A/N: I'll start by saying thanks to all of you have suggested/requested characters. Also if you don't see you character right away. DON'T WORRY! I have a list of them all and I WILL get to them eventually.
Chapter 2: The Escape
They worked for many long, hard nights…Well, not them so much as he. Dr. Hämsterviel was in his lab, jumping from one control panel to another; pressing buttons, flipping switches, and scribbling notes on dozens of random papers scattered throughout. Many of the villains visited, but only to watch in fascination of the quick, seemingly random actions of the small alien. He was clearly enjoying himself.
The lab is technically the old space lab of Dr. Jumba Jookiba, recreated in the Utilidoors for Hämsterviel's own personal area. It has been about 13 weeks since The Meeting, and there was visible progress (and not just the accumulation of clutter). The main chamber in the center of the room had a black splotch, vaguely forming the silhouette of a demon-like creature, in a strange teal liquid.
At that moment, all the members of L.V. strolled in through the door.
"Alright, why did you summon us?" Shere Khan asked lazily, resisting the urge to pounce on the hyperactive space rodent.
"As you are probably seeing," Hämsterviel started "the creature is almost done being created. But, I need the finishing touches—"
"Hay!" a deep, gruff voice shouted sharply from the hall. Recognizing it, they all groaned and turned to see a huge black cat standing in the doorway.
"You aren't startin' without me, now are ya?" Pete asked with a fake pout.
"Of course not, darling," Cruella De Vil answered sarcastically "we would never exclude you boisterous bottom from any of our truly evil plans."
"Good!" Pete responded, clearly missing the insult "Now, let's get this show on the road, runt." Pete directed his attention to Hämsterviel.
Hämsterviel started steaming again, but before he could retaliate, Judge Claude Frollo pushed his way in front. Obviously he was in a very bad mood.
"Just tell us what we have to do already!" he snapped. He was way out of his comfort zone. This was absolutely, horrifically wrong by his book. However, he felt that the Kingdom was worse off, and he intended to fix it, even if he had to bend his moral rules now and again. Hämsterviel was about to object when Frollo's deadly stare shut him up. He cleared his throat.
"Alright, see this funnel looking thing? This is going to be recording you voices. You click this little red button here and say you name, or official title or whatever, then when the creature is finished, it will recognize you and listen to your voice, no matter what!" he exclaimed with a flourish.
Frollo marched up, stated 'Judge Claude Frollo, Minister of Justice of Paris, France' in a monotone voice and promptly left, glad to be through with the task. The others took their respective turns with a bit more empathies (Pete took a very long time, wanting to include all of his titles) Once they were done, Hämsterviel handed out goggles and flipped a few switched.
The whirring of motors grew increasingly louder and the overhead lights flickered off, replaced with the neon blues and greens of the alien technology. The mysterious liquid in the large glass cylinder boiled, till suddenly the overhead machine activated, shooting a flash of lightening at the container.
Crash!
With a final burst of blinding light, the machines quieted and the lights went out. Everyone stood from their crouching position to peer in the smoke-filled container, which was illuminated an eerie lime green color from the dimly lit bottom panel. As the inner vents activated and the smoke cleared, a small, shiny black sphere became visible. After a while, the sphere shivered and expanded.
Two bat-like wings unfolded, revealing a soft-looking, ash colored interior. Under the wings was a large mass of black curly fur- No! Not fur, but hair protruding from a tight black hood surrounding the small head which now revealed itself.
Using the glass as support, the thing stood up to its full height of a foot and a half. It had tight, black boots which rose almost to the knee and looked freshly buffed. Over the black skin suit there was a light gray skirt, flecked with silver, which reached down just over the tops of the boots. On the hands were white gloves similar to those of the Classics (including the three seed-like black lines on the back) except they funneled out to the elbow like work gloves. The rest of the suit was surrounding a small, scrawny body, with the acceptation of the perfectly proportioned wings sprouting out of the tiny slits and a small, paper-white face, filled with the innocence of a small child. The hood hugged her round face just so; it was frighteningly similar to the basic Classics' outline. There was a small mouth, which held no expression at the moment, underneath a petite nose.
The eyes themselves, where one sees the expressions and characteristics that define a being, were cold and empty. Like black holes, they were void of…anything.
These same eyes examined their surroundings, including each of the villains which were staring intently at the new creature.
"Why does it look so cute?" the Queen of Hearts asked suddenly, snapping them all out of their stupor.
"That is one effect of all the experiments," Hämsterviel replied sadly "they are always, on some level or another, cute."
The other villains started talking to one another about the success (and appearance) of the experiment
"Quiet." Maleficent demanded sharply. The conversation instantly died down. She strode forward, and touched the glass with both freezing cold, green hands.
"Can you hear me?" she asked, almost whispering.
The thing in the glass took a step back from the icy, greedy claws, glancing at them nervously. It looked the Wicked Fairy straight in the eye, expressionless, and nodded.
"Will you obey me?"
After a moment's hesitation, it nodded again. The other villains, who had gathered around the clear prison, all grinned evilly at the response.
"This thing shall be most…helpful." She stated, satisfied. She and the others left, leaving the creature alone in the dark.
In a small voice, exactly like Alice's (only a little higher), she spoke.
"Help…full. I shall be…helpful."
Many horrible months later, she was tossed into her tiny stone cellar by Madame Medusa. Her back collided painfully with the wall before she fell to the filthy ground.
"Idiot!" she yelled "you can't do one simple task?!" with that, she slammed the huge wooden door and left without giving the creature her typical, meager supper rations.
