A/N: This chapter comes with a trigger warning for suicide.
22. The Sky Is Never the Limit
It was not a beautiful day in the England ruled by boy king Arthur. It was cloudy and gray, and every so often, there was a rumble in the sky that threatened thunder, though no rain came.
In other words, it was the perfect weather for Mim, Aghoul, and Neo to take a stroll.
"Where are we going first, Mim my dear?" Aghoul asked.
"I thought we'd just walk around and look for things that could use a little more destruction," Mim informed him.
Neo nodded her approval vigorously.
They made short work of finding a field of wildflowers and withering it all to flaky black residue. This bored Neo, who made it clear through emphatic hand gestures that she wanted to wreak havoc upon civilization, and she wanted it now.
"All right, all right!" Mim resolved. "We'll go find a lovely village to burn to the ground!"
The trio located a road and began to walk it, scanning the horizon for rooftops. After a while, there came a traveler headed in the opposite direction: a bard with a lute strapped across his back. "Good morning, fellow travelers!" he greeted with a friendly wave. "Where are you headed?"
"We're just out for an adventure, wherever that takes us!" Aghoul answered.
"Adventurers, eh?" the bard replied with a raised eyebrow. "That's my favorite sort of person to write ballads about, you know. Quests by noble heroes to discover fabulous lands and vanquish horrible villains. Perhaps your tale will be one I write about!"
"Ooh!" an idea occurred to Mim. "What sort of villains do you write about?"
"Only the most horrendous ne'er-do-wells to ever plague England!" the bard confirmed.
If that was true, Aghoul wondered, how had this young man not recognized Mim on sight?
But she was convinced she was somewhere in the musician's library of tales. "If you would please," she said sweetly, "we would love to hear anything you've written about the most hated and disgusting villain you can think of!"
"Oh, I know JUST the song for you!" The bard removed the lute from his back, positioning it out front for playing. "This is the tale of one of Merlin's many clashes with his infamous archnemesis! I think you know who I'm talking about!"
"I'm sure I do!" Mim squealed.
The bard cleared his throat, strumming a few chords to get into key. Then he began to sing:
"Of wizards of might and wielders of light,
Few measure up to Merlin!
For he could approach the Fates' tapestry
And redo all their knitting and purling!
But darkness and dread came down on his head
One frightening and ill-boding day!
For the skies, they did darken, as if to hearken
The arrival of Morgana le Fay!
As Morgana – "
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Mim screeched, interrupting the song.
"I, er…it was Morgana le Fay," the bard stated, surprised he'd been halted. He'd thought this song was one of his better works, himself, and he was only just getting started. "This is the tale of the day Merlin first met her and she became his most hated rival, and the first of many, many times Merlin saved England from her dark – "
"MORGANA LE FAY, YOU SAY?" Mim yelled. "MORGANA LE FAY! MERLIN'S ARCHNEMESIS!"
"Why, yes," the bard replied, beginning to get worried. No one had ever reacted this way to one of his tales before.
"WHAT ABOUT THE MAGNIFICENT, MARVELOUS MAD MADAM MIM?" Mim pressed. "WHAT OF HER, EH?"
"Mad Madam Mim?" the bard responded. "I…think I've heard that name. Oh, yes, I think she's dueled with Merlin once or twice. It wasn't quite ballad material – "
Mim very nearly destroyed the man on the spot, but she gritted her teeth, looking from Aghoul to Neo. It wouldn't be very fair of her not to share, after all. "Shall we?" she asked.
Aghoul's scythe and Neo's blade made themselves visible, and the bard came to realize that somewhere along the line, he'd made a terrible mistake.
The trio left the bard in considerably more pieces than they'd found him in, but that did little to quell Mim's rage. "There isn't any possible way this 'Morgana le Fay' has done worse to this world than I have!" she seethed.
"Perhaps he was simply mistaken," Aghoul suggested. "Or an idiot. Let's not let this ruin our wonderful outing, shall we? You barely seemed to enjoy that last dismemberment."
"You're right," Mim huffed. "I'm far more Merlin's rival than some witch I've never heard of. If she's even a witch. For all we know, she doesn't even have any magnificent powers."
We would know, Aghoul thought, if you had let us hear more of the song. Not that it wasn't worth it.
Finally, the triad reached a small village, which was in the midst of a celebration. Multicolored banners were hung throughout the streets, and a multitude of people danced to live music in the town square. Candies and treats of all varieties were being distributed from stands at the edge of the festivity.
"See, here?" Aghoul gestured out over the square of dancers. "This is the PERFECT party to ruin! We could really kill tonight, if you know what I mean!"
