ordered from Cloud's right.

He stole a quick look in that direction. There was nobody there.

"On it, Vi!" the voice of a teenager now, followed by a scarlet blur crashing into the shadow woman.

Cloud blinked. The freezing air was blown away from him with a gust of wind. When his eyes opened a nanosecond later, he found the raptor-legged woman on the ground, pinned by the throat by a kid of about fourteen. He was blonde, and wore a red uniform with a black mask, gloves, and boots. On his chest was a golden emblem of the letter i, which glowed in a way that reflected his confident smirk.

"Where the hell did you come from?" Cloud questioned.

"Or thank you, as most people say," the kid replied. "Get him outta here, Al!" he called to the sky.

"Alley-oop!"

Before Cloud could move, he was falling backwards. He braced himself for a hard stone landing, but instead felt something like satin.

He sat up, turning his head to face whoever was piloting the soft hovercraft.

"Wow, that sword must weigh a ton."

The pilot sat cross-legged, looking strangely relaxed for someone in the midst of a battle. He was dressed in what looked to Cloud like royal clothes; white silk and a purple cape that flapped eagerly in the wind. Bright yellow slippers, and a fez on his thick, wavy black hair. His tanned face offered Cloud a friendly albeit cocky grin.

"But how you use it is the important thing, right?" The pilot offered his left hand; his right gripped the handle of a scimitar on his hip.
"I'm Aladdin."

Cloud slowly obliged the handshake as he looked down. They weren't on a hovercraft. They were on a carpet. A purple carpet adorned with a pattern of miniature diamonds and golden tassels, and feeling perfectly solid despite being supported by nothing but air.

"I'm Cloud," he said automatically, still hypnotized by the thing carrying him and Aladdin. He tore himself away, returning to the battle at hand.
"Thanks for the save. What the hell are those things? And what have they done to my friend?"

"They're called Heartless," Aladdin answered. "They're working for this lady called Maleficent, Mistress of all evil," he made a rasping, throaty, gremlin impression.
"They almost got us, but we got away and formed what you might call a resistance."

"We?" Cloud peered over the carpet's tassels at the battle below.

He found the blonde kid from earlier trading jabs with the tendril-armed Heartless. His fists appeared to be only scarlet blurs as they flew in and out of the Heartless' gut.

The kid stood back-to-back with a young woman with dark neck-length hair, aged about nineteen or twenty and donning the same mask, uniform, and i emblem. She fended off Nanaki, or the thing wearing Nanaki's skin, by throwing crescents of purple light at him.

"Don't hurt him," Cloud shouted down to her, hoping he sounded like a commander, but he had heard the voice of a frightened friend.
"My friend's still in there!"

"Don't worry, mister," she shouted back, trapping a clawing Nanaki in another of her purple bubbles.
"I'm great with animals!"

"Those two are Violet and Dash," Aladdin said. "They're part of a team called the Incredibles, who go around stopping crimes. Real glad I didn't run into them during my days as a street rat."

"Street rat?" Cloud raised an eyebrow at him.

"Oh, right; guess they don't use that term in your world," Aladdin chuckled. "I was homeless. I stole food. I was real good at it, too."

"What do you mean my world?" Cloud questioned.

"...One thing at a time."

Their ears were quaked by a barrage of gunfire from below.

Cloud looked down again, and found the Heartless with gun barrels for fingers clutching the blade of a swordsman coated entirely in dark green armor.

The swordsman's face was only partially visible, and his helmet narrowed in a way that fixated him with a deadly glare.

"That's Mulan," Aladdin said. "Soldier and war hero from a country called China."

The Heartless with the monstrous jaws ran for Mulan's back.

"Shouldn't bring a sword to a gunfight, pal!"

Mulan drove a kick into the side of the gun-fingered Heartless' knee, earning an opportunity to swing his sword, with the Heartless still hanging on, across the charging Heartless' chest.

Both creatures let out gargling shrieks as they skidded across the stone ground.

"He's good," Cloud said. He looked at Aladdin and found him smirking.
"What's so funny?"

"Nothing," Aladdin chirped.

Cloud rolled his eyes, then returned his attention to the battle, where he discovered something that, even after all the peculiarities and terrors he had faced while hunting Sephiroth, ranked among the strangest things he had ever seen.

"Is that a giant rabbit?"

"No," Aladdin replied. "She's only about four feet tall."

It wasn't just a four-foot tall rabbit. It was a rabbit with arms and legs like a human's. It was wearing navy blue armor not unlike the police officers in Midgar used to wear. It also had some kind of yellow gun holstered on its hip. Even her face was as expressive as a human's; aside from Nanaki, Cloud had never known any animal to glare as intensely as this rabbit did at her Heartless opponent.

"That's Judy," Aladdin added. "Or Officer Hopps, as she'll tell you. And yes; everyone in her world is an animal."

There was that phrase again; her world, his world, my world, your world. It came so naturally to Aladdin, but Cloud found himself fixated upon it each time. Each usage was like a subconscious reminder that this Maleficent was more than just the next Sephiroth.

"Aren't you a cute little thing?" the raptor-legged woman snarled at Judy.

"Don't call me cute," the officer retorted, putting her fists up. "Seriously; that's really insensitive."

"Insensitive?" The Heartless cackled, dashing at Judy. "Don't you mean heartless?!" It slid to the ground, sending a two-legged sweep at the rabbit's legs.

It was met with a swift leaping back kick in its chin.

Judy landed gracefully on her feet, leading into a casual hop as the Heartless landed on its front.

"Ha ha," Judy groaned. "You've got puns. You got one about how we can turn you guys back to normal?"

"No…" the Heartless growled, glaring back at Judy. It reached its arm into the stone ground, sending ripples through it as if it were water.
"But I've got portals!"

Its hand re-emerged from the ground beside Judy's heel and closed around her ankle.

"Huh? Waugh!"

The rabbit sank into the ground, and was pulled out of it again by the Heartless.

"Now, let's get that pesky little heart outta there-"

It was met with the barrel of a yellow pistol. The next thing the Heartless knew, a dart was sticking out of its left eyeball.

"AH! You sneaky little-"

A sharp kick from the rabbit's free foot sent the raptor-legged woman to the ground, and Judy Hopps was free.

"You alright, Officer Judy?!" Aladdin called down.

"Fine, Al," Judy responded. "Keep an eye out for Maleficent!"

Cloud turned to the other side of the carpet. This time, he found the metallic Heartless facing another of Aladdin's allies. Perhaps not as strange as a police officer rabbit, but strange all the same.

"You have cowboys, too?" he asked Aladdin, observing the man down below.

He was the definitive cowboy image. Blue jeans, sturdy brown boots, a yellow shirt under a cow-patterned vest, a red neckerchief, and a brown stetson that seemed to belong to his tall, broad-chinned head. His belt held a bundle of rope and an empty holster; its occupant pistol was out and pointed at the metallic Heartless, who offered it a left hand which Cloud now saw was actually a cannon.

It was an Old Western standoff if there ever was one.

"That's the Sheriff," Aladdin said. "Woodrow Pride. He comes from a place that's way in my future and probably a decent ways into your past. He's sort of our leader."

"Sort of?"

"Well, we never sat down and voted, but he acts like he's the leader and nobody seems to have a problem with it."

"Guess that's all a leader really needs, huh?" Cloud looked back down at the Sheriff and the metallic Heartless, who were statues in the middle of the chaos surrounding them.

"Listen to me, partner," Pride began, stern but with an aura of pleading.
"We're not your enemies. I'm not your enemy. I know that you know how we can help you. Just tell me and I'll get it done."

"You remind me very much of my former self, Sheriff," the Heartless growled. "Disgustingly benevolent. Too close-minded to imagine that it is my Mistress who has helped me, and that it is you and your insufferable friends who are my true enemies."

"If you really believe that…" Pride's head lifted, and under the rim of his stetson, Cloud saw his brown eyes. Like his voice, they were kind in spite of their efforts to be strict.
"Then why haven't you fired yet?"

The Heartless grinned, and its one crimson eye flashed.

"I was only waiting for him to turn up."

"Who?"

"Meega!" the furry Heartless pounced onto Woody's back. "Get him, Jean!"

The metallic Heartless fired, launching a bolt of green light at the Sheriff.

"Oh, come on!" Pride exclaimed, spinning around so the Heartless on his back took the hit. It grunted, but did not budge.
"That was a showdown! You can't just interrupt a showdown like that!"

"This isn't your primitive wooden town, Woodrow," the metallic Heartless snarled. "We're not playing by your rules."

"What's wrong with my rules?" Pride muttered, exchanging his pistol for his lasso.
"They're fair, they're reasonable. Things would be much easier if we all played by my rules." He wrestled his face away from the furry Heartless' swiping claws, then snuck the lasso around the creature's ankle.
"Fine," he shouted. "Have it your way!" He crouched down and pulled on the rope, and the Heartless slid off of his back and onto the ground.
"Huh. Thought you'd be heavier, friend." Pride spun the rope above his head, creating a black blur orbiting himself.

"Hey!" the furry Heartless roared. "This! Naga! Fair!"

The metallic Heartless fired three shots.

Pride let his lasso loose, sending the furry Heartless hurtling through the projectiles and into its cyborg comrade.

"Al!" Pride called up. "You and our new friend find Maleficent! We're gonna try and box her in!"

"You got it, Sheriff!"

"Yes, sir!" Cloud grasped the handle of his Buster Sword, resting it on his shoulder, and scouring the battlefield for Maleficent, ready to strike.

She wasn't difficult to spot; a horned hood, an aura of black fog, animalistic yellow eyes, and a golden scepter in hand.

Cloud homed in on the scepter, and on the crystal orb at its end. It glowed in the dark fog surrounding its owner, casting a rainbow through the night air. Cloud stared at it, hypnotized as he had been by the stars, and he heard voices. Men, women, children, animals, aliens, and creatures Cloud couldn't even imagine names for.

He heard Nanaki harmonizing with them.

They were all crying.

Cloud flushed with the chill of realization. When he had watched the furry Heartless convert Nanaki, he thought it had been planting something inside him. But what if he had been removing something? Something which now resided inside Maleficent's scepter. And if it had been removed, could it be returned?