That task, as usual, was not simple at all. Like all the other 'tests' she was given each day, it involved fatal tasks to be done, deadly obstacles, several timed puzzles, and a special, personalized horror made by that day's 'instructor'. After that, the Master watching her that day would either take the prize she worked so hard to get, or punish her if the task was not completed in time or to their standards.
For supper (her only source of food for each day), she was given a small piece of stale bread and grimy water. But most of the time, she received nothing, either because they didn't bother to remember, or it was part of her punishment. In the morning, she would get woken up harshly by a new Master and go straight to that day's series of trials, most likely perform a majority of them below the Masters' standards, and receive a new collection of bruises and scars.
She was about to curl up in a damp corner for another bone-chilling sleep, when something caught her eye. The door…it was open! She wondered if sleep somehow skipped her and it was morning already. No, through the hairline crack she heard talk of sleep and plans for tomorrow. Her mind whizzed in thought.
Chances: One;
Punishment If Caught: Great, but no worse than normal;
Possibility of Reoccurrence: Exceedingly Low;
After a quick debate with herself, she approached the door and peered out. The torches were very dim, meaning low activity in the area. She heaved at the door, but it didn't budge. She took a deep breath and used all the strength in her exhausted muscles and malnourished wings, accomplishing an inch. Luckily that was just enough room for her to wiggle her little finger into. From there she shoved it open just wide enough to squirm through. Once in the hall, she slinked cautiously through the empty space and searched for the exit, making random guesses and turns.
After a while of exploring, she rounded a corner and stopped at the sight ahead of her. It was a door unlike any she had seen before. It was at the end of the hall, with five steps leading up to it. The lowermost step was similar to the rest of the hall, but each progressing step had less black-purple and more of a steely gray color to it, and they became smoother, looking less like bricks and more continuous. The door did not have torches on either side like usual, but one harshly bright, buzzing white tube above it. Finally the door itself; it was not the rounded, heavy wooden door with iron handles as the rest were, but a smooth grey rectangle with a silver bar across the middle.
She stood in that spot not two seconds long, when the alarms activated. There was no room for doubt now. She bolted for the mystery door, hearing angry shouts behind her. She literally flew up the stairs, crashed into the silver bar, and continued as fast as her weak wings would carry her. Had she been able to hear above the pounding of her beating heart and wings, as well as the new sound of a droning machine, she would have heard the shift in her captors' voices.
As she left, the outraged cries changed to gleeful cackles.
She was tiring much faster, now that the original burst of adrenalin had worn off. She turned her head and saw a small, black, hat-like robot with a purple band and a bright red light for an eye. DOR-15 was quickly gaining on her. The escapee looked around at the blur of colors beneath her, and came up with an idea.
She sharply dove into a tree, zigzagging around the tightly woven branches which caught on her skirt and tore it in many places. The robot was stuck, struggling in the branches. She stopped, catching her breath. Doris seemed to glair at her with its cold, red, LED eye, and then it let out three short buzzes, like laughter, as it brought out a miniature circular saw. Horrified, she started flying off again, the robot close on her heals. She closed her eyes and readied herself for a final burst of energy as last attempt to lose her attacker.
But the droning was fading out to her left. She turned and opened her eyes to see Doris turning away. She faced forward again in time to see a beautiful, oval shaped stained glass window…
Right before she crashed into it.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of her crash. Behind the window was a wall, which she hit at full force. With a cry of pain, she fell to the ground. She was about to get up and assess the damage when that all-too-familiar buzzing returned. Thinking quickly, she painfully held her breath and closed her eyes.
Doris examined her, and crawled along her body. She used a great amount of willpower to keep from laughing. At last, the tickling finally ended and Doris made a few bleeps and whirrs before leaving. Once the buzzing was completely gone, she took a deep inhale.
BAD IDEA! Her chest screamed with pain. Fighting through it, she stood and took shallow breaths. Move, not safe in the open! She thought frantically, looking for a hiding place. There were only a few banners, (which were now torn beyond repair, thanks to her glass filled fall), a set of stairs going down to her right, and a set going up to her left. She limped up the dustier, faded stairway on the left.
The steps were so similar to the ones that she was used to, that she started to believe that this was just another trial or possibly a new branch of her Masters' caves, except, the stairs were covered with a once beautiful maroon rug, trimmed with a faded gold design. Eventual the stares led to a dead end.
She was about to head back, when she thought to herself. Why would someone construct a staircase to nowhere, unless there is a hidden doorway somewhere…With that, she looked around, under the carpet, and the ceiling coming up empty handed. The only thing there was a small, roundish suit of armor with two round plates on the head. The whole thing was coated thickly by dust, except for a large shinning ruby atop the sword hilt.
Curious, she pushed the ruby down. With a soft rumble, the knight's armor shifted over to the side, revealing a short set of stairs. When she entered the passage, the knight's armor shifted again, sealing her in.
With a gulp, she continued up the passage, arriving in a small cylinder room. There was a small chandelier, which ignited and illuminated the room with warm crimson light when she entered. On one side, there stood a neglected artist's desk, with basic supplies and a comfy, looking swivel chair. Across the room was a simple bed with neatly set white sheets, which were now graying from all of the dust. In between the two, was a good sized stained glass window, made up of beautiful greens, blacks, blues, purples, and reds.
Before she could investigate further, exhaustion caught up to her, and she collapsed in a small, frail heap on the spot.
A/N: How'd I do? Be sure to review! For those of you who don't know…
-By Classics I mean the characters like Mickey and Minnie.
-Alice as in Alice in Wonderland.
-Madame Medusa is from The -Rescuers.
-The creature has been trained to call all the villains 'Master'.
-DOR-15 AKA Doris is the Bowler hat robot from Meet the Robinsons.
-Also the suit of armor is supposed to resemble Mickey; sorry if that wasn't clear before.