Chapter 13: The Work is Never Over
She felt a rough shaking on her shoulder as she drifted back into consciousness. She groaned and opened her eyes. All she could see at first was a large black blob with a white center. She groaned again.
"Come on, Oswald!" Helper closed her eyes and turned over "Five more minutes? Please?"
"You gotta wake up." Oswald said. She didn't move. "Alright, if you don't want to see how Mickey's doing..."
"Fine." She sighed. She sat up and stretched, letting out a big yawn. "But that means I get ten minuets next time."
She stood up and bent backwards in a crackling stretch. Rubbing the last of the sleep from her eyes, she followed Oswald up the pink stairs. On the walls were a lot of picture frames, almost all of which were filled with pictures of Mickey; by himself, with Pluto, with his friends, with Minnie. Only one or two had a picture of just Minnie.
On the second floor, the hall had more pictures, but they were very strange. Each picture was the same, but different at the same time. The first few pictures (and frames) were all black and white, the rest were in color. Every single picture had Minnie and Mickey, and a few friends, in the exact same pose. Some photos had the same characters, and later, that character would be gone. For example, most of the black and whites had Clara Cluck, but after one or two colored photos, she was gone. Only one color photo much later on had Clara again, but that was it. There was also a gap in the photo line; a picture frame with no picture. The second to last one looked like a cross between a cut and paste picture and a sponge painting, and it was the only one to include Oswald, Ortensia, and several previous characters. The last one was in pink tones and looked almost too fancy. They each had a year drawn on the bottom of each photo in elegant pink cursive.
Oswald knocked on the guest room door. Minnie's voice came from within, giving them the O.K. to enter. It was dark inside, the only source of light was a small table lamp. Minnie was sitting on a stool besides the bed. Mickey was laying in bed, still out. MInnie gave them a sad look; no change. Oswald shuffled over to the bed and and sighed.
"I'm sorry..." Oswald said quietly. "for everything..."
Helper slowly approached the bed and carefully touched his arm. All at once, the weird feeling in her chest activated again and Mickey's eyes shot open. He jumped out of bed and over to the corner of the room.
"Mickey!" Oswald and Minnie shouted at once. Mickey gasped at the sudden attention. Minnie rushed over to her sole mate, but slowed as she got closer. "Mickey?"
He stared at her for a moment, but went right back to panicking.
"Mickey, it's okay."
Minnie tried to calm him, but somehow got him even more upset. he moved his mouth like he was trying to say something. Now Minnie was starting to panic.
"It's fine, I'm here, it's okay"
Oswald was starting to freak out now too.
"Come on, Mouse. your fine now!" Oswald showed his confusion through anger "Quit playing around!"
"Why won't he talk?" Helper wondered aloud to herself.
Minnie was hysterical, Oswald was shouting at the both of them close to hysteria himself, and Helper stayed silent in the corner. The gears in her head worked lightening quick, trying to peace all the parts together. She mumbled to herself.
"He won't talk... He can't talk!" She shouted suddenly.
Everyone was still panicking and shouting. Barely thinking, Helper grabbed the pitcher on the side table and splashed water onto the group. Minnie and Oswald froze, but Mickey got even more panicked and started hyperventilating.
"THAT'S NOT NORMAL!" Helper yelled. She cleared her throat."Sorry. But seriously, something is wrong! He cant talk, he doesn't recognize either of you and a splash of water is freaking him out more that before!"
Minnie looked between Helper and Mickey. Oswald looked him over a couple of times before turning Helper and shrugging. Suddenly Minnie gasped.
"The Brooms!" She shouted excitedly.
"You mean the janitors?" Oswald asked.
"Well, yes. In Fantasia, Mickey played the apprentice of Sorcerer Yen Sid." She giggled at the memory, "He was the understudy because no one thought that the role would become such a big thing."
"Who was the main actor?" Helper asked.
"Well, it was going to be Dopey, but he had even less control of the Magic, if you can believe it." Minnie explained.
"Dopey?!" Helper exclaimed. she slapped her hand over her mouth in a failed attempt at quieting her laughter.
"Wait," Oswald cut in "what dose any of that have to do with Mickey and how he's acting right now?"
"In the short, Mickey enchanted a broom so that it would do the chores for him-"
"Didn't work out, did it?" Helper asked
"No," Minnie said, a little sad "when he chopped it up to try and stop it from flooding the castile, they just...grew. Like worms"
"Flooding the castle..." Oswald repeated slowly, figuring something out. "So I guess that explains the Water Phobia."
They looked over at Mickey. He stopped panicking, but he stood there and held his hands, looking between them nervously.
"Okay," Helper started slowly "But why is he taking this role so serious... especially right now."
"When a Toon is written into a script, it...well..." Minnie was at a loss for words
"It becomes a part of you." Oswald summed up. "Like a tattoo, or...a..."
"A memory, "Minnie said dreamily "A perfect, romantic memory shared with the one you love."