There was only one way to find out; Cloud had to get the scepter.

He found Maleficent facing another one of Pride and Aladdin's allies; one which just might top the rabbit police officer.

A towering stickman of a skeleton in a black pinstripe suit.

"So, we meet once more, O glorious Pumpkin King," Maleficent said, her voice a serpentine whisper even to the carpet-riders high above.
"I must confess, having seen you in the flesh, or lack thereof, more than once, your legendary terror seems to elude me."

"I'm all too familiar with the feeling, my dear Maleficent," the skeleton began, speaking with a bouncy yet operatic voice that filled the air as effectively as Maleficent's.
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a long wooden baton.
"But legends, I find, are merely respected rumors. Let me show you why they call me the master of fright!" He grasped the baton and slid his hand along it. It caught fire as it emerged from his fist.

"Who's the tall, bony guy?" Cloud asked.

"Him?" Aladdin began.

The skeleton threw his head back and plunged the blazing baton into his mouth, and his body erupted into flame.

"That's Jack."

Maleficent traced her scepter along the ground in front of her, and thorny branches clawed their way out of the stone, forming a protective wall around her.

With a swift strike from his right hand, Jack sliced through the branches and seized the scepter. He cackled with a deep, demonic roar that was nothing like his former voice.

They struggled. Maleficent maintained her calm disposition, but her face twitched as if ready to burst into flame just like Jack.

Cloud stood up, finding it surprisingly easy to remain balanced on the flying carpet, and prepared to leap down to attack Maleficent.

Before he could jump, Jack flipped backwards, sending the scepter straight up into the air.

Cloud reached out as far as he could, his arm feeling as if it were leaving its socket to go further.

His gloved hand grasped the scepter, as did another shadowy pair of claws.

Cloud looked up into the face of the Heartless on the hovering board.

For a moment, he froze. He was looking into the face of a kid. It wasn't just a shadow; it was the same decayed texture and frigid aroma of a corpse.

Cloud thought of everyone who had been in Midgar.

The Heartless' glowing eyes widened, and its icy face seemed to gain the faintest warmth.

For a moment, Cloud felt hopeful.

"Oh my God…" it whispered, its gaze locked on something behind Cloud. "What the hell is that?!"

Cloud didn't think; he just turned his head for the most infantesimal second.

It was enough for the Heartless to get a right hook across his jaw.

"Son of a…"

Any hope of empathy Cloud had was gone for a split second, during which he realized that the Heartless had sacrificed half of its grip on the scepter. He retaliated with a diagonal swing from his Buster Sword, slashing the Heartless across the chest and sending it hurtling to the ground.

He had the scepter.

He had barely realized it when the carpet was hit by a green bolt of light.

Cloud braced himself for an agonizing stone landing, but only felt something cool, like soft, tangible air.

Another purple bubble.

"You got her scepter!" Violet exclaimed, helping Cloud upright. "That's awesome!"

"It'll be more awesome if we can actually do anything with it," he muttered, looking at the glowing rainbow at its tip as his ears were flooded by the weeping choir trapped within.

Cloud looked up and found Aladdin, his downed carpet under one arm, and his scimitar drawn in another as he faced down the furry Heartless, who charged at him with a grin of yellow teeth that were dying to sink into Aladdin's flesh.

"Aladdin, catch!" Cloud threw the scepter, and Aladdin dropped his scimitar for it.

"Sorry if this hurts," Aladdin whispered, lunging the scepter at the Heartless' chest.

It landed in its agile claws.

"Don't be scared, Ali," the Heartless snickered. "It feels so good. See?" It reached for Aladdin's chest.

The former street rat was caught in a conundrum; move back and save himself while losing the scepter, or push forward, learning more of the scepter's power at the cost of his own heart.

He made a gamble and pushed.

The scepter didn't budge.

Cloud shoved the Buster Sword into the sheath on his back and dashed for the Heartless. He swung himself around its body so his front touched its back. He reached around it, clutching the scepter, and pulled back.

There was a sound like a bell tolling, and then a beam of blue light stretched out of the Heartless' chest towards the stars.

Cloud kept his grip as the Heartless squirmed and kicked in his arms. He struggled with it for only a few seconds, and then it relaxed. Its frigid skin warmed, and its ruffled black fur melted into a cool, watery blue.

A circle of ripples appeared in the air. A clawed black hand reached out of it, seized the scepter, and then retreated.

Cloud spun around, keeping the Heartless close to him. He found Maleficent surrounded by her soldiers, and they were all surrounded by Pride's team.

It was still strange to see Nanaki on the other side of a battle. Cloud would never get used to it. He prayed that he wouldn't have to.

The Sheriff and Judy aimed their guns, Mulan pointed his sword, Dash and Violet had their fists up, and a still-burning Jack tilted his grinning skull.

"Reach for the sky," Pride ordered. "Unless you're curious what gettin' burned by a fiery skeleton is like. Change those good folks back or my posse and I'll really ruin your day."

The raptor-legged woman hissed at the Sheriff, then turned and bowed to Maleficent, holding out the scepter in a ceremonious manner.

"Thank you, Chell," Maleficent said, taking the scepter as if picking up a newborn child.
"You continue to prove yourself among the most valuable of my Heartless."

"I owe all my greatness to you, Mistress." The Heartless grinned with malicious excitement.

"They got 626," the tendril-handed Heartless growled, giving Cloud and the creature in his arms the hungry stare of a thirsty traveler finding water.
"Want us to get 'im back?"

Maleficent lifted her head, eyeing Cloud and each of his newfound allies, surveying them, silently scorning them.

She smiled, and Cloud felt his blood turn to ice.

"Let him stay with this lot for now," she said with a wave of her scepter.

The black fog surrounding her expanded to encompass her Heartless.

"I have something very special in mind for them...Besides, we still have his nine cousins."

A wicked cackle breezed through Cloud's ears.

The fog thickened until nothing but the Heartless' glowing eyes could be seen.

A torrent of fire leaped out of Jack's gaping jaw at the fog. The flame coating his body extinguished bit-by-bit.

In one moment, Nanaki's crimson glare was piercing Cloud, and in the next, there was nothing but a smoking, suited skeleton and the ruins of Midgar in the distance.

"Did anyone find the fire-spitting too much?" Jack asked. "I'd appreciate honesty."

"Aw, man," Dash moaned, dropping his fists lazily to his sides. "I really thought we had 'em that time!"

"It's not a total loss, Dash," Mulan began as he approached Cloud. He sheathed his sword and removed his helmet, revealing a head of straight black hair.

Cloud finally got a good look at his face, and instantly felt foolish.

"We've saved one of them," she finished, studying the blue creature in Cloud's arms.
"You alright, little guy?"

Cloud looked down and saw his reflection in warm black eyes.

"Yeah. Okitaka," the creature said, his rough yet squeaky voice at a much more soothing volume than the intrusive whispers and growls of the Heartless. He climbed out of Cloud's arms and hugged the swordsman.
"Thanks for saving meega."

"Don't mention it…" Cloud stroked the creature's back. He thought Aladdin's carpet had been particularly soft, but he found himself wanting to bury his face in this creature's fur. The only thing keeping him from doing so was the fear of what the creature might do to him in retaliation.
"Are...Are you hugging me with your legs?"

"Oh, naga." The creature pulled away, offering Cloud a grateful and chipper smile.
"I have four arms. See?" Four sets of claws wiggled in front of Cloud's face. Two of them then burrowed their way back into the creature's waist.

He thought this would startle him, but by that point, he was beginning to simply accept every strange thing that came his way.

The creature's smile softened.

"Sorry about Nanaki."

Cloud said nothing. He pictured the furry Heartless with its arm in Nanaki's back, and tried to see it as the same creature he now held. He could not do it.

"But you save meega, so we can save Nanaki, too."

The creature hopped to the ground, where he found the rest of Pride's team waiting to meet him. Judy was the shortest of them, and the creature came up to just below her chest.

"Thanks everyone so much," he chirped. "You are all my new friends. My name Stitch. Your names?"

"I'm the Dash. Pleased to meet you, Stitch." Dash crouched and shook his hand, creating a red-and-blue blur between them.

"Woooooah. Niiiiiice toooooo meeeeet yooooooou, tooooo, Daaaaaash."

"I'm Violet."

"Hey, Violet. Cool mask."

"My name's Mulan."

"Wow, big sword. Youga strong."

"Sheriff Woodrow Pride, or Woody if you're in a rush. Sorry for hurlin' you around earlier."

"All good. I like your hat, Sheriff Woody."

"Thanks, partner."

"I am Jack Skellington." The skeleton bowed. Even then, he still had to look down at his allies.
"Pumpkin King of Halloweentown."

"Ooh. Your majesty." Stitch bowed as well. His ears drooped behind his head.

"Officer Judy Hopps."

"Hey Jude." Stitch laughed and then sang. "Don't make it bad...Something wrong?"

"No, it's just, uh…" Judy's eyes glanced down Stitch's body, then fled back to his grinning face.
"Looks like they took your clothes when they made you a Heartless."

Stitch looked down, then came back up with another laugh.

"Oh, naga. I do not wear clothes. I have fur." He rubbed his own belly.

"...Other worlds are weird," Judy sighed, shaking her head.

"I'm Aladdin."

"Hey, Al." Stitch waved. "Can I have a magic carpet ride, please, Al?"

"If it's alright with Carpet." Aladdin looked down at the rug under his arm.

It lifted one of its tassels in the shape of a thumbs up.

Cloud was beginning to think that the world was just teasing him with its strangeness now.

"He seems good for it," Aladdin chuckled.

"Awesome," Stitch cheered. He turned to Cloud.
"Youga?"

"Cloud Strife."

"Cloud," Stitch giggled. "You really rain on Maleficent's parade."

Judy, Mulan, and Aladdin chuckled. Dash clapped his hands and let out a bellowing "Ha!"

Cloud rolled his eyes. "Alright, if we're all acquainted, could someone please explain what exactly is going on, and what happened to my friend?"

"Right. Sorry, Mr. Strife…" Woody stepped forward. "Far as we know, Maleficent is some sorta entity from another world-"

"You all keep saying that."