"What should we do first?" Mim wondered out loud. "Oh, oh, I know!" Within a minute, she'd purchased a candied apple from a vendor, only to rot it on the inside and pass it off to an unsuspecting child. Neo swiped a different candied apple from one even younger, dealing her a swift kick when she started crying.
Aghoul tapped one of the dancers on the shoulder. "Pardon me," he asked, "but what exactly is all this…liveliness about?"
"You don't know?" The woman he'd signaled was astonished. "Merlin saved our village from the clutches of Morgana le Fay herself! If it wasn't for him, we'd all be toast!"
Aghoul and Neo both looked immediately to Mim, wondering if she'd heard.
The look on her face revealed that she had. And she was turning quite the bright shade of magenta.
The three villains left that town in a good deal more flames than they'd found it.
"Coincidence?" Aghoul suggested.
"IT HAD BETTER BE!" Mim practically roared.
Their path finally took them to what had once been a village, but was now a wasteland of wreckage and shrapnel. Homes and shops had been flattened into piles of wooden and rocky rubble. It was one of the most depressing things any of the three had seen, for the simple reason that there was absolutely nothing left for them to destroy.
"Well," Aghoul remarked, "it seems someone beat us…to…the…fun…"
He realized what he was saying midsentence.
Neo shook her head, eyes wide with horror.
There was a rustling sound coming from one of the wrecked homes, followed by a weak voice whimpering, "Please…help me…"
Mim, Aghoul, and Neo all turned to see a bruised and battered man crawling from the debris, wincing with pain with every move he made.
"YOU." Mim stormed over to the survivor, reaching down to grab his collar with both hands and yank his head upward to face her. "WHAT HAPPENED HERE?" Smoke literally wafted out of her ears.
"A cyclone," the survivor responded, close to tears. "M-Morgana le Fay brought down a cyclone, and it destroyed…everything…"
Mim's first instinct was to kill the man then and there, and Aghoul and Neo both thought she was about to do it. But she hesitated, motivated by a sudden revelation: she needed information. "Tell me," she said sweetly, "where might I find this…Morgana le Fay?"
"They say wherever Merlin goes, she follows," the man gasped. "If only he'd been here when the cyclone touched down…then maybe we…"
"Well, you know what they say about ifs and ands!" Mim cackled, her shape morphing into that of an Ursa.
Besides mauling the survivor, there wasn't much that Mim, Aghoul, and Neo could do to leave the village in worse shape than they'd found it, but they kicked around a few stones and loose boards anyway.
"Well, I don't know about you, but I think what we do next is obvious," Aghoul said with a smile.
"We make sure Merlin only DOES have one archnemesis, now and forever," Mim growled. "First, we find this…Morgana le Fay. And then…"
Neo drew her finger across her neck with a gleeful leer.
...
A Corridor of Darkness opened in the atrium of the Twilight Town manor, depositing Mozenrath, Snatcher, and Vexen in their lair.
"Rally the troops," Mozenrath ordered.
They fanned out. Vexen made for the laboratory, Mozenrath for the upper level, and Snatcher for the lounge.
Snatcher was the first to find who he was looking for; Roman was practicing trick shots on a pool table that took up a good percentage of the room. At first, Snatcher was confused; "Where did you come by a pool t…oh, right, of course. Miss Wuya."
Roman guided the cue behind his back, knocking a ball into a crowd of other spheres that were shoved in the direction of several pockets; five of them sank. "Sooooooooo," Roman asked, "how'd the recon go? Find anything good?"
"What would you say," Snatcher proposed, leaning one hand on the pool table, "if I told you that you potentially had the opportunity to pilot a warship the size of a small kingdom?"
Roman's eyes were practically luminous. "I'd say you BETTER not be joking."
Downstairs, in the laboratory, Yzma had spread out equipment all over the floor, covering both her side of the room and Vexen's. "You know," Wuya observed from where she was sitting on one of the countertops, swinging her legs idly, "when Vexen comes home, he's going to turn you into a popsicle for crossing the glitter line."
"Oh, hush, you," Yzma replied from where she was on her hands and knees on the floor, gently administering liquid into a beaker from an eyedropper. "He should KNOW by now I need more room than this for the more complex potions!"
As footsteps announced Vexen's presence, Wuya teased, "Busted."
As Vexen entered the room, he failed to notice that his foot had landed on and crushed a flask of potion-in-progress. "Yzma!" he barked as a cloud of pink smoke curled up around him and swallowed him whole. "Ah, and Wuya. You're here as well. Perfect."
The two women watched in stark surprise as the smoke cleared. Where Vexen had been now stood a pale-gold-colored penguin sporting blonde locks and brilliant green eyes. Yzma and Wuya waited for him to notice and unleash his icy fury.