She looked over at Mickey, who smiled kindly and gave a little wave.
"Hmm," Helper tilted her head and looked at Mickey. "Is he stuck, then?"
"What do you mean?" Oswald asked.
"I mean, is he somehow stuck as this exact character?" Helper hypothesized. "If he is, then maybe you could somehow jog his memory. Remind him of other roles or moments that he's been in."
"How'll we do that?" Oswald asked "I mean, his memory didn't 'jog' when he saw us."
"Maybe we should try a role that was before Fantasia" Minnie suggested.
With that, she took a step back, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Helper watched as Minnie shifted in appearance, like Oswald dose when he talks to Julius. her dress shortened and faded till it was black with white polka-dots. Her bow twisted and folded into a small hat similar to Ortensia's. Her small brown eyes grew till they took up most of her face, but not in a monstrous way. She opened her eyes and gave a dazzling smile to Oswald and walked over to Mickey.
Hello She said in ToonSpeak
Mickey waved a little awkwardly.
Remember me? She asked. At least, thats what Helper thought she said (She only knew a few key words well).
Mickey squinted, not quite understanding.
Oh, Mickey, Minnie looked at him sadly, What happened to you?
'What happened?' Mickey mouthed out. He tilted his head.
Minnie lit up Uh-Huh!
Mickey pointed at himself and made his fingers run on top of his open hand: 'I ran'
"Did they put a Spell on you?" Helper asked.
Mickey shook his head.
"Do you remember us?" Oswald asked, putting his hand on Minnie's shoulder.
Mickey squinted at the two hard before looking at his feet, sighing.
"You don't," Helper stated. Mickey looked up at her sadly...apologetically. "But you know you know them."
Mickey looked up and smiled. Helper smiled back kindly and turned to Minnie, who changed back to her red-attired self.
"Minnie, you said that a script is like a memory. So that means that if something happens to the script, then something would happen to the memories, right?"
She felt a tapping on her shoulder and turned to see Mickey. Now that he had their attention, he reached into his robe and pulled out a paper that was a brown-yellow from age. He looked at it fondly for a moment before handing it to Minnie. She gasped.
"What's it say Minnie?" Oswald asked nervously
"'Fantasia, 1940, Segment #3, The Sorcerer's Apprentice'...Oh my!"
"Oh, What is it!" Oswald looked worried by her reactions.
"It's the Script! The original Script for Mickey's performance!" she shouted.
"Why's it so small?" Oswald asked, sounding a little contempt.
"There were no official speaking roles in Fantasia, except for the conductor. This Script mainly gives directional positions and the main plot." Minnie explained.
"So...Where's the rest?" Helper asked. She pointed to the edge of the paper where there were fresh rip marks, like it had been pulled out of a book.
"Well, this is the entire Script for The Sorcerer's Apprentice," she said sadly "But this was put in Mickey's personal Playbook."
"So he must have saved this Script specifically." Oswald guessed. He looked to Mickey. "Right?"
Mickey looked at him in despair and slowly shook his head.
"But that means..." Oswald said slowly.
"The L.V. Did this." Helped said darkly
Mickey looked to the ground and nodded. Helper started growling.
"Where is the rest of the Playbook?" Minnie said, trying to distract Helper from going berserk.
Mickey made the motion of pulling paged out of a book and tossing them over his shoulder, then shrugged.
"IT'S DESTROYED?!" Minnie and Oswald shouted at once, making Mickey shrink back and shake his head.
"Alright," Helper said after regaining control over herself "it's not destroyed...but...separated?" She asked turning to the Mouse.
He nodded. Again, he motioned tossing pages over his shoulder.
"And the L.V. spread the different Scripts all over the Kingdom!" She finished in excitement.
Mickey was nodding happily now. But then they both lost their happy demeanor as realization dawned on them all. The group of four all sat there a moment before Minnie voiced what it meant.
"Then that means we have to search the entire Kingdom for scraps of paper?" She said, uncharacteristically grumpy.
"If the sorcerer's apprentice had his Script, then that means that the other Mickey's might be out there, holding onto their Scripts." Helper thought aloud.
"Even better," Oswald huffed bitterly. "Now we have to find over eighty years worth of mice that are freelancing around the Kingdom!"
Minnie was about to defend Mickey, when the doorbell rang. Minnie looked at the group and shrugged. She left the room and Oswald and Helper followed, leaving Mickey alone in the middle of the dim room. He shuffled over the the bed and sat down. He pulled out the script from where he put it away earlier, and he stroked it lovingly with his thumb. He was literally holding his life in his hand; when his finger reached the tear, it burned him. Not metaphorically, but it actually left a small red mark on his finger. Cautiously, (and kind of stupidly) he touched the edge again. It still burned, but he focussed his small amount of magic on the spot.
