Chapter 3: A Villainous Plot

To see Milo, Mickey had to travel underwater by submarine, especially since Atlantis was nearly hidden at the bottom of the sea. Upon his arrival, everyone had been down in their spirits the same as Mickey saw with Kuzco, but they were glad of Mickey's presence when he had mentioned what he really saw in them. Handing out the invitation, their spirits were lifted, especially Milo and Kida. By visiting the last three "outcasts", he had managed to lift their spirits (well almost all of them) by mentioning the same thing. He told them that the movie reviews didn't matter, that he and his pals were doing everything they could to settle things with Michael, and that they're still important to the Disney family. And no matter what happened on the day of their movie release, Mickey would never turn any of them away. Of course the cows hadn't been that easy to persuade, especially with the fact that they refused and rejected the invitation, wondering where Mickey and his pals were this whole time when Eisner used them for his own selfish purposes which lead to the downfall of Disney Animation and had people foolishly accusing the characters themselves for destroying the industry. But Mickey was not the type to give up that easily when he went on to explain what he truly saw in them that those movie critics didn't. Nothing would change his mind about looking out for those he cares about. And he even tried to convince the girls that we are all different on the outside, but it's the heart that counts. It didn't go well one bit and he was told to leave. Mickey sadly left the farm after leaving the invitation on the doorstep for Pearl to see when she got home. Knowing that this wasn't the first time that any Disney characters got mad at him, he knew it would be wrong to force them to come and hoped that the girls would come around soon enough. No matter what they said to him, Mickey still cared for them since they were his family after all. The girls turned around and watched as Mickey was now a couple of feet away from the barn. Maybe they shouldn't have rejected his offer like that when he was only trying to be nice. Still, how was going to a party ever going to change things?

Meanwhile as Mickey was still visiting the other four, a villainous scheme laid within the lair of Maleficent's dark castle. From inside, she and the other Disney villains were gathered for a secret meeting. All the most evil and sinister villains Jafar, Scar, Frollo, Hades, Shan Yu, Ursula, Cruella, Oogie Boogie, the Horned King, Captain Hook, Wicked Queen, the Coach Man, and all the rest had arrived to hear why Maleficent had summoned them here. As with every story, every hero has a villain.

"Why have you summoned us here Maleficent?" Jafar asked impatiently, staff in hand. "I hope you have a good reason to drag us all the way over here."

"Yeah, c'mon hurry up. I got dead people to look after over here," Hades added.

"SILENCE YOU FOOLS OR THE UNDERWORLD MAY HAVE ANOTHER HELPING, HADES!" Maleficent shouted for their attention.

"Whoa chill out there, sheesh," Hades rolled his eyes.

Hades and Jafar remained unmoved. "Now, it seems that a significant number of our nemeses are lacking confidence in themselves because they fail to live up to the expectations of a true 'Disney Hero'. And I believe that we can take that to our advantage to finally be rid of Mickey and his pathetic little family forever."

"Wait, wait, wait, hold up there toots. Who are we talking about exactly?" Hades questioned.

"I'm speaking for the significant group that has failed Mickey in living up to the expectations of a true hero, while being all the more foolish not to join us."

"Why waste our time with the little people?" Ursula stepped up using her tentacles as legs. "At this rate, we could already be fighting off Mickey right now."

"Patience my good woman, patience," Jafar intervened. "As long as that mouse's forces are still at his side, he'd outnumber us in less than a minute."

"Exactly the point," Maleficent added. "In order to reach the big top, sometimes you have to start from the bottom of the bunch. Now listen carefully…" she smiled eerily as everyone gathered for a close hearing.

Late night

Later back at the House of Mouse, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Pluto, Horace Horse collar, and Clarabelle Cow were cleaning up the house with the help of the magic brooms. The Disney toons were getting everything cleaned up and ready for the next Friday when House of Mouse opens up. And at that moment, Mickey entered inside.

"Mickey, you're back" Minnie rushed over to hug Mickey. "We didn't expect you back so soon. How did everything go?"

"Don't worry Minnie," Mickey tried to smile for her. "I settled the matter. So now we wait and see."

Meanwhile on Patch of Heaven

As the dead of night had already fallen on Chugwater, everyone who had fallen asleep never noticed or heard an eerie trail of black mist silently roll through town, heading for the town jail. In a matter of minutes, out came a fat cowpoke, three gawky nephews, and a tall dark man with a serious expression. The shadowy mist led the outlaws to the trail leading to the Patch of Heaven farm. From there, they stopped at the front entrance.

"You know what to do?"

"Don't I ever," whispered the fat one, rubbing his gloved hands with delight.

With a wicked grin on his face, he got down on all fours and snuck quietly over to the small shelter where the three cows slept heavily. Because the doors were locked and secured, he could only peek in through a small hole where he first viewed Grace lying on a pile of hay as she slept.

"Yuck, look at that heifer smiling," Slim snorted. "It disgusts me. Well she and her friends won't be smiling for long. Now how do I open this darn thing?"

Slim opened a small black vial contained with some kind of dark magic in which smokes of green, purple, and black flew out of the opening. Placing the item closer to the hole, with a puff of his breath, Slim blew the smoke inside and chuckled with delight as he watched the wicked cloud slither around the sleeping blond heifer. It waited until Grace opened her mouth to yawn in order to enter through there and inside her ears. It took at least a full five seconds for an unpleasant, nervous frown to form on her face as she moaned. It was now Slim's chance to act.

"Did you obviously believe that anyone could ever love a ridiculous heifer like you?" Slim whispered through the small hole. "Look at yourself, you're a cow. Who in the right mind would want a bunch o' stupid cows as heroes? You couldn't even please the audience as well as the mouse. You've let him down with your weakness and stupidity. Face the facts; nobody loves you any more than they love the real heroes."

Grace shook her head violently as she moaned, sweat seeping down her forehead. She would not believe what she heard in her dreams.

"This whole downfall happened because o' you. That's right; this whole mess is your fault to begin with. It's all your fault."

Those hurtful words in her dream caused Grace to toss and turn as if her stomach were on fire. When Slim was done dressing down Grace minutes later, he moved over to do the same to Maggie and Mrs. Calloway.

AN: Sorry for the long update. Had a few complications with the third chapter. And I couldn't go with seperate chapters on Mickey visiting the last four because he would only say the same thing with Kuzco. So had to move the story forward a bit. I'd like to thank yensid365 for heling me out on hints and tips for how the characters should talk and stuff. And don't worry, I will start revealing the other characters from Atlantis, Treasure Planet, and Brother Bear real soon and have them talk. I don't know when though, but soon enough. Once again, sorry for the long update. I hope I'm still doing an alright job with the characters' personalities. And I didn't want to make the story too predictable by revealing too much information. I wanted to make some small changes here because I felt the last few sentences of the paragraph were not convincing enough.