"We've found something of interest in Atmos," he related calmly. "Not only is the crystal there we require for the Element of Air in our conquest spell, but there is apparently an abandoned warship left over by the previous devastators of that world. Though I am still suspicious as to why no one has come to claim it before us. Whatever the case may be, we are going to retrieve that ship, and we need as many hands on its deck as we can muster."
Yzma and Wuya stared blankly, waiting to see if Vexen would realize his penguin-ness. When seconds passed and he didn't, Yzma piped in: "I have one question."
"What is it?" Vexen sighed.
"Does this warship have turret guns?"
"Most likely," Vexen answered.
"Then I'm in," Yzma proclaimed.
Vexen turned his beak to Wuya. "Wuya?"
"It sounds like a recipe for wanton destruction and panic in the streets." Wuya grinned toothily. "I'm in."
"Very well." Vexen turned to leave the room. Then a realization struck him, and he turned back around in a furor. "YZMA!"
Yzma and Wuya braced themselves for it.
"WHAT have I told you about keeping your equipment on YOUR side of the laboratory? I expect you to have this all cleaned up IMMEDIATELY!" With that, the penguin that was Vexen turned on a heel and stormed away, still unaware of his own transformation.
Yzma and Wuya gaped at the door where he'd left in disbelief before erupting into loud, raucous laughter.
Mozenrath found the Huntsman in the latter's bedchamber, taking advantage of the momentary quiet to read a book. Quiet, of course, wasn't something easily come by among present company, not even when they could spread out across the entirety of a subterranean kingdom. In the Twilight Town manor, it was even more of a rarity. When Mozenrath approached, he looked up from his tome. "What did you find?" he asked in an even tone.
"We don't have the crystal yet," Mozenrath told him, "but we know where it is. More importantly, we may not have to share these close quarters for much longer."
"You've found us an alternate base of operations," the Huntsman deduced.
"That I have," Mozenrath confirmed. "We still have yet to claim it and make it functional, but we have our sights set on a target. Turns out Atmos' former warlord misplaced a kingdom-sized battleship in the wastelands, and you know what they say: finders keepers, losers weepers."
"I take it you're assembling a small army to commandeer this battleship," the Huntsman replied.
"A small WHAM ARMY, yes."
"I look forward to the result."
"You say that like you're not going to be there," Mozenrath accused.
"One of us must stay behind to protect the base of operations we currently have," the Huntsman explained.
"It's well protected enough," Mozenrath argued, somewhat crestfallen at the Huntsman's statement. "I've put up magical protection spells, and if all else fails, we have locks."
"It's still a big risk. Especially while the components of our spell are here. I do not wish to go chasing one artifact only to lose the four we have."
Mozenrath very nearly pouted. "I said it was a kingdom-sized battleship," he insisted. "We need all hands on deck. For all we know, it takes ten people to pilot."
"I get the sense you're simply attempting to get me to come along on your adventure for its own sake," the Huntsman observed.
Mozenrath rolled his eyes. "Vexen and Snatcher would have a few things to say about subtlety right about now that I don't want to hear."
"I realize you've come to see this alliance as something more than merely that: an alliance," the Huntsman stated calmly. "However, that is all it is. We must prioritize our mission above acquainting ourselves with each other further or participating in frivolities. I suppose that disappoints you."
"As your commander," Mozenrath said sternly, "I could order you to follow us to Atmos."
"I suppose you could. Are you going to?"
There was a heavy silence. Mozenrath broke it; "Between that attitude and that helmet, sometimes it's easy to forget you're human."
"And I suppose that's meant to offend me?"
"It was meant to be an observation."
There was another moment of silence before the Huntsman placed a bookmark in his book and set it on a nearby table. "Though I suppose it would be in my best interests to go with you after all. Before you say anything, it's only because causing dissent among this faction is something I'd rather avoid above all else."
"That works for me," Mozenrath replied casually before turning and stalking from the room, sweeping his cape dramatically on the way out.
The Huntsman wondered why he felt it necessary to flaunt that cape every time he left a room. He couldn't tell whether it was frustrating or endearing when it came to his perception of his leader.
Vexen eventually figured out he had been transformed into a penguin, and demanded a reversal, which was quickly administered by Yzma. Mozenrath, the Huntsman, Vexen, Yzma, Wuya, Roman, and Snatcher gathered in the atrium of the manor.
"Is everyone accounted for?" Yzma asked.
"Not Mim, Aghoul, or Neo," Mozenrath pointed out.
"They're out on their own quest," Roman explained.
"We're never going to hear the end of it that we took over a warship without them, are we?" Mozenrath groaned.
"They should be fine so long as we let them play with the guns," Wuya stated.
"Um, the onboard guns are MINE," Roman interjected.
"I call dibs on at least one turret gun!" Yzma cried.
"There will be ENOUGH GUNS FOR EVERYONE!" Mozenrath yelled. "Now, are we ready to move out, or not?"