He thought he saw something the first time he touched it tear, and he was right. Using the magic, he saw images zipping through his mind. A Memory Minnie had said. He was watching bits and pieces of his memories which must have rubbed off onto this Script from the rest of the Playbook. He pulled his finger away and realized his fairly obvious mistake. His finger was definitely burnt now, and the sorcerer's apprentice was going to have to face his fear of water in order to fix it...or ignore it.
He took the second option.
Minnie and the other two were only halfway down the stares when the person at the door held the doorbell down, making it sound more like an alarm.
"I'm coming!" Minnie shouted down the stares.
Minnie opened the door for their impatient guest. In the doorway stood Daisy Duck, looking as impatient as ever. Not only that, but some of her feathers were ruffled the wrong way and she was breathing heavy, like she ran all the way to Minnie's house.
"Daisy?" Minnie exclaimed in shock "What's wrong?"
"Oh, Minnie," Daisy started dramatically, "This whole night is wrong!"
She let herself inside, flopping on the couch. Minnie shut the door calmly and sat in the nearby chair, ready for the long, dramatic tail that her best friend was about to weave for her.
"Alright, Daisy, tell me what happened." Minnie said, handing a mug of tea to Daisy, who sniffed it and put it to the side. Helper and Oswald stood by Minnie's chair and listened.
"Well, it all started at the Seasonal Sale. the clothes were fine, but the service was slow and the other shoppers were pigs-Literally!-and the last lavender shirt was tossed around like a concert beach ball! Then these two kids threw a hat at me!"
Oswald and Helper looked at each other, confused. Minnie just looked board, used to the whole experience.
"If that wasn't bad enough, it got worse! There was this rattling and everyone came into the store, making me drop all of my clothes! Naturally, I had to tell off whatever toon caused the catastrophe, but this newer toon showed up and told me not to! Can you believe her nerve?"
"Was it Merida?" Minnie asked, obviously board by Daisy's pitty-party.
"No, she was shorter..."
"It must've been Vanellope than."
"No, not her either..."
"But those are the two newest girls I can think of. Unless you count Anna, but she's setting up a door in the Matterhorn to the Frozen world."
"No," Daisy tapped her chin in thought "She was in a red dress, one that Jessica would want mind you. She looked... like... You!" She said pointing to Oswald.
"Me..." Oswald said worriedly, grabbing his ear "Uh-oh"
"What is it?" Helper asked suspiciously.
"What happened next?" Oswald asked, ignoring her completely.
Like your getting off that easy. she thought with a cross of her arms.
"Well, the new toon... I cant remember her name... Anyway, she started yapping at me when I noticed..." Daisy lost the fight in her voice and stared in the distance. "The Hub... it's gone, Minnie. It got destroyed"
"WHAT!" Minnie shrieked at high volume, shattering a nearby vase. She turned to Oswald and shouted in his large ears. "OSWALD! YOU DIDNT TELL ME?"
"You didn't tell her?!" Helper shouted at him from the other side.
He grabbed his ears out of nervous habit as well as to cover them from the onslaught of noise.
"Well, you see, he... you know. Uh, with Mickey the way he was... and those kids...Wait! She already told us!"
"She did?" Minnie asked rubbing her head. she giggled awkwardly.
"Look, tonight's been awful stressful," Helper, the voice of reason, said. Daisy cleared her throat and wagged her foot, like she was tapping it (impatiently, of course). Helper cleared her throat as well and continued "and Daisy hasn't even finished the story. Please continue."
"Well the pilots of the Disney Air Force were all fighting each other-" Helper did a face-palm and mumbled something about knowing that this would happen. "And Gus was freaking out about escapees, and told me to tell Minnie or Oswald... So thats how I came here and started telling you the story."
"THEY'RE GONE!" Helper shouted, steaming up again. "So lets see, Maleficent destroyed the Hub, warped Benny and who knows how many other toons, the L.V. has scattered Mickey's Playbook throughout the Kingdom, and some random non-toon kids who I don't know if I can trust are running around the Kingdom. Not to mention the facts that we're late for getting home, Gus broke his promise of keeping peace in the flight crews, and I have to explain all of this to the search parties tomorrow night. And she threatened my family! There is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY that I'm letting that slide! Not now, Now EVER!"
She was past the point of no return. Not even Oswald could calm her down now. She speed out of the house before anyone knew what happened. She flew faster then ever before. This was the last straw; she was pure determination, and this threat from the L.V. was going to end.
No mater the cost.
A/N: This just got real! I hope you all are enjoying the story so far, and again my updates have been slow lately and I'm sorry for that. As always, your ideas and questions are welcome. Info Time...
-the second floor Photo line-up is like Minnie's personal timeline with her and her friends. The second-to-last was from the Epic Mickey series, and the last one was from their most recent 2D animations which are based on different art styles around the world (the first was French).
-all of Minnie's info on the Sorcerer's Apprentice is true (even Dopey!)
-Merida, the Princess from Brave
-Vanellope (von Schweets) from Wrech-it Ralph
-Anna is the main Princess character from the upcoming movie Frozen