"What?"

"You and your team keep talking about other worlds. What do you mean? Other planets? Other realities?"

Woody removed his hat and scratched his sleek brown hair.

"Kind of," he said through his teeth. "I really wish Buzz were here. All this space-and-time stuff is more his deal…" He slapped his stetson back on his head, then carried on with improved conviction.
"You've got your planet, right? Earth or whatever it's called here. And the moon and the stars and everything else."

Cloud looked up at the stars, which invited him to lose himself in them again.

I will, he thought, but not right now.

"Right," he nodded.

"Well," Woody continued. "It turns out that there's thousands, probably millions and billions of them over and over, a lot of them similar, but a lot of them completely different. In one of 'em, you got animals instead of people, in another, you got a town run by monsters. No offense, Jack."

"None taken, Sheriff," the skeleton chirped as if he had been complimented.

"And so on and so forth," Woody carried on. "And normally we'd all stay where we should be-"

"But then Maleficent comes along," Cloud finished.

"Exactly." Woody snapped his fingers. "We don't know what exactly she's planning, but we know that it's nothin' good, that it's bad for everybody in every world out there, and that she needs somethin' from people like us to do it."

"So she's traveling between worlds building an army out of certain people from each one," Cloud replied. "So how did you all get away from her?"

"She lured us into some shape-changin' spaceship that can jump in and out of worlds. It's mostly thanks to the Incredibles over here that we got out." Woody smiled at Violet and Dash.

"Oh, yeah," Dash exclaimed, his freckled face lighting up as he spoke as fast as he could run.
"They had us on this giant spaceship and Vi made a forcefield and I ran us around in it and we found the Sheriff and the others and we picked 'em up and we were all rolling around in the forcefield and we ran over these guys with swords and we burst out the door and we were falling but the forcefield broke our fall-"

"We got out. Barely," Violet interjected, her sullen face contradicting her brother's excitement.
"But they got Jayjay."

Dash stopped, and his expression dropped to match his sister's.

"Yeah...And Mom and Dad."

"And my partner, Nick," Judy added, her long ears falling behind her head.

"My friend, General Shang." Mulan looked out at the two cities in the distance.

"My buddy, the Genie." Aladdin looked down at the Carpet again; it drooped just as Judy's ears had.

"My dear Sally." Jack placed both bony hands over his chest. Even without skin, his face infected Cloud with its melancholy.

"My old pal, Buzz." Woody lowered his head, the rim of his stetson shadowing his eyes.

"My ohana." Stitch looked down at his clawed feet.

"But having you here is great news for us, Stitch." Violet managed a smile as she knelt down beside the Experiment. She scratched behind his right ear, and he lifted his head and purred.
"Because if we can change you back, then we can change all the Heartless back."

"But we need Maleficent's scepter," Cloud said. "And we have no idea where to find her. She could already have gone to the next world on her list by now."

"I know," Stitch piped up, raising an eager claw.

"You do?"

"Ih. Still remember everything from being Heartless…" he trailed off, his black eyes staring off into space for a while.

Cloud's hand wandered to the handle of his Buster Sword.

"Maleficent is in TARDIS." Stitch smiled as if unaware of his pause.

"TARDIS?" Cloud asked.

"Ih." The Experiment leaped at Woody's head, swiping his stetson, somersaulting in midair, and then landing like a leaf behind him.

"Hey," the Sheriff snapped, spinning around to find Stitch wearing the hat and puffing out his chest in a pompous manner.

"Time And Ree-Lay-Ted Dye-Men-Shuns In Space," he declared in his deepest voice. He laughed and tossed the hat back to Woody.
"Doctor's ship. Outside changes and inside is huge!" He threw his arms outward. "Goes through time and to other worlds. Maleficent and Heartless bring people in, and right now, they are…" He shut his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, he spun around and pointed at the ruins of Midgar in the distance.
"There!"

"They're in Midgar?" Cloud asked.

"Ih," Stitch nodded. "TARDIS looks like old building now. If we get close, meega find it."

"This has gotta be a trap," Mulan said. "Maleficent must have known that you'd remember all this. She's probably preparing a welcome party for us right now."

"She definitely is," Woody replied. "But what else can we do? And we've been doin' pretty darn good so far, and now we've got Cloud and his gigantic sword and Stitch and his Heartless expertise. Best we can do is try."

"Is there anyone we should be especially on our guard for?" Cloud asked. "Besides Maleficent herself, obviously. And the portal girl."

"Ih. Matt." Stitch brought his fingers to his head, making the shape of devil horns.
"Daredevil. He sees everything."

"Everything…" Cloud repeated. "Including our conversation right now?"

Stitch nodded.

"So Nosy Matt's listening to all our plans," Judy sighed. "...Well, then we've just gotta change him back first."

"We won't be able to get the drop on him, though," Cloud replied. "If Stitch means what I think he does, then he'll be able to anticipate all our moves."

"Then we'll all jump him at once. He'll see it coming, but we can still get him if we're quick enough."

"It's a tough one," Woody said, one hand on his belt and the other on his chin.
"The toughest I'm bettin' any of us have ever faced. But we've come this far; the least we can do is try. If we win, we win. If not…" He turned and looked out at Midgar.
"Then at least we all get to be with our friends and families again…"

He looked at the city for a while, as did Cloud, who had a strange realization. For now, he thought of what had become of Nanaki as something to avoid, like death. In fact, he thought that he should prefer death over it. But he knew that, should he become a Heartless, once it had happened, he would not mind it at all.

It might even make him happy.

Woody clapped his hands.

"But first we gotta get over there, and fast. Maleficent might be waitin' on us, but she may just as well be gearin' up to move on to the next world on her list."

"Ooh! Ooh!" Dash turned to his sister. "Let's do the thing!"

"What thing?" Cloud questioned.

Violet sighed and shook her head. "I guess there's no other way."

"What thing?" Cloud repeated more firmly.

Dash rubbed his hands together and grinned.

II

They were inside the bubble for about twenty-one seconds. Twenty-one seconds of Cloud floating around inside the speeding bubble, and Cloud's stomach floating around inside him.

The sight of the wasteland and the buildings passing them in a blur only contributed to the nausea.

Cloud looked between each of his allies. Dash grinned as he sprinted. Violet's face was tense and concentrated as she kept her glowing, gloved palms opened at the surrounding bubble. Everyone else looked as discomforted as Cloud felt. Even Jack looked like he might soon reprise his fire-spitting stunt.

"Aloha Oe…" Stitch hummed, his light voice trembling as the bubble sped across the charred ground of Midgar.
"Aloha Oe...Until we...Meet...Again…"

The towers of Midgar, which now all stood at only a fraction of their original heights, seemed to blend into a single jittering structure.

"Here!" Stitch declared.

Dash skidded to a halt, his boots screeching against the ground and shrouding the bubble in a cloud of dust and ashes.

Cloud was thankful that he didn't vomit.

Violet closed her fists, and the bubble blinked out of existence, dropping its passengers to the ground.

Woody and Aladdin stumbled before gaining their balance, while everyone else found their footing immediately.

"TARDIS is here," Stitch said, moving to the front of the group and studying each building.
"One of these. Need moment to remember."

"Mind if I ask you something, Cloud?" Mulan began.

"Shoot," he said automatically, his attention on Stitch, anxious for him to pipe up with the building they were looking for.

"Where did you get that gigantic sword?"

Cloud looked at her; she was clutching the hilt of her own sword. He then realized that he was holding his own sword's handle as well.

"The Buster? It was given to me by an old friend of mine; Zack Fair. We served in SOLDIER together until he was killed."

Mulan didn't answer straight away, but she unhanded her sword.

"My condolences…"

"It's fine," Cloud shrugged, still clutching his sword. "It was ages ago. Sometimes I wish he was still around. Sometimes I'm even angry that he isn't. But...You learn to live with it, you know?"

Mulan only nodded. Her face, even from under her helmet, was peculiar to Cloud; it was both as soft as Tifa's but as rugged as Vincent's. As infuriated as Barret's but as welcoming as Aerith's. The others all had faces that seemed tailored for them; Cloud even recalled his own reflection as looking sullen and grim. But Mulan's face looked like everything; anything she might want it to be.

"What about yours?" He pointed to her sword.

She looked down at it. "It was my father's."

"How's he?"

"Still with us. For now…" She sighed, keeping her gaze on her sword. "I don't like leaving him for so long. If something happens to him, even if he doesn't make it, I should be there. I don't want his final thought to be wondering if I'm going to make it home...And I don't want to miss my only chance to say goodbye..."

"You won't." Cloud replied.

He clutched his sword tighter, feeling, for a moment, the warm, sweating flesh of Zack's palm.

"You'll make sure of it. We all will."

"I know we will," Mulan said. "Doesn't stop that thought from nagging at-"

There were three flashes of blinding white light; the first two were accompanied by bangs like gunshots, and the third by a lasting mechanical screech.

III

Woody unshielded his eyes as the light died down.

He thought he would be used to space machines by now. And yet, even years after discovering Buzz's blue-and-white pod crashed at the outskirts of Andes-Rume, he still marveled at the silver vehicle he found suspended in the air, its front end directed straight down at the ground.

At the vehicle's rear were two black thrusters and a white pillar-shaped tank bearing the name, Mr. Fusion. Its spinning tires glowed with a fiery mixture of blue and orange, and its metal was coated in a layer of frost.

Woody looked down; Stitch was holding the car aloft with a single extended hand. He looked down further at the alien's feet; the ground had cracked beneath them.

The Sheriff gave an impressed whistle which nobody heard over the mechanical screeching.

What they did hear, however, was an aged voice inside the machine yelling, "Great Scott!"

"What magnificent strength you have, my new friend!" Jack cheered as Stitch brought the car's underside onto his other hand as gently as possible.

Another careful maneuver, and the machine was grounded without so much as a scratch.

A plate at its front read; OUTATIME.

Stitch spun around and flexed his muscles with smug triumph, then shook his hands. "So cold."

Woody heard Dash whisper to Violet, "I'm so glad we got him and not the one with the huge mouth."

Though he felt a twinge of sympathy for the big-jawed Heartless, Woody had to agree.

