CHAPTER 4: INTO THE PORTAL
Puck stood before Frollo grinning his trademark cocky grin.
"The Society of the Black Cross, and here I thought that Lord Oberon was mistaken. Here I thought that it was all paranoia, all fantasy and yet here you are." He looked at Ty Lee, at Jet's body, at Lumiere's, "Still killing children I see. Children and innocents." Puck turned to the Lyoko Warriors with a rueful smile, "Never willing to fight a leader and battle it out good and honorably."
Frollo spat, "Children and Innocents." His face was as gaunt and uncaring as always, "These are witches, freaks."
"And you are a murderer." Said Puck, he snapped his fingers and everyone around him disappeared in a cloud purple smoke.
Aelita had traveled this way before and she didn't like it. It was getting pulled into a very small hole, while everything else disappeared around her. But she hated having to put up with Frollo even more. When they had first met, she had replaced Esmeralda as the woman he lusted after and if that was not horrifying enough, she had pulled him, completely by accident straight out of hell. More or less literally. And in return, he had sworn to kill her. She could still feel his cold touch, he was wearing gloves then. Aelita wondered what Ty Lee felt when he touched her barehanded. She decided that she didn't want know. She tried to think about something, anything else, but it quickly proved a sorry chore. Belle's wedding had been ruined at least two people she cared about were dead, and her head was essentially throbbing from the pain of teleporting, and oh and in addition to the Separatists they had an evil group of civilians led by Judge Claude Frollo who wanted to take over the world. Under normal circumstances, this would be just a normal day at the office for the Lyoko Warriors. Unfortunately, Oberon wanted to see them as well and Krell, Tarlokk and Daala's coup had just been put down and they were to go to trial. And the group had already had as a good as agreed to attend a mission to the Separatist-run world of Barsoom in order to free it from Sith rule. Add that to the fact that their friends and families were in danger back on earth. Yeah this was getting to be a seriously bad day.
Nobody knew exactly where they going. Portals were by nature, tricky and unpredictable. Where they went, particularly when you had at least four separate places to go to. On impulse, Aelita grabbed Larana's hand with one hand and Jeremy's with her other. Larana grabbed Obi-wan's hand. Jeremy grabbed Aang's. Obi-wan grabbed Olivia's. Aang grabbed Katara's. Olivia grabbed Charlie's. Katara grabbed Will's. Charlie grabbed Tony's. Will grabbed Jared's. Tony grabbed Edien's. Jared grabbed Sora's. Edien grabbed Belle's. Belle grabbed Beast's. Beast grabbed Aladdin's. Aladdin grabbed Jasmine's. Jasmine grabbed Aurora's. Aurora grabbed Philip's. Kairi grabbed Alice's. Alice reluctantly grabbed Chip's. Chip grabbed Kit's. Kit grabbed Cinderella's. Cinderella grabbed Snow White's. Snow White grabbed Ferdinand's. Adam grabbed Evie's. Evie grabbed Michael's. Michael grabbed Robert's. Robert grabbed Missy's. Missy grabbed Sebastian's. Sebastian grabbed Tanya's. Tanya grabbed Carter's. Carter reluctantly grabbed Mio's. Mio grabbed Molly's. Molly grabbed Peri's. Peri grabbed Kenny's. Kenny grabbed Billy's. Almost instinctively, each of the Gargoyles grabbed on to Puck. There was a smell of pine needles and Aelita felt the ground coming nearer. Odd could hear the sound of the machines in Galactic City, he was holding Toph's hand, Toph was holding Sokka's shirt, Sokka was holding onto Suki, who was holding onto Jacen, who was holding onto Jaina, who was holding onto William, who was holding onto Lowie, who was holding onto Patrick, who was holding onto Ty Lee, who was holding onto to Mallory, who was holding onto Fidelio, who was holding onto Emma, who was holding onto Tancred, who was holding onto Lysander who was holding onto Benjamin, who was holding onto Gabriel who was holding onto Stragg, who was holding onto Inora, who was holding onto Irma, who was holding onto Cordelia who was holding onto Caleb, who was holding onto Taranee who was holding onto Hay Lin, who was holding onto Riku, who was holding onto Pence, who was holding onto Hayner, who was holding onto Olette who was holding onto Paton who holding onto Julia, who was holding onto Anakin who was holding onto Padme who holding onto Master Windu who was holding onto Master Plo who holding onto Master Fitso who holding onto Aayla who holding onto Orwin who was holding onto a ring of their mentors which was about a mile long. Azula grabbed Zuko's hand, Zuko grabbed Mai's, Mai grabbed Zain's, and Zain grabbed Azula's other hand. Ulrich grabbed Yumi's hand. Together they drifted through space. Ulrich was sure he heard the sound of the Boston Gondolas as they moved gracefully down the street. And that he could smell the pretzels on the street and the ocean, the beautiful, perfect, blue ocean. Boston. Home. Franz Hopper reached out for the hand of his greatest friend. Luke complied, grabbing Franz's hand in a fit of strength and tears with his other hand, he grabbed Ahsoka's, who grabbed Leia's, who grabbed Han's, who grabbed Chewie's, who grabbed Helen's, who grabbed Hakoda's. They were flying towards city sounds, but not the city sounds the others were hearing. Franz was sure he saw the New York Skyline. Quasimodo broke off from the others, he took Madeline's hand. Madeline took Zephyr's hand and Zephyr took Esmeralda's. Esmeralda was holding onto Baby Maria with her hand, but the baby reached out and took Phoebus's. Phoebus took Mrs. Potts' hand and Mrs. Potts took Cogsworth's. Cogsworth took Tahiri's. Tahiri took Nakin's and Nakin took Ben's. Ben took Vestara's. Long John Silver leaned on his crutch and took the hand of Fifi the feather duster. Jet's freedom fighters stood with them along with what was left of the Castle staff and Iroh.
He was the one who spoke, "What do we do now?"