Chapter 7: The Recruits
"What're we doin' here?" Oswald asked.
The Helper had led them back to Tomorrowland and now they stood in front of the first ride to their left. Space-Ranger's Astro Blasters was where all young Space-Rangers get trained under Buzz Lightyear, the space hero himself.
"We're recruiting a search party" Helper responded. Under her breath, she added "thought that was obvious…" she was still a little irked from Maleficent's surprise visit.
She stepped up to the large door and pushed the red button on the side. The lime green speaker above it crackled with static and squealed obnoxiously loud, like someone had dropped the microphone on the other end. She turned and looked at the toons behind her, who just shrugged. The crackling died done and a voice over the speaker was herd.
"Oops, my bad. I dropped the microphone" he gave an embarrassed chuckle. "So… *ahem* what brings you to the Space-Rangers Head Quarters?"
Helper cleared her thought and laid her 'I'm important' British accent thickly into the speaker "My fine friends and I are here this very night to request your humble assistance in the matter of the missing persons."
"…Huh?" the person over the speaker responded.
"We need help finding someone!" Oswald shouted over Helper's shoulder.
"Oh, we can do that! Wait a moment while I get the door open and—"
"Wait, wait, wait! Just what do you think you're doing?" a new voice was heard in the speaker. It was rather high and robotic, but still full of emotion.
"I'm opening the door for some toons that need help. They're missing someone!" The first voice responded.
"So your just gunna open the door to anyone who cries about a lost puppy? They could be spies! Or Criminals!" the robotic voice questioned.
"Well…they sounded sincere enough."
"That's how all the great criminals' sound, especially before they rob the place dry!"
There was a pause over the speaker; owner of the first voice had probably given up. Well, so had Helper! With a roll of the eyes, she dug in her pockets and pulled out the MultiTool. Ignoring Jiminy's warnings, she dragged a nearby trashcan over to the door and got to work on the top hinges. The voices over the speaker were fighting again, but the odd noises coming from the MultiTool made it impossible to hear. Once she was done she kicked the can aside and gently knocked on the door, tipping it over. Inside were the owners of the fighting voices, oblivious to the break-in.
"Well, did you at least check the surveillance cameras to make sure they aren't criminals?" the owner of the first voice was huge (in height and weight), bright red and he was wearing the typical Space-Ranger attire of a white and green spacesuit.
"Yeeessss, but there was no connection! They must have cut the wires so we couldn't see their ugly mugs!" the second voice belonged to a robot about three times shorter than the first character. He had treads for feet, a wide cylinder body, and a yellow-gold head with purple eyes that glowed with yellow L.E.D. lights. The whole head was somehow floating within his space helmet.
"Did they cut the wires, or did you forget to replace the camera's batteries, again?" the red guy questioned.
"Hay, that was one time!—"
"Knock, Knock?" the Helper interrupted.
"Who's there?" the robot and the big guy asked at the same time, now in the middle of an intense staring contest.
"It's the Helper of the Kingdom, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and Sir Jiminy H. Cricket, here to ask a favor of the Space-Rangers." She stated with a typical bow
"That's a terrible joke XR!" the red guy exclaimed.
"Well, good" the robot, XR, retorted "'cause I didn't tell it!"
"Uh, you know it's not a joke, right?" the Helper tried, and failed, again to turn their attention to their guests. Behind her, she noticed Oswald had also given up. He was observing the staring contest with newfound interest.
"My money's on the robot" Oswald said to Jiminy, who was still trying to be patient as he sat on Oswald's shoulder.
"Now Oswald, you shouldn't bet. It's not right." Jiminy scolded gently.
"Ah, you just know I'm right" Oswald bragged. Helper turned back to the argument in front of her.
"Then why did you say 'Knock, Knock', Booster? Hm?" XR demanded of his challenger.
"Maybe 'cause I busted down your door, so there's nothing to knock on now?" Helped suggested with a shrug of the shoulders, knowing no one was listening to her.
"Ha! You blinked!" the red 'Booster' shouted suddenly.
"So? My servos got tired, that's all." XR tried to explain, crossing his arms.
"But that means you blinked, and I won." Booster hopped from foot to foot in happiness.
"Oh thank you." The Helper said dramatically in a dainty little voice "would you kindly help me now sir?"
Her words fell on deaf ears all around. Oswald was starting to pull his out of his head, literally, Jiminy was ranting on about rights and wrongs, and XR was trying to explain the staring contest 'mix-up' to a dancing Booster. She heaved a sigh, delicately lifted her finger and thumb and blew an unavoidably LOUD whistle. Not only did she get their attention, but at the same moment, a new player entered the game.
"WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON OUT HERE?!" from around the corner came a tall, slender creature that looked like a human, except she had long orange hair and blue skin…and a very annoyed facial expression.
Everyone froze…that is, everyone except for Helper. With a confident smile she strode up and bowed once again.
"Hello, my friends and I just came to ask for some help." She said politely.
"And who are your friends and you, exactly?" she asked equal parts suspicious andpolite.
"I am the Helper and this here is Oswald and Jiminy" Helper announced as she pointed out the toons in question.
"Well, I'm Mira Nova, and I have a question…how did the door get ruined?" she asked.
Booster and XR started yelling over each other, pointing and acting out what happened, which didn't clear anything up.