The machine's doors opened; one on each side, and going upwards into the shape of a bird's wings. Four men stepped out.

Woody let out a sigh of relief; they were not Heartless.

The driver was an old man with white hair shooting out of his head like a frozen explosion. He wore a brown jacket over a purple shirt and a transparent plastic tie. He looked at the people and creatures in front of his vehicle with wide eyes burning with astonishment.

The shotgun passenger wore a crimson uniform with a black lower half. He clutched a metal device; something like a remote. He was significantly younger than the driver, and had a beard that complimented his stern, skeptical expression.

The back left passenger had a similar uniform, but yellow. His skin was a metallic silver, and his calm face seemed hesitant to show any kind of surprise.

The last passenger also wore a yellow uniform, but had brown skin like leather, and a broad forehead brimming with wrinkles. He had a thick eyebrows beard even richer than his red-uniformed comrade's. He aimed a different kind of silver remote at Woody and his allies.

The Sheriff felt the second of panic that he always felt when he was put at the end of a gun. Then he exhaled and made his move.

"Woah there, partner!" He threw his hands up. "Relax. I've got a feeling we might be friends."

The man in the red uniform looked behind over his shoulder, then pushed his ally's gun down.

"Watch where you point that, Worf," he urged. "We don't know for sure if they're hostile yet!"

"Their blue animal nearly destroyed our vehicle," the leather-skinned man responded, his deep voice offering no repentance.

"In their defense, Lieutenant Commander," the silver man began, his voice, like his face, not quite human but not completely mechanical either.
"Had he not caught our vehicle, it is most likely that we would have struck him and his companions. Such a hit, especially at the speed we were traveling at, would surely have been fatal. His actions, I believe, can be forgiven as being in self-defense."

"Hm...Very well," the leather-skinned man growled, holstering his weapon on his belt.

Woody let his arms drop, sighing with satisfaction. He kept his eyes on the leather-skinned man, who looked strangely disappointed.

"I can't apologize enough for all this..." the red-uniformed man approached Woody.
"Out of curiosity, would you all happen to be searching for some friends or loved ones who mysteriously disappeared?"

"In a nutshell," Woody answered. "And don't worry about it. I'm just happy to meet a few more people who aren't workin' for some otherworldly sorceress." He offered his hand, and the man obliged it with a dignified smile.
"Sheriff Woody Pride. This here's my, uh, round-up gang." He looked back at them, and was met with unanimous raised eyebrows. He responded them with a smile and a shrug.

"The tall one's Jack," he continued.

"Greetings," the skeleton chirped.

"There's Violet."

"Hey."

"Dash."

"Yo."

"Officer Hopps."

"Good to meet ya."

"Mulan,"

"Good evening."

"Aladdin."

"Hi."

"Cloud."

Cloud nodded.

"And the one who picked up your ship is Stitch."

"Pleased to meet all of you." The man looked at each of them, smiling a strict sort of smile which Woody had seen Buzz make often, and which he knew himself to make often, as well.
"I am Commander William Riker of the USS Enterprise. With me are Lieutenant Commanders Worf and Data, as well as Dr. Brown…"

He looked down at the machine's front, and found the driver crouched, frantically studying Stitch's volunteered right arm.

"Fascinating," he muttered. "You have very little muscle tissue, yet you caught and lifted the Delorean as easily as a baseball. How is it done? Nanotech? Genetic augmentation?"

"Lots of fruit and veggies," Stitch answered with a grin.

"Dr. Brown?" Riker repeated.

"Yes, Commander? Oh!" The doctor turned and jolted at the sight of the others, as if they had snuck up on him. He leaped up, straightening his lapels and waving.
"Good afternoon, or morning or evening; I'm sure you know which. Dr. Emmett Brown, at your service."

"If you don't mind my saying," Riker began. "Your round-up seems a little mismatched. Diversity is always welcome, but some of you seem to be from different time periods."

Woody opened his mouth, but Dr. Brown beat him to it.

"That's only to be expected, Commander." Brown jumped between Riker and Woody.
"That temporal energy we've been tracking; it means that our mysterious kidnapper is a time traveler. It's only natural that a search party should form out of cowboys and ancient Chinese soldiers and what-not."
He gave Jack a particularly wide-eyed look.
"Although I'm afraid I can't possibly explain the animated skeleton."

"Don't fret, doctor," Jack laughed. "I can't possibly explain it either."

"So where the heck are you guys coming from?" Judy asked.

"From a few decades ago." Brown answered.

"Wait." Dash hopped in place. "You mean that thing's a time machine?!"
He sprinted to the ajar driver's door, gaping with delighted awe at its interior of blinking lights.
"Wow, this car's even cooler than the Incredibile! Can it fly?!"

"Extraordinary speed…" Brown muttered. He shook his head, then returned to the rest of the group.
"Our respective searches brought us together, and we've since been following a trail of temporal energy. We...How did you put it, Commander?"

"Beamed down."

"Yes; we beamed down with the Delorean to this planet a few decades earlier. Hopefully, we're now in the right time as well as the right place."

"Now, then…" Riker turned back to Woody, his smile fading. "If you're all here for the same reason we are, then we'd be interested to know what you know."

"Well, to cut it down for time's sake," the Sheriff replied. "The big mastermind you're lookin' for is Maleficent; some evil sorceress from another universe way out there. She's hoppin' through time and space, grabbin' people and changin' 'em for her own personal army-"

"What do you mean changing?" Riker interjected. "Because I believe this Maleficent may have drafted the best Starfleet captain I know into her army."

"She's draining some kind of energy from people," Aladdin explained. "Turning them into monsters she calls Heartless."

"Heartless?" Data repeated. "That name implies that they have had their hearts removed, which would surely kill them. But your description leads me to believe that 'heart' means something different in this context."

"Thanks for clearing that up," Cloud muttered.

Data looked at him, and though his face was static, something in his yellow eyes seemed to scoff at the swordsman's sarcasm.

"Traditionally," he continued. "A heart is considered symbolic of love, compassion, and other positive traits and emotions. Is it possible that Maleficent is harvesting a type of positive energy which is generated by living beings?"

"So Maleficent is farming people's compassion?" Cloud grunted.

Woody returned to his first time in the TARDIS. He remembered Buzz's eyes as Maleficent's scepter went through him. He had looked at Woody first with a stolid look of duty, but as he melted into his new monstrous, winged body, he had looked instead with a kind of seething Woody had never known him to be capable of.
Woody was both chilled and enlightened by the memory.
He turned to Cloud. "Would that really be the strangest thing you'd ever heard of?"

The swordsman's face darkened. His answer came a moment later.

"No," he said. "No, it wouldn't."

"Well, why don't we consult our resident ex-Heartless?" Woody smiled down at Stitch.

"You've been behind enemy lines?!" Worf knelt down by Stitch, giving him an intense, interrogative look. His leathery face stretched with anticipation.
"Then you must know what they've done with Captain Picard! Is he alive?!"

"And Marty?" Brown knelt down as well, reaching into his coat and unrolling a newspaper.

There was a photograph of a smiling teenager with an electric guitar. The date; October 19th, 1986. The headline; Local Student Missing.

"Have you seen Marty?" Brown's aged, gravely voice was soft, but his eyes roared with desperation.

"Ih. Jean and Marty are alive," Stitch nodded, his nose wrinkling as Worf leaned in closer.
"Woody and friends fight them back outside city. Heartless, like meega…" He turned to Data, whose face, though unchanged, somehow seemed frightened.
"Data right. Maleficent take good things from people. Warm things. Picard not think of crew, Marty not think of Doc...Stitch not think of Lilo…"

He stared into space again, as if he had left his body and was being shoved back into a Heartless shell.

"Only cold left…"

"The swine," Worf growled, clenching his fist.

"Well, we're doing nothing for them by standing here," Riker said, looking down at the device he held. It beeped anxiously.
"Scanner says that the trail of temporal energy originates here, and Dr. Brown is certain that this is the correct point in time, so we need to go-"

"There!" Stitch pointed to a building on his right, no more or less decayed than any other structure in Midgar. He looked back at his allies, his black eyes offering a watery mixture of hope and terror.
"Our ohanas are inside."

"Thank you, Stitch," Riker nodded. "Your information has been invaluable." He turned to Woody.
"So, what exactly is our plan when we get inside?"

"We've got two goals," the Sheriff began, counting them off on his fingers.
"Grab Maleficent's scepter, which we'll need to change all our friends back, and take out this all-seein' Heartless called Matt."

"All-seeing?" Riker raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't that complicate things?"

"A little," Woody smiled. "But we discussed it, and we think we can take him out if we overwhelm him."

He said it with conviction, but as Riker's face darkened, he began to realize just how difficult the upcoming battle was going to be. But he suppressed his doubt; it wasn't going to help Buzz.

"I suppose there's only so much one can do to fight someone who can see everything, isn't there?" He wiped his brow; he was sweating as if he could feel Matt breathing down his neck.

"We have to take the risk," Brown urged. "Even if we are doomed, it's better to go and face it than to try and run from it."

"What a cheery bunch," Judy whispered to Violet.

"It's been a cheery day," the superheroine shrugged.

"Hm. Touche."

Don't worry, partners, Woody thought. Nearly over. One way or another.
"Well, what're we waitin' for?" He straightened his stetson and turned to face the disguised TARDIS.
His smirk glowed with confidence as he struggled to ignore his quaking heart.
"Let's go get 'er."

IV

He settled down into his seat and looked up at the only thing he had for company.

Its entire body, from its broad torso of black smoke to its wisp of a tail, was strapped to its place in the air by a jungle of wires and an intersecting map of magical symbols of the darkest shades of red and green. Its bearded face encompassed the ceiling, and was frozen in a grim expression that looked asleep but longed to be dead.

It had been welcome to join the Mistress' ranks and share in her glory, but even as a Heartless, the Genie would not serve anyone.

This was the alternative.

The Genie's crimson eyes opened, using every ounce of its remaining strength to gain only the faintest sliver of vision.

It found the man in the chair and stared at him, begging him.

Matt Murdock shook his head.

He looked away from the Genie, shut his eyes, and got to work.

