Watched Hercules and his…. friends walk away, Aladdin couldn't help but smile, head already turning to Abu to say something about the incident.

And then he remembered where Abu actually was.

The smile falling from his face, Aladdin rushed back to the extravagant home he now resided in, racing through the servants' entrance and up towards his Masters' rooms. As he opened the door, he flinched as something flew past his face, a taunting voice in his ears.

"Someone's in trouble!"

"N-No, I- "

Aladdin winced as a bony hand grabbed him by the chin, turning his head to the left.

"What happened boy?" Jafar sneered, "You had one simple task and you couldn't even manage that, hmmm?"

Aladdin remained silent, keeping his eyes on the floor as Jafar continued, "No excuses? No…. 'Oh please Master, it wasn't my fault?'"

"But it wasn't!" Aladdin tried to protest, wincing as the grip tightened, "The vendor tried to charge me twice as much, and when I protested, he tried to chop my hand off!"

"You are my servant! You have that authority over him, why didn't you- "

"- I was going to, but Hercules interrupted!"

Jafar tensed up immediately, causing Aladdin to yelp as the grip on his chin tightened.

"Hercules…" Iago mused to himself, "… why does that name sound familiar? Maybe I owe him money or something."

"I'm sorry…." Jafar hissed, "… what was that name again?"

"Hercules. He managed to stop the vendor, but the man ran away before I could try and- "

"- Wait a minute!" Iago suddenly squawked, already taking off as he seemed to come to a realisation, "Wasn't Hercules the name of the kid- OH MY GOD!"

Aladdin watched in alarm as the parrot tried to make a run for it, only for his Masters' arm to seem to turn into smoke, it swirling through the room in order to grab the wayward bird.

He'd heard the rumours that the man practiced sorcery…. But he never expected it to be true.

"So, you took care of him, hmmm?" Jafar hissed as he pulled the parrot back towards him, "Dead as a doornail, weren't those your exact words?"

"Maybe it's a different Hercules! It's a very popular – Ugh!"

As Iago choked, Aladdin found himself wincing in sympathy, especially as Jafar didn't seem to be calming down. At a subtle gesture from the older man, Aladdin raced out of the room, thankful for the dismissal.

He would have been even more thankful had he known what happened int the room after he left.

"I…" Jafar began, frustration oozing out of his voice, as his skin turned blue and his turban seemed to catch on fire, "… am about to rearrange the cosmos…. And the one schlemiel who can louse it up… is waltzing around IN THE STREETS!"

Flames flickered all around the room as Iago seemed to split into two.

"We can interrupt his waltzing!" Pain nervously spoke up, as Panic nodded frantically.

"Yeah, I mean we made him mortal… didn't we?"

Hades was silent for a few minutes, before he took a deep breath, glancing around the room, wincing at the burnt fabrics. "Fortunately for you two, we have time to correct this rather egregious mistake… and the perfect person to do it."

…..

"Young man, we need a professional hero, not an amateur!"

The rejection was loud and clear…. It probably would have gone that way even if Phil hadn't attacked the large, bearded man.

"How am I meant to be a hero, if nobody will give me the chance?" Hercules sighed wearily, resting his back against a column and sliding down to the ground.

"You'll get your chance to prove yourself kid…" Phil tried to reassure him, patting him on the shoulder, "We just need some kind of catastrophe or natural disaster."

A tense silence fell between the pair, as they watched the crowd pass them. They were there for at least five minutes, before they heard a familiar voice rising above the crowd.

"Help! Please, I need someone's help! Please!"

"Aladdin?" Hercules muttered, straightening up slightly in an attempt to see who exactly was calling out for help, ignoring how Phil muttered "speaking of disasters."

Once he was at his full height, it was easy to spot Aladdin, trying to push past the crowd, only for many to push him away…. Thankfully, it meant that it was easy for Aladdin to spot him as well.

"Hercules!" the man seemed relieved to see him, finally managing to push past the last few people and run over to the larger man, "You need to help, please! There's been a terrible accident!""

"W-What's going on? What's happened?"

Aladdin was panting, clearly having raced from wherever this accident was in order to try and find someone. "On the e-edge of the city, there are houses that the street children use… one of the collapsed and t-they're trapped! A brother and a sister! They're not even ten!"

"Kids? Trapped?" A big, beaming grin appeared on Hercules's face as he spun around and lifted Phil up into the air, "Phil, this is great!"

"Ummmm…." Aladdin frowned in confusion, "… Hercules?"

As Hercules gently grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the winged horse, Aladdin followed on blindly, eyes widening as he was lifted onto the back of the horse, with Hercules climbing on in front.

"I hope you're not afraid of heights!" Hercules cried out, as they prepared to take off.

"No, actually I think is really EXCITING!"

Clutching Hercules tightly, Aladdin didn't dare close his eyes for even a second, not wanting to miss anything as he directed Hercules where to go.

Neither of them noticed that Phil had been left behind.

….

They reached the edge of the city in record time, where a crowd was already gathering, alerted to the place by the sounds of scared children calling out for help.

Hercules quickly dismounted, smiling shyly as he helped Aladdin off the back.

"That was… amazing!" Aladdin exclaimed, running his fingers through his hair to tray and neaten it, "I don't think I could ever just walk anyway again."

Before Hercules could answer, before he could even really think about asking Aladdin out for another flight sometime, he heard the children crying out.

"HELP! HELP!"

As Aladdin disappeared into the crowd, Hercules rushed over to the collapsed building, wincing at the amount of wood that was blocking the doorway, with only small gaps for oxygen.

"HELP! MY BROTHER CAN'T BREATHE!"

Hercules knelt near the gaps, peering inside to try and see them. "Hey, everything's going to be alright!" he called in soothingly, sighing in relief as two small faces came to the front.

Aladdin was right, these children can't have been more than ten combined!

"My b-brother!" the girl whimpered, "You need to help my brother!"

"I will, I will… are either of you hurt?"

Vaguely, he saw her shake her head, prompting another sigh of relief from him. Keeping one hand on the collapsing home as stability, he used his other to wrench the wood away, tensing slightly as the building threatened to collapse even further.

The strain was enormous, but it gave the children the chance to escape as the crowd begrudgingly started to clap.

"You're really strong!" the girl exclaimed in wonder.

"Yeah just…" Hercules tried to give them a reassuring smile, "… be a little more careful next time."

It probably wasn't their fault that they were stuck living in a place like that, but what else could he really say.

"We will!"

Using a sturdier piece of wood in order to keep the building up, Hercules slowly backed away, glancing around to see the children disappearing into the crowd, their bare feet slapping against the ground.

And people claimed city life was perfect.

….

"I still think we could have done a better job…" Iago hissed in Jafars' ear, "… We're good actors."

"It needed to be realistic."

"Master?"

Jafar instantly plastered a fake look of concern on his face, turning as Aladdin cautiously made his way over. "Aladdin!" he exclaimed in relief, "I heard about the accident, and just had to see if there was anything I could do!"

Any suspicions that Aladdin might have had disappeared, "I-it's all okay Master…. I managed to find Hercules. He helped."

"Hurray for the hero then…" Jafar sighed, "… Let us hope that he's not bitten off more than he can chew."

…..

Unaware of the conflict going on above him, Hercules bounded over to Phil (who was seconds away from passing out in exhaustion), "Did you see that? I think I did really well…. They even applauded!"

Before Phil could say anything in reply, there was a long, loud growl that came from the caved in house.

"I hate to break it to you kid, but I don't think that's applause."