"You know what, stop. Both of you are going to clean up this mess while I talk to these people. And no buts!" she added at the sight of two pouting faces. She turned and addressed the guests again. "Okay, if you'll just follow me inside, we can discuss things in private"
It was a short, business-like talk that took ages. Helper struggled to sit still in her seat and listen, and from the looks of it, Oswald was doing little better than her. It was a good thing Jiminy had come along; otherwise nothing would have gotten accomplished. When the meeting was over and Mira agreed to have the Space-Rangers search the Disney Lands, they had found out that Helper had 'accidently' locked them in. Mira easily ghosted through and unlocked the door from outside. That could be useful…the Helper thought as they left through the broken door that was still getting fixed by Booster and XR.
"That was so boring!" Helper exclaimed "However, we got two things done!"
"Two?" Oswald and Jiminy chimed
"Yup! While I was bored to tears, I started up a small list of people to ask assistance from." She explained as they headed back towards Astro Orbiter "Luckily some of them we can reach in the Disney Lands, so we shouldn't have to park-jump too much." she finished with a wave of her hand.
"Well, sounds like more of a plan than I've got." Jiminy stated
"Okay. Then let's get goin'!" Oswald cheered as the group marched off in the direction of Astro Orbiter.
They gathered most of the search party members surprisingly fast. They used a Door in Astro Orbiter to travel to the universe of Treasure Planet. After Jim Hawkins and his crew agreed to search the Cruise Ships, they asked C-3P0 and R2-D2 over at Star Tours to search Disney Hollywood Studios (after fixing Captain Rex and helping out the employee droids, of course). Then they headed over to the Lagoon of Tomorrow, hijacked a submarine, and (with about a thousand different challenges along the way) recruited Marlin, Dory, Kida, and Arial to keep watch on the various bodies of water involving the Kingdom (mainly around the Ships and Disney Sea)
They were returning to the surface in the cold, dark Sub, just getting over Bruce's attack (Dory had to touch the shiny metal thing and get cut, didn't she?). After a moment of fidgeting, Jiminy finally asked something that has been on his mind.
"Did you tell Minerva?" his voice was barely a whisper.
"What was that, Jiminy?" Oswald asked, barely glancing up from the controls of the Sub.
"I-I said…" he cleared his throat and tried to speak a little louder, "d-d-did you t-tell…*gulp*…" he wrung his hands, looked away and barely spoke. "Minnie"
If the Sub had breaks, Oswald would have slammed on them. Instead, he whipped around in his seat so fast, that his hands couldn't keep up and ended up taking the wheel with them. The Sub lurched to the left, sounding alarms and knocking everyone out of their seat. Right away, Helper clambered up and yanked the wheel back into position, flipping a few switches for good measure. Somehow, she was able to get the Sub under control again. She turned around (slower this time) to yell at the clumsy rabbit, but stopped short when she saw him. His face was riddled with emotions: Greif, Panic, a little Surprise, but most of all, Guilt.
"I, uh…um…" He gave up on words. His ears drooped, he looked at his feet, and slowly shook his head. He looked like he was a little kid who got in trouble with his mother. He brought his knees up to his chest and sighed dejectedly.
"Hold on," Helper butted in "you mean 'Minnie' as in Miss Minnie Mouse, of the Mouse Family? Wouldn't she already know of The Mouse's disappearance, them being…ya know…a couple?"
"Unfortunately, no," Jiminy responded miserably "at least we don't think so. She and Mickey are always so busy; we characters barely get a chance to see them as it is. And now with Mickey gone, she probably has to take care of some of his tasks, if the Cast Members can't."
There was a moment of silence as the realization sunk in. poor girl… Helper thought sadly it's no wonder Oswald hasn't told her. On the other hand…
"Well, I guess we know where we're going next, huh?" Helper said, turning back to the controls.
"W-what?!" Oswald scrambled up off the floor. "We can't do that! She could be busy, or asleep, or—"
"Or miserable. She has a right to know that The Mouse is gone, Oswald." Helper responded "Plus, it might cheer her up to know that we are doing all we can to help."
Oswald sighed and looked at the floor again, knowing there was no arguing at this point. He shuffled over and plopped next to Jiminy, defeated. He looked out the small window and thought; I sure hope she knows what she's getting into…
-Space-Ranger's Astro Blasters, a combination of Florida's Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters and California's Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin.
-XR, Booster, Mira Nova are all from a straight-to-video movie and a TV series starring Buzz Lightyear on his adventured in Star Command (Ghosting in Mira's ability to go through solid objects)
-The 'Disney Lands' is the Kingdom's 'mash-up' of all the Disneyland/Magic Kingdom parks around the world
-A Door is basically a way to get from the parks to the actual 'movie sets'. It is either camouflaged in the scenery or marker 'Cast Members only'.
-Jim Hawkins is from Treasure Planet
-Cruise Ships AKA Disney Cruise Line (Magic, Wonder, Dream, and Fantasy, in that order)
-C-3P0 and, R2-D2 are from the Star Wars series and Star Tours (the Adventure Continues)
-Captain Rex and Employee are both from Star Tours, Rex was the old pilot droid (before the new adventures) and the other droids are the ones working in the queue (old and new ride)
-Lagoon of Tomorrow AKA Mermaid Lagoon where the Submarine rides (old and new) take place
-Marlin, Dory, Bruce are all from Finding Nemo
-Kida (Kidagakash Nedakh) is the princess/warrior from Atlantis
-Arial, as in the Little Mermaid
-Disney Sea in Tokyo
- Minnie Mouse…her real name is Minerva, Minnie is actually her nickname!