The Mistress had told him that the Genie's magic would provide a great many benefits for all of them; from furthering the TARDIS' travel and disguise capabilities to boosting Skywalker's connection to the Force. Among these benefits, supposedly, was an improvement in Matt's own ability to focus.

He could see, and for that he was eternally grateful, but he did not always have complete control over what he saw. This was helpful during his regular scans of the multiverse for potential Heartless, but less so during his field missions.

He remembered testing Nathan Drake; holding him at gunpoint in one moment, then watching a man in black fleeing across a desert in the next, then watching a fly writhing in a web in the one after, and only returning to Drake after seventeen seconds of distractions.

Hopefully, the Genie would help rectify this. What better way to find out than by looking for the Sheriff and the Commander who were en route to the TARDIS at that very moment?

He saw the black of his own eyelids.

He saw a young blonde traveler in a green tunic, stopping in the forest to rest and play his ocarina.

He saw a towering, demonic beast of a detective, leaving behind his latest victory, and bringing a cigar to his mouth with his massive stone right hand.

He saw the pale ghost of an old, bearded face. A face which had not left him alone in days. The face of the old Matt Murdock's friend; Doctor Stephen Strange.

Matt's eyes snapped open. He had hoped that the Genie's magic would also keep Strange out.

He thought he might simply suggest that the Mistress go recruit Strange, but he didn't have to see him to know that he had the best possible defense ready; the Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and perhaps even more were almost certainly gathered in the Sanctum Sanctorum, waiting.

Capturing the Genie had been enough of a challenge; one which had cost the Mistress seven would-be Heartless. Matt knew that the Mistress would not take another risk until she had amassed an even greater number of Heartless.

Matt believed that she could do it, but he knew that it was not his place to question her, especially not after all she had done for him.

She had already lost one of her more valuable Heartless. Matt was still thankful that it had been 626 and not him; the thought of returning to that feeble, shallow state the Mistress had found him in scorched his soul.

The others despised the traitor, but Matt pitied him.

He returned to his work, careful not to look in the same direction as Strange.

He saw a quartet of masked amphibious creatures darting through the New York sewers.

He saw a trio of teenaged wizards laughing as they passed around a small box labeled; Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.

He saw the Doctor and Romana leaning against the TARDIS console, cracking their black grins as the door creaked open, casting a thin bar of light across the pitch dark room.

He saw the Sheriff lead the way inside, careful to tread lightly on the metal floor. Though each of his colorful allies were lost in the darkness, Matt could see them as clear as day.

About half a minute passed. Matt could still see them. He matched the Time Lords' grins; the Genie's magic was working.

"Worf, Data, set phasers to stun."

"Ow. Careful, Dash. That was my foot."

"That wasn't me."

"Sorry, Vi. One of the downsides of having big rabbit's feet."

"Perhaps our mission would be more easily and safely carried out with the aid of a light source."

"Here; I have a flashlight."

"Much appreciated, Dr. Brown."

Matt imprisoned a laugh behind his teeth as the time traveler clicked on his flashlight, and the expansive console room was immediately brightened by the grinning, red-eyed face of the Doctor.

"Who's that inside our TARDIS?!" He roared in the voice of the old man.

"Open fire!" Riker ordered.

He, Worf, Data, Woody, and Judy fired their respective firearms, while Violet hurled discs of purple light.

Cloud scraped the tip of his Buster Sword along the floor, sending a golden crescent of light speeding towards the console.

The Doctor and Romana knelt down behind the console, which took all the punishment, and yet didn't sustain so much as a scratch.

"How rude," Romana shouted over the gunfire. "They break into our home and shoot at us!"

"Savages," the Doctor snarled in the aristocrat's voice. "I say we have their friends come out and teach them some manners!"

An bullet of black light flew out of the darkness, into the storm of projectiles, and towards Violet.

Matt rubbed his hands together; he hadn't felt this kind of excitement since he had listened to his father's boxing matches over the radio as a child.

Violet saw the bullet and showed it her glowing palm.

The projectile was trapped in a purple bubble, and then seemed to sink into the air.

It burst out of the floor behind Violet and pierced through her. Her chest vomited a beam of purple light.

"Violet!" Dash screamed. He tried desperately to plug up his sister's wound, but, to Matt's expectation and amusement, he only felt the reinforced rubber of her costume under the blinding light.

Stitch, Jack, and Dr. Brown ran to Violet's side as well.

"Great Scott," Brown whispered. "What's happening to her? Is this what happened to…?" He looked at Stitch, who, after a moment of staring coldly at the purple light, nodded.

"No! No, Violet…" Dash's voice weakened. He clung to his sister as tears poured from his mask.
"Please...Don't leave me alone…"

"Dash…" Violet said, her voice gaining a faint echo, her skin fading to black, and her eyes freezing into a bloody red. Her arms were stiff at her side.
"It's cold…"

A trickle of laughter escaped Matt's teeth.

Matthew.

"Piss off, Strange."

He remained fixated on the console room.

"Thanks for portal, Chell," a high but raspy voice called from the darkness.

"Sure thing, 621. I'd hate for you to ever miss your target,"

Chell stepped out of the darkness behind the console alongside 621; each of his four clawed hands gripped a blaster that matched his crimson eyes.

Chell held out her palm as she stepped around the console; every projectile that came their way vanished in an airborne pool of ripples.

The Doctor and Romana stepped out from behind the console, smiling comfortably as if under an umbrella watching the rain.

Violet was now completely changed.

Stitch, Jack, and Brown backed away from her.

"Sorry, Vi…" Stitch whispered, blinking tears from his eyes.

Dash still clung to her. He looked over his shoulder at the grinning Heartless.

The shooting stopped.

Dash wiped his eyes and charged at the Heartless, filling the room with a biting chill.

"No, Dash!" Woody yelled.

The speedster let out an enraged cry as he hurled his blurred fist at the sneering Heartless.

There was a flash of blue light.

"You finally made it, bro!"

A child half Dash's age and height had appeared. His chest bore a jagged, green version of the i emblem, and his arm was in Dash's chest. The kid basked in the resulting ray of golden light.

"J...Jayjay…" Dash gasped.

"That's right, bro," Jayjay whispered. "It's me. And look who else…"

He snapped his fingers, and two more Heartless appeared beside him. One of them an impossibly thin woman whose body and limbs slithered through the air, and a hulking beast of a man, both bearing the same distorted i symbol.

Dash was frozen where he stood, but he managed a final bout of tears.

"It's okay, bro," Jayjay said with a tilt of his head. "We're all together again."

Matt unleashed the most bellowing laugh he would ever make.

"Everyone grab a partner," Woody ordered. "Choose a Heartless and take them-"

Suddenly, each individual who was not a Heartless was trapped in their own translucent black bubble.

"That's enough of your plans, Sheriff," Violet said, sidestepping towards her family while keeping only a single glowing palm open at her former allies.

By the time she had reached the console, Jayjay had released a fully transformed Dash.

"We're so glad you kids can finally join the Mistress." Elastigirl snaked an elongated arm over Dash's shoulders.

"We always knew you would make her proud." Mr. Incredible rested a gigantic hand on Violet's shoulder, nearly covering her entire torso.

Jayjay stepped between his siblings and took each of their hands.

The family grinned at their prisoners.

The Incredibles were together again.

We act normal, Mom, but I wanna BE normal!

But Dad said our powers are nothing to be ashamed of. Our powers make us special.

I like movies. I'll buy the popcorn.

Does this mean we're gonna have to move again?

Well, I renounce my renunciation!

Wow, this car does anything I say!

Matthew.

Matt shook his head, which was suddenly pulsating with a painful heat.

He had to focus; he knew that he was about to be hit with more new memories at once than he or his comrades had ever received before, but he could not, would not let them distract him.

He shut his eyes and returned to the console room.

A pillar of black smoke had risen from the floor in front of the Incredibles. It evaporated, and there she was; their Mistress. Their savior.

Matt felt cold at the sight of her; the kind of welcome cold when the first rain falls at the end of summer.

"I'm so pleased you could all make it to your orientation," she announced to the prisoners.

Though she was so far away from Matt, her wonderful voice echoed delightfully in his ears.

The prisoners banged on their respective bubbles.

"First things first...Violet; return 626 to his...Ohana," she snarled.

"With pleasure, Mistress."

"Naga!"

Stitch's bubble veered to his left. It dissolved, and he landed in the waiting arms of his cousins, who came pouring out of the darkness.

621 darted over to them, pressing a blaster against Stitch's nose.

"And the raven, never flitting," 627 growled, pulling Stitch's arms behind his back. "Still is sitting, still is sitting…"

"This what youga get for leaving," 624 spat as her pointed antennae curled around the traitor's throat.

"Boojiboo," the traitor coughed.

"Youga watch new friends get fixed," 149 grasped his jaw.

"And then get fixed again," 345 cackled, his elongated fingers prying Stitch's eyes open, letting his tears flow freely down his cheeks.
"Enjoy the show!"

Matt was filled with an icy satisfaction at the sight. The only things he enjoyed more were the faces of the Sheriff and the Commander; both of them keeping their jaws shut and their eyes narrow, as if they actually had some kind of escape plan.

It was both hilarious and pathetic.

"To preserve time," the Mistress began. "I shall debrief you while I have my Heartless improve you."

She paced the room; her Heartless' eyes followed her wherever she went. Even Matt, from his vantage point deep within the TARDIS, felt pulled towards her.

"I have a vision. A vision of a world where everything is perfect. There is no war, no sickness, no hunger, not even the slightest disagreement. There is total peace. But I can only create this peace if everyone agrees to my terms...Ms. Finklestein?"

A ripple appeared in Jack's bubble, and a woman almost matching his thinness lumbered out. She was bald, and her charcoal skin was coated in stitches. She greeted Jack with a flaming glare.

"Sally-" Was all the pumpkin king could manage before a beam of orange light was ripped from his chest.

"This is what you get for leaving me, Jack," Sally snarled, unblinking as the light sprayed into her face.
"Are you going to do it again?"

"No…" Jack gasped, his bones and his suit exchanging colors, and his eye sockets gaining a bloody glow.
"No...Never again…"

The bubble around them vanished.

What's this? What's this?

