Episode 17: Honor To Us All:
Enchanted Dominion – Forbidden Mountains
August 17, 2015
"Anything there?" Mulan asked Mushu as the small dragon returned to the staging area after doing recon with Cri-Kee in the ruins of Maleficent's fortress. The Coalition military had received word from the intelligence division that remnants of Maleficent's cabal were taking refuge in her old castle in the Enchanted Dominion. Eager to stamp out the Hellfire Club once and for all, Mulan and Shang were dispatched with a platoon of soldiers to capture the villains. Upon their arrival, Mushu and Cri Kee had been dispatched to scout ahead and confirm that the reports were true.
"Oh yeah," Mushu replied as he climbed up in the saddle of Mulan's horse, Khan. "There were a lot of those little red monsters climbin' all over the place. And there was that big buff guy in red lounging around the throne room. Plus this big spider monster running all over the place with this giant purple lizard that kept disappearing on us and a big fat guy with a lot of eyes and crab legs." Mulan turned to Shang and nodded at the confirmation that Gaston, Randall, and Scroop were all inside the castle. With the rumors confirmed, they returned to their camp on the outskirts of the nearby forest to plan their attack.
An hour later, a group of nine warriors made their way through a network of tunnels Cri Kee had discovered at the base of the mountain that lead all the way up into the castle. Once they exited the tunnels, the strike team split up. Yao, Ling, and Chen Po made their way towards the castle's upper levels to disable any catapults and cannons that the Club may have put in place. Dilan, Aeleus, and Phoebus snuck into the dungeons to release any prisoners and attack the villains from behind.
Finally, Mulan, Shang, and Hercules went to confront the villains in the throne room. As everyone got into position, Leon, Yuffie, and Cloud marched up the mountain leading the remaining troops in a frontal assault on the castle. While the Leroys were distracted fighting off the attackers, the infiltration teams would strike. As the teams reached their stations, Mulan nodded to Shang across the entryway to the throne room. Shang nodded back and held up his hands as he counted down the seconds until the attack was supposed to begin.
When he reached zero, the walls of the fortress rocked as the battle began. The three-person team charged into the throne room with swords drawn, catching the villains inside off guard. Before any of the three villains could react, Hercules bolted forward and tackled Randall Boggs to the floor. Mulan took swipes at Gaston while Shang ran over and started hacking at Scroop's legs. Outside, pumpkin-shaped cryo-grenades from Halloween Town went off all over the citadel's courtyard as the main attack force stormed the castle. As the duel in the throne room went on, a large crustacean monster came charging out of the shadows towards Shang.
Randall recovered from the surprise enough to try to wiggle out and disappear, but Hercules managed to grab the reptilian monster's tail before he could go completely transparent. The demigod whirled the serpentine villain around like a while as he spun across the room. Gaston was quickly knocked unconscious, freeing up Mulan to take on Waternoose, allowing Shang to focus on the gigantic spider. Outside, Yao, Ling, and Chen Po fought their way down from the castle towers.
The citadel was sparsely populated, and after a few minutes of battle, Scroop and the remaining Leroys fell. As the strike team finished mopping up the remaining Hellfire Club forces, Mulan and Shang casually discussed dinner plans for the evening. Everyone from the Land of Dragons was upset by their inability to return home, but after a few days of mourning the fact that they'd never see their neighbors again. But on the bright side, they hadn't left family behind.
Mulan's parents and grandmother had accompanied her to Radiant Garden, and Shang's family had already passed away. Yao, Ling, and Chen Po brought along their wives, and everyone had brought the statues of their ancestors along with them. Now the five warriors were serving as soldiers in the new Coalition Army. Although they could never go back to their homeland again, the Emperor had had the foresight to make sure that when they left for Radiant Garden they brought home with them.
Interstellar Prison – Conference Room:
August 17, 2015
"To getting the so-called heroes off our trail," Maleficent said as she and her inner circle raised their glasses to toast their short-term victory. "Now that they believe they have won, they will no longer actively hunt us down, allowing us to quietly rebuild our forces in the background." Everyone in the inner circle nodded their heads in agreement.
"It's such a waste to lose such skilled fighters, though," Red Skull commented as he finished sipping his beverage. "The lizard's cloaking abilities would have come in handy."
"True," Cruella conceded before taking another puff of her cigar. "But the benefits of throwing those three under the bus far outweigh the disadvantages."
"Agreed," Hook added while slamming his trademark appendage on the table. "Scroop's only loyalty is to himself. He can't be trusted to hold our best interests at heart. Waternoose, Gaston, and Boggs are more loyal, but they care more about their own personal glory than the overall goal. In the long run they would only have gotten in the way. Better to cut off the dead branch now so that the tree can grow even larger.
"Wiser words have never been spoken, pal," Hades remarked from his seat to the right of Maleficent.
"Indeed," Maleficent finished. "And now that we have bought ourselves enough room to convince the Daybreak Coalition of my demise, we can begin our preparations for our next attempt at conquering the universe." Everyone voiced their agreement before they moved on to discussing the logistics of their next campaign of conquest. Between the Keyblade Wielders, Daybreak Coalition, Galactic Armada, and the so-called Avengers, there were enough factions willing to rise up against them that spreading their rule, let alone enforcing it, would require heavy duty weapons. Fortunately, Maleficent and the Red Skull had a plan.
Yao, Ling, and Chen Po being married is a nod to the Disney DTV sequel Mulan II. That movie isn't canon in TXW, but I liked the idea of that trio from Mulan getting married on their own, so I just inserted that as a nod. In regards to what the villains are planning. 3 guesses as to what it is and what it involves, even if the answer is a bit obvious at this point.
Next chapter, we get a look at a typical work day for Vanitas as part of the Daybreak Coalition's intelligence network.