But you must believe when I tell you this. It's as real as my skull, and it does exist!

Eureka! This year, Christmas will be OURS!

Only dust and a plaque, that reads, Here Lies Poor Old Jack.

Matt's head throbbed, not only from the memories squeezing into his mind, but from the grating choir of "No," that came from Jack's former allies as he stood by the Mistress.

"The trouble with my vision," the Mistress carried on, her voice curing Matt's migraine.
"Is that pesky little thing known as free will. Now, I don't blame any of you for valuing free will. You have all been conditioned your entire lives to believe that free will is a good thing. Something to hold onto. To fight for. To die for...General Shang?"

A colossus of a man dropped into Mulan's bubble, which had to expand to fit him. He was clad in black armor lined with red, and a helmet that allowed only his glowing eyes to escape.

Before Mulan or any of her allies could react to his appearance, his broadsword was buried in her chest, orbited by a torrent of green light.

Mulan looked up into her friend's face, her freezing eyes filled not with contempt or grief, but only with bitter disappointment.

"Chin up, Mulan," Shang ordered. "Think of it as a promotion."

Mulan's skin and armor blackened and grew to match Shang's. Her helmet came to shroud her face, and deafened her to the outraged cries of her allies.

When will my reflection show who I am inside?

How 'bout a girl who's got a brain, and always speaks her mind?

I did it to save my father!

You trusted Ping. Why should Mulan be any different?

We're coming, Matthew.

Matt dug his claws into the arms of his seat. He forced himself to see nothing for a while, straining to be captivated only by his own eyelids. When Strange's echo silenced, he returned to the console room.

Mulan and Shang now stood in attention at the Mistress' side, each with one hand gripping the handle of a sheathed sword.

Amidst the pale, sweating, berating faces of the imprisoned ingrates, Matt noticed a unique silence from the swordsman with the ridiculous weapon. Cloud Strife knelt in his bubble, fixated on the Heartless with an anxious look, but a different kind of anxiety than that of his comrades.

To Matt, he seemed hopeful. Hopeful that he was the next one up. Matt hoped he wouldn't be; he wanted to enjoy that face just a little while longer.

He looked to Stitch, who cried from a mixture of his eyes being pried open and the sights of the fates of his new friends.

Despite his pity, Matt thought it was the most appropriate punishment.

The Mistress continued.

"But such is the compromise of every world; peace or free will. And every time, people like you, the so-called heroes and protectors, choose free will. But so long as there is free will, there will always be someone who uses it against peace. And all it takes is one...Captain Picard?"

Riker's fists leaped up at the name, just in time to catch a mechanical arm diving into his bubble.

Matt homed in on Riker's eyes as Picard climbed in to meet his subordinate. They burned with a furious hope; a naive belief that his fearless captain would be saved, as he had been countless times before, by the friendships forged between himself and his crew.

Picard stepped forward, breaking Riker's hold and ripping a golden light from his chest.

Riker's face froze, chilled by the betrayal of both his friend and of the universe's comforting predictability.

"You've always been a disappointment, William," Picard spat. "So afraid of change. Always shrouding fear and complacency under a guise of loyalty and dedication. And once again, I am forced to make the hard decisions for you."

Riker said nothing. He barely blinked as black metal crawled throughout his body from his chest.

Data was similarly silent. He lowered his head, not wanting to watch but knowing that he must.

Worf, however, deafened the room.

"Fight it, Commander! You have never given in before! I know you are strong enough!"

The half-mechanized Riker did not move.

Some days you get the bear, and some days the bear gets you.

What's a knockout like you doing in a computer-generated gin joint like this?

Maybe if we felt any human loss as keenly as we felt one of those close to us, human history would be far less bloody.

Fate. It protects fools, little children, and ships named Enterprise.

"My apologies, Captain. I swear I will never again let you or our Mistress down."

Two mechanized Starfleet officers stood in front of the Mistress.

"We shall see to it," Picard growled.

"So," the Mistress carried on. "My perfect world requires a hive mind. But to sustain such a world and a society requires a unique kind of magic. A kind which can only be performed with a very special form of energy. Energy which you can find in anyone, but it is more potent in some more than others. Hence why I extend this rare opportunity to you...Commander Lightyear?"

A demon in black armor rose into Woody's bubble, which widened to accommodate its pointed back-mounted wings, each twice the size of their owner.

The Sheriff fell on his back at the Heartless' appearance, but immediately picked himself up and drew his pistol.

"She's right, Woody," the demon yelled. "I've never felt better!"

For a moment, Woody gaped at the Heartless lumbering towards him. Then he lowered his head, the rim of his hat shadowing his eyes, and aimed his pistol.

"You're not Buzz,"

He fired, and so did the Heartless.

A bullet sank into the Heartless' black forehead.

A thin streak of red burst from Woody's back.

That wasn't flyin'! That was just...Fallin' with style!

From now on, you'd better take good care of your 'toys.' 'Cause if you don't, I'll find out, Dr. Phillips. I. See. Everything.

Jessie, come with me. Andes-Rume has a place for all of us, I know it...And ain't that what Emily would want for you?

And when it does all end, I'll have ol' Buzz Lightyear to keep me company. For infinity and beyond.

Matt leaned back, reveling in the perfect melody which the Sheriff's devastated companions performed for him.

This transformation, he thought, just might be his favorite yet.

As he darkened, the Sheriff directed his sweating glare at the Mistress, throwing as much contempt as he could at her while he still had the will. Then his glare bloomed into a grin burning with sharp teeth. His skin hardened, gaining a scaly texture. An appendage crawled out of his back; a string-thin tail that ended in a noose, hovering above his hat.

"Now that's better," Woody cackled as his bubble was lowered to the floor before setting him free.
"This posse just didn't feel right without an Old Western touch!"

"In conclusion," the Mistress stepped forward, raising her arms beside Woody and Buzz in a parental gesture.
"Your mission is to recruit Heartless for my new world. Once I have enough to efficiently run a society, we can begin our new life together."

"More like a prison sentence!" Judy retorted.

"Indeed," Data added. "Your recruitment methods completely ignore all living beings' right to choice."

"And I think we'd all rather be the best people we can be on our own," Brown shouted. "Not some mindless, soulless puppets!"

"I know the thought of change frightens you, but give it a chance and you will see." The Mistress raised her scepter, smiling her glorious smile.
"You will all see."

Matt leaned in, smiling with his Mistress as he basked in the hopelessness reeking off of each of the prisoners.

A ghostly hand seized his face.

"Strange!" he roared.

He swatted at the hand, but only felt a cold breeze. He darted up from his chair, but Strange followed him, glued to him.

"I'll kill you, Strange!"

Between the fingers, Matt found a sliver of a smirk, and then the apparition was gone.

Matt returned instantly to the console room, and found the Mistress narrowly avoiding something charging at her from a sizzling and fleeting portal.

A car. A white car outfitted with a collection of ridiculous machinery. Its side bore an image of an anxious cartoon ghost restrained by a red slash.

Matt knew who this was; not from his own memories, but from Ash's and Dante's.

The Ecto-1 turned and screeched to a halt under the prisoners' bubbles, and the dozen passengers riding on its exterior leaped into action.

Some of them Matt knew from Bruce's memories.

Laying and grinning on the hood, the green-skinned shapeshifter called Beast Boy.

Knelt on the roof, the cloaked sorceress known as Raven.

Floating above her, smirking as her hands glowed green, the vibrant, orange alien princess; Starfire.

Drawing a batarang from her belt, the red-haired detective donning Bruce's former colors; Batgirl.

Back-to-back with her, the black-haired, black-costumed former sidekick, wielding dual batons just as Matt had before; Nightwing.

Together, they were the Teen Titans.

The rest Matt knew personally from his lesser days.

Glaring from behind a glowing crimson visor, Cyclops.

Flashing her typical cocky smile from under her white hair, Rogue.

Kneeling beside Raven with a grin that shone in the shadows, the blue-skinned, pointed-tailed Nightcrawler.

Cracking his knuckles, the metal-skinned and aptly-named Colossus.

Giving the Mistress a look equal in anger and curiosity, the hulking, blue-furred Beast.

Hovering above even the prisoners' bubbles, her fingers flexing with lightning, Storm.

Heading the group, a stubbled face exploding with fury behind six blades ripping from his knuckles, Wolverine.

Matt knew them as the X-Men, and he had hoped that he would only see them again on their knees before the Mistress.

The Ghostbusters stepped out of the Ecto-1 and stood beside Wolverine, proton packs at the ready.

"Insolent, cretinous meddlers," the Mistress spat, firing a torrent of smoke from her scepter.

It met a quartet of red-and-blue proton beams; the projectiles created a colorful airborne flame.

"You know what, fellas?!" Venkman yelled over the screeching flame, taking a gloved hand from his proton blaster to shield his eyes.
"I'm thinkin' we should just rebrand to Insolent Cretinous Meddlers! Seems more popular with most otherworldly tyrants! We could call it I.C.M. for short!"

"You guys don't need a new name," Raven said, levitating above the Ecto-1 as her eyes and tutting fingers glowed black.
"You need a new logo...Azarath! Metrion! Zinthos!" She sliced the air above her with her glowing hands, slicing Violet's bubbles open like fruit, but leaving their prisoners unharmed.

Cloud and Judy stuck their landings.

Aladdin rolled out his carpet during his descent, stopping and hovering alongside Raven.

Brown, Worf, and Data were respectively caught by Batgirl, Beast, and Colossus.

"You are unusually large for an android," Data said with a tilt of his head as he was set down at the Ecto-1's rear.

"Unusually charismatic, as well," Colossus added. "Apparently,"

Nightcrawler vanished in a cloud of blue smoke. Another cloud appeared within the cluster of Experiments.

"Nala queesta!" 149 shouted.

Nightcrawler reached out, taking Stitch carefully but firmly under the arms.

"I've got you, mein freund!"

"Oh, thank you, scary smokey man!"

Stitch wiggled, loosening his his cousins' grip as Nightcrawler pulled him free and vaulted over 150.

"Hey!" 624 yelled, leaping after them. "Give him back!" She caught hold of Nightcrawler's ankle, vanishing with him and Stitch in another burst of smoke.

"Thanks for the save," Cloud said, landing beside Wolverine.

"Don't thank us yet, bub," the rugged mutant growled. "Any tips on how to get our friends back?"

"Get the scepter," Cloud pulled his sword from his back. "Get one of them through the chest with it and they're back to normal."

"You catch that, nightstick?"

"Loud and clear, shortstuff!" Nightwing pointed a baton at the Mistress, whose beam continued to feud with that of the Ghostbusters.
"Titans, go!"

The Titans and the X-Men charged.

The Mistress lifted a hand as her eyes emitted a fiery glimmer.

The walls reddened with a hellish horde of eyes, and the surrounding darkness split into the bodies of all of the Mistress' Heartless.

Matt took one last look around the console room, where the Ecto-1 and its passengers were surrounded by Heartless, and then opened his eyes.

"Chell!" He stood up. "Get me up there!"

Seconds later, the air in front of him rippled.

Matt looked up at the Genie, who grinned down at him with his sky-filling mouth. The grin was weak, but it scorched Matt like the desert sun.

In his mind, he was punching the Genie with more strength than the giant entity could ever hope to conjure. But Matt knew he had neither the time nor the power.

Yet.

Still burning, he marched forward. The barren room dissolved into chaos around him.

He had entered as if through the TARDIS doors, with the Ecto-1 and the intruders surrounding it ahead of it. Their backs faced him, and the closest was Worf, who exchanged fire with Ash Williams.

"I shall see you punished for what you have done to my comrades!" the Klingon roared.

"Try it, shitface!" Ash cackled over the booming of his shotgun-hand.

Worf evaded, stepping closer into Matt's reach.

Matt reached out, about to gift the Mistress' army with the strength and stamina of a Klingon warrior.

"Hold yer horses, hornhead!"

A blue-gloved fist seized his arm, nearly cutting him with its blade-like claws.

"Logan!" Matt caught Wolverine's other diving arm. "Punctual as ever."

"Whatever they've done to ya, ya still smell the same!" Logan's forehead struck Matt's nose. It hurt, but Matt tightened his fist.
"Spotted ya the second ya warped in."

"We shouldn't fight, Logan." Matt pulled, dragging Logan to the nearest wall. The mutant resisted, but Matt kept him at bay with a knee to the gut.
"Spider-Man and I are better with Mistress. We all are, and you could be, too. That ideal world that Xavier dangles in front of you; the Mistress can make it real. But she needs you to do it, Logan. We need you."

He pushed Logan's arm away, then reached for his heart. He could already feel it, hear it. It was much louder than he thought it would be. Probably, he thought, louder than Logan thought, as well.

Then Matt was on the ground, and Logan's claws chilled his face.

"I'd love to believe that, red, but lookin' at you, I can tell there ain't much real 'bout your Mistress' world."

Logan lifted Matt by his collar. The X-Man was fearsome, but Matt invited any violence that he wished on him; he could not truly hurt him without the scepter.

With that thought, Matt shut his eyes, stealing a series of glimpses around the console room.

Officer Wilde pounced on Judy, pinning her with his front paws, forcing her to keep his looming, salivating jaws at bay with her feet. The rabbit's eyes were filled with tearful hope, but the fox's were an unrecognizing red.

Aladdin had taken to the air on his carpet, pursued by Marty McFly and Buzz Lightyear.

He saw the Ghostbusters still firing at the Mistress, now aided by an arc of lightning from Storm and a beam of sputtering green energy from Starfire. With a consistent wave of her scepter, the Mistress collected each projectile into a pulsating cloud above her.

For a while, Matt felt at ease.

A cloud of smoke puffed beside the Mistress, and a pair of three-fingered hands seized her scepter.

"No!"

"Yes!" Nightcrawler and Stitch chimed.

The X-Man kicked 624 off of his leg just before she could sink her teeth into it.

Stitch leaped off of Nightcrawler, clamping his jaws around the Mistress' arm.

The Mistress screamed, 624 tackled Stitch to the floor, and Nightcrawler vanished with the scepter.

Matt blinked; Logan had him against the wall. He growled in an animalistic manner befitting of his namesake. With a double-booted kick to the gut, Matt put some distance between himself and Wolverine.

He seized the moment and searched the room again, his eyes adhering to Nightcrawler.

The teleporting mutant moved like a bullet, puffing from Heartless to Heartless, getting each one in the chest a microsecond after appearing in front of them. As each of Matt's comrades grasped the scepter, desperate to keep the filth out of their bodies, they were whisked to the Ecto-1.

Back to the brutal heat.

Peter.

"Kurt, you bastard, I'll...Never mind. I needed that."

Romanadvoratrelundar.

"Damn...What a drab state we've left the TARDIS in."

Ash.

"No! No! I need to stay! I need-...To get my new partner back, for starters!"

624.

She let out a blood-curdling roar, followed later by, "Ah. Feel good being naga mean."

Lara Croft.

"No! Get it out! Get it-Oh, thank god! After this, I'm taking a long holiday."

Captain Picard.

"Commander Riker! Get over here and help me...Data? Is it really you this time?"

"Of course, Captain." Data helped his friend up, then found himself in a tight embrace. As he reciprocated, the corners of his mouth curved slightly upward.
"And may I say that I am also glad to see the real you, as well."

"As am I, Data. More than you can imagine."

Matt was sweating; his stomach turned with each reformed Heartless. At first, he thought it was disgust, but he was beginning to worry that it was much more than that.

He returned to Nightcrawler, who swung at Bruce. The Batman rolled out of the scepter's path, then rolled back, his clawed hand reaching for Kurt's heart.

Nightcrawler teleported again, this time going for Jack Skellington, who twirled over the scepter in an uninterrupted dance.

"Aren't you a remarkable creature?" Jack tilted his skull as his body ignited with white fire.
"But so miserably wasted." He dove for Nightcrawler with an ear-splitting screech, but only passed through a cloud of smoke.

Matt's blood burned; somehow, he knew he was next.

He reached out to catch the scepter, and found his hands gloved by webbing.

"Open wide and take your meds, double-dee!"

Matt nearly looked up to curse Peter, but instead sidestepped out of the oncoming scepter's path.

He felt someone push him from behind; definitely Logan.

Before Matt could scream, the scepter was in his chest.

"Relax, Daredevil." Nightcrawler rested a hand on Matt's shoulder, his yellow eyes filled with undeserved hope.
"You are home again."

Matt wrestled with the scepter, but it was stuck in him. He reached for Nightcrawler, aiming to dig his claws into his neck and rip his head off, but the mutant backed away.

Matt felt like he was being cremated. His veins and his muscles clenched as he was suffocated by all the thoughts that the Mistress had saved him from.

There are other ways to see.

The people you murder deserve another chance, Frank. And if you don't get that, then there's something broken in you that you can't fix.

We all need men and women who are willing to take the fight themselves. The kind of people who risk their lives so that we can walk safe at night in our own neighborhoods. New York needs these people. We need heroes.

Nightcrawler's face and the war-torn console room blurred. Soon, Matt was left with nothing but the grating sound of clanging metal, the putrid smell of gunsmoke, and the bitter taste of sweat.

And Matt was thankful for it.

V

"Dr. Emmett Brown."

"Captain Picard."

"Lieutenant-Commander Data."

"Officer Judy Hopps."

"Romanadvoratrelundar, or Romana, if you'd prefer."

"Cloud Strife."

"Batgirl."

"Name's Rogue. We all best buds now?"

"It would appear so," Romana denoted.

"Swell!"

Doc stood in a circle back-to-back with his new companions. Though he felt reasonably safe between a cowled vigilante and a soldier wielding a sword as big as him, he knew he would never feel at peace until he had Marty back.

The chaos around him was suffocating, but he could make out pieces of it.

Beast Boy, in the form of a humongous green elephant, aimed to stomp on an acrobatic horned swordsman.

Nightwing was ensnared around the throat by Woody's new stringy tail.

Beast was entangled in the scorpion tail-like scarf of the snickering Doctor.

Stitch and his recently de-Heartlessed pink-furred friend hopped on the heads of their corrupted brethren.

But to Doc, it was all the same; Heartless vs. non-Heartless. It was all of immense concern to him, of course, but the first thing that stood out to him at each turn was that Marty wasn't there.

Finally, he stopped looking around and instead looked up.

He found Aladdin on his carpet soaring above the battle. Close behind him was the winged Heartless alongside another riding a flying board.

It was Marty. He only barely resembled the undyingly loyal friend Doc had come to know, and yet it was unmistakable.

Now he only needed that scepter.

A high-pitched, animalistic shriek seized Doc's attention. He turned and found what appeared to be a black-furred hybrid of a bat and a human. It kicked at a man donning an outlandish red-and-blue costume, who clutched the Man-Bat's ankle in one hand and Maleficent's scepter in the other.

Despite the crisis at hand, Doc felt a flutter in his heart with each new creature he discovered.

"Not a chance, Kirk!" Spider-Man declared. "I've danced this dance often enough with one Adrian Toomes! But I gotta say, he's nowhere near as handsome a dance partner as you!"
He pulled on the Heartless' leg, ascending and driving the scepter into its chest. "Let there be light!"

And there was.

Doc shielded his eyes, and when he looked again, Spider-Man's arms were around the neck of a more benevolent-seeming creature with light brown fur.

"Now, what say we pay a visit to your ol' pal, Bruce?"

The Man-Bat gave an affirmative growl, then dove into the battle.

Doc returned his gaze to the ground around him, and found his surrounding companions each engaged in their own duels.

Picard was grappled by a fuming Riker.

Data fired at a woman with the legs of a raptor, who moved closer with each swiftly evaded shot.

Judy once again had to pry away the jaws of her roaring beast of a partner.

Romana faced off with a long-haired Heartless; she appeared to be facing her own shadow. They did not move, but their eyes were dark and intense. Doc could tell they were battling, but in a manner he supposed was beyond his comprehension.

Cloud pointed his sword at a snarling wolf whose black fur was adorned with crimson patterns. The swordsman's eyes were heavy; something about the wolf frightened him beyond any protection his incredible sword could offer.

Batgirl caught the fist of what appeared to be a more hulking and twisted reflection of herself. As she threw its arm back, Doc heard her plead, "Bruce!"

Rogue had clasped Mulan's blade between her gloved palms, bending backwards to do so.

"Whew. Nearly broke a sweat there,"

"Perhaps I won't improve you," Mulan snarled, drawing her blade back with sinister speed. Rogue clenched her teeth and her fists, which dripped blood.
"Perhaps I'll simply kill you."

Doc reached into his coat. He knew that he wasn't as good a shot as Marty, but he comforted himself with words from Marty himself.

If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.

"Great Scott!"

A sarcastic shout deafened Doc as he was seized by the throat.

"It's the Doc!" Marty laughed as he zipped through the air, keeping the scientist in front of him.
"Just in time for his latest screw-up!"

From a distance, Doc did not think that this Heartless had fully resembled Marty; it was the clothes and the hoverboard that tipped him off more than the face or the posture. But now that it was right in front of him, laughing in his face as it shoved him around the air, it was the one and only Marty McFly. His skin was like a coal sculpture and his eyes seemed to be filled with blood, but it was Marty just as Doc knew him.

When Doc saw it, he died. He kept breathing and screaming, but he was dead.

"Marty…" he gasped.

"Relax, Doc! You get a break this time around! You don't have to run around thinking up some scheme to unscrew me! Finally you've screwed me so bad that I'm stuck in it for good!"

Marty dove, pinning Doc against the TARDIS console.

"I'm in a hole too deep for you to get me out," he whispered. "So now you can just jump in and join me."

"Got it!"

"Hey!"

Marty and Doc looked. Behind Marty, they saw Dante in mid-jump, swiping the scepter away from Spider-Man and Man-Bat, and landing on one knee in front of the Mistress.

She continued shielded the Ghostbusters' persistent proton beams, which now came from four directions. Each was paired with a protector; Ray with Storm, Venkman with Starfire, Egon with Beast, and Winston with Cyclops.

The Mistress turned to the bowing Dante, continuing her defense all the while.

"For you, my Mistress. And let me apologize on all our behalves for this mess."

"Do not fret, my dear Dante…" Maleficent ran her fingers through the hair between Dante's horns before accepting the scepter.
"There are obstacles along every road, but nothing will prevent us from reaching our destination."

Doc was fixated on the orb at the scepter's top. His ears were filled with a choir of weeping. There were voices of all ages and species, but one managed to stand out to him. He had heard it joke, sing, and proclaim, "this is heavy," enough times to know.

For the first time in his life, Doc did not think. He simply reached into his jacket, drew his revolver, and fired.

"NO!" Marty cried, shoving Doc's arm away.

They both looked back to Maleficent.

The glass orb on her scepter was gone. In its place was a roaring vortex spitting light of every color.

The crying became screaming, and it grew from an echo a deafening wind.

The Heartless screamed, too. They screamed as if they hoped it would kill everyone in the room.

"What did you do?!" Marty shook Doc, who barely moved.

The scientist felt cold. He felt sweat coating him, and his heart was like a volcano preparing for eruption. He felt like he should be dead, but refused to die until he was absolutely certain that Marty was safe.

"What did you do?! What did you do?! What did…"

The shouting stopped, and the shaking became squeezing.

Doc squeezed back.

He opened his eyes; he could not see Marty as they embraced. But he could feel him, and it really was him.

"Doc…" Marty sobbed. "I'm so sorry."

Doc exhaled, and then he sobbed, too.

"So am I, Marty. So am I."

VI

Cloud's Buster Sword was gone from his hand and his mind. If anyone were to steal it from the ground, he would not care.

The only care and thought that encompassed his mind was that he had Nanaki back, and he hugged him as tightly as he could to keep that thought cemented in his mind.

He shut his eyes, where the Heartless Nanaki waited for him with its icy eyes. But Cloud was not moved by it.

It was only a dream now.

Cloud opened his eyes. The TARDIS had changed. It had shrunk, squishing the Ecto-1 against the console, but it had increased tenfold in color and in beauty.

The room lit up to reveal a scarlet carpet and wooden walls, which were adorned with stained glass windows. Though they were only colorful collages, they filled Cloud with a fluttering warmth.

He looked around; everyone was doing just what he and Nanaki were doing.

Captain Picard's crew shared a group hug. Worf seemed conflicted; discomforted by the sentiment, but thankful to have his friends back.

Picard invited in one of the former Heartless. Cloud saw that she no longer had the legs of a raptor; only white metal boots that bounced as she walked.

A man and a woman were wrapped in the enormous arms of a towering brown-haired creature. It filled the room with its joyous roars.

Three of the former Heartless huddled together. Cloud recognized them from his first Heartless encounter. Now they were only a trio of exhausted adventurers.

The Incredibles clung to one another, their uniforms merging into a single crimson cloud. Their faces were filled with the most ecstatic smiles and the most incessant tears.

Stitch and his cousins rolled about in each other's many arms. Cheeks rubbed together, noses touched, and tongues went into nostrils.

Cloud was too relieved to be disgusted. If anything, the sight of Stitch giggling as Angel's tongue rooted through his sinus only warmed Cloud further.

Woody and Buzz embraced, then beckoned Mulan, Shang, Judy, Nick, Jack, and Sally to join them. Jack knelt down, wrapped his long arms around the group, and picked them up. They were alarmed for all of a second, and then devolved into laughter.

Nightwing and Batgirl hugged a tall man donning a costume similar to Batgirl's. He hugged them back in the tight but delicate way which Cloud had seen between several parents and children in both Midgar and Edge.

The X-Men huddled excitedly around their reformed friends, who included two red-costumed men and, to Cloud's bewilderment and delight, a reptilian beast in a lab coat.

But the tender moment was short-lived; Maleficent rose above the console, casting a shadow over her former and would-be Heartless.

"Don't think your problems so easily overcome."

VII

Aladdin acted fast, sprinting to Maleficent and showing her the end of his scimitar.

He was not alone; as he drew his weapon, a silver broadsword, a sawed-off shotgun, a blade of buzzing green light, and four proton blasters joined his scimitar.

"Bring it on, baby." Dante said.

Aladdin would have joined him in his banter, but his mind was smothered by an excruciating question.

Where was the Genie?

He had felt crushingly excluded as his friends reunited with their restored loved ones. It was not that he was not relieved that the Heartless had been rescued, but he was more worried that Maleficent had found a way to kill the Genie.

Or worse.

"If I may add, Maleficent," the Doctor began, strolling in front of Aladdin, Dante, Luke, Ash, and the Ghostbusters. He took a white paper bag from his pocket and popped one of its colorful, sugary contents into his mouth.
"Though we are all quite upset at your manipulation of us, the TARDIS is particularly upset." Keeping his eyes on the glaring Maleficent, he offered the bag to Ash, who took from it with his flesh hand.
"But there's only one in here more particularly upset than her."

The Doctor grinned, and when Maleficent's yellow eyes narrowed, his grin widened.

Aladdin wondered for only a second about what he meant, and then his heart sprinted with hope.

Then his eyes wandered to the console behind Maleficent; he could've sworn that the undulating translucent pillar in its center had been shorter a moment ago.

Maleficent raised her hands.

The top half of the pillar bounced into the shape of a broad-shouldered man wielding a club.

"And the Genie knocks it outta the park!"

Aladdin ducked as the room was shaken by a mighty whack! He looked back; Maleficent careened over the heads of her enemies, then crashed out the TARDIS door, which closed with a firm and satisfied slam.

Aladdin returned to the console, and found his friend in all his big, blue, bearded glory.

"Woah, man," the Genie shouted, stretching his long, muscular arms out, nearly touching the walls on either side of him.
"Never thought I'd miss the teeny-tiny inside of that ol' lamp!"

The next minute was a blur. Aladdin found himself in the Genie's arms, feeling as though he were wrapped in a cloud.

He had rehearsed this moment constantly in his mind. It hadn't left him since he had watched the Heartless smother the Genie from behind Violet's rolling force field.

It took him a while to realize that it wasn't a daydream anymore.

"Sorry I couldn't save you before, Gene."

"Oh, Al," the Genie said softly with a sniff. "I knew you'd do it."

The moment lasted for ages, and yet it still felt too soon when the TARDIS began shaking.

VIII

Out of everyone there, even those he had shared a hive mind with for the past several days, the Doctor knew his TARDIS best of all.

In seven (ish) centuries of travel with her, he had come to know every anxious beep, agitated whirr, and frustrated groan and what they each meant. So when the vibrations shook the console room and all of its passengers, the Doctor knew that it was not the TARDIS.

"Outside," he declared, holding his hat and running to the doors.

Romana was right behind him, then Luke, then Dante, Ash, Batman, and soon everyone stood between the TARDIS and the Delorean in the ruined streets of Midgar.

Ahead of them were six pillars of green flame. Out of each crawled a figure who was regrettably familiar to the Doctor and his fellow former Heartless.

"Whyyyyyyyyy," Zim shrieked. "Why did you put us back in these disgusting bodies?!"

"We were happy," Boba Fett snarled. "Actually happy! Why can't people like you just let people like us be happy?!"

"How horrifically selfish of you," the Master said as if he had just discovered that his pet had died.
"If you don't want our Mistress' gifts, then none of us can enjoy them. Is that it?"

"Typical," Vergil spat. "Typical, close-minded, stupid mortals!"

"Indeed," Scarecrow added. "Panicking at any sign of change or evolution."

"Don't think for a second that we won't make you pay for that," the Green Goblin growled.

"This time," Joker snickered. "You won't be getting the last laugh."

The city went cold as it was darkened by shadow.

The TARDIS' passengers looked up, discovering what seemed to be a black mountain growing high above even the tallest building. The mountain turned, and the air became scorching.

The heroes looked up at the blazing, sky-filling jaws of a colossal dragon.

"NOW SHALL YOU DEAL WITH ALL THE POWERS OF HELL!"

FANTASY, introducing Aladdin, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Toy Story, Mulan, The Incredibles, Zootopia, and Final Fantasy VII

Season 1, Episode 7

NEXT TIME ON JUSTICE LEAGUE INFINITE!

EVERYONE VERSUS MALEFICENT IN THE SEASON FINALE!