"This is your last chance for a bathroom break," Yzma added.
With no objections, Mozenrath created a large Corridor, and the team filed through. The Corridor disappeared as soon as they had all crossed over to Atmos.
Xerxes flew excitedly into the foyer, having heard the vestiges of his master's voice. "Mozenrath!" he cried in greeting. He looked around to see no one there. "…Snatcher?" He flew in and out of a few rooms. "Vexen?" He gloomily glid back into the atrium, getting the feeling he'd been left behind again. "…Anyone?"
...
Neo and Aghoul watched Mim prepare a crude potion within her cramped hut. "This locator spell should let us find where this MORGANA LE FAY is hiding!" Mim cackled as she crunched up dust with a pestle and emptied it into a bubbling cauldron over the fire.
"Doesn't a locator spell need something that belongs to the person you're looking for?" Aghoul pointed out. "Though I suppose we could always use your reputation."
This earned him a stomp on the foot from Mim, which Neo found hilarious.
"We don't need anything from Morgana, remember?" Mim pointed out. She removed a small golden ring from an upper shelf. "That peasant said wherever Merlin goes, she follows. This belonged to Merlin before I stole it off him during a duel, and it should lead us to wherever he is right now!"
"And if Morgana is a no-show?" Aghoul asked.
"Then we get Merlin to talk about where she is," Mim stated wickedly. "Between the three of us, we could get him to say a lot!"
Neo nodded her affirmation of this statement.
Mim dipped the ring into the cauldron, then held it aloft. It jerked free from her fingers, levitating in the air for half a minute. It then shot out the window. Mim, Aghoul, and Neo all crowded around to watch the ring careen directly up into the sky until it disappeared.
"And that means…what?" Aghoul asked.
"That he's not on this world," Mim huffed. "Well, looks like we'll have to try his other hideouts. Good thing I know all of them! I bet MORGANA doesn't have a list of all the worlds Merlin has houses on!" She cast a Corridor in the middle of the hut. "First stop: Traverse Town!"
...
Stork gradually came to, feeling the hard earth beneath his back and his parachute draped around him like a blanket. For a moment, he thought he was safely in bed. Then his memory returned to him all at once, and he snapped awake, kicking the parachute away.
He looked around at his surroundings. Glowing crystals were half buried in the dirt everywhere he looked. The Far Side was divided into Terras just as the side Stork had once called home was, and this particular one was familiar to him as Terra Lumina. Though such an identification hardly mattered at this time.
Everything was gone.
The Condor, Stork's love and joy, was now wreckage and shrapnel. Looking closer, he could see a few shards of the metal buried in the ground around him. The last time it had been obliterated, he'd had it rebuilt, but he didn't know where on the Far Side he could have that done. Terra Lumina didn't have a facility for shipbuilding; only repair. Terra Valhalla would have been Stork's best bet, but he had no skimmer with which to get there.
Then again, he wasn't even sure if there was a point to rebuilding the ship. Its crew was also gone. He couldn't imagine that any of the others – Aerrow, Finn, Piper, Junko, Radarr – would have survived.
Thinking about the explosion made Stork aware that several patches of his skin ached horribly; he looked over them to find vivid burn marks.
What did he have left, now that the Storm Hawks were all – he hated to think of the word – dead? No friends. No ship. He was all alone.
He'd landed close to the edge of the Terra. Stork heaved himself to his feet and took a few ginger steps toward the cliff side until he was able to see straight down the drop into the wastelands. He unbuckled his parachute from his back as he stared.
They were gone.
There was nothing left.
If there was nothing left, why should Stork remain? It would only take a simple step over the edge and he would no longer be alone in an empty world devoid of all he loved. Perhaps there really was a place, he thought, where the dead went when they left the land of the living. Just another side of the Atmos. Maybe he'd be able to see them all there.
He closed his eyes and took the single step, letting his body pitch over the edge.
Immediately, he was seized from behind; a pair of incredibly bony hands wrapped around his forearms and jerked him back to balance on the cliff. "THAT WAS CLOSE!" a gratingly loud voice announced. "YOU VERY NEARLY FELL OVER THE EDGE!"
Stork whipped around angrily to face the person who'd grabbed him; "That's what I was TRYING to d – "
He locked eyes with a skull, fleshless save for two eyeballs set in the sockets.
Stork let out a scream of terror, shoving the skeleton away. His survival instincts drove him to run away from the edge of the Terra; his feet tangled in the ropes of the parachute and he tripped, falling flat and hitting hard.
"Um…are you okay?" This feminine voice was accompanied by a pale hand, protruding from a black and red sleeve, extending down into Stork's field of vision.
Stork merely squeaked and curled up into a sitting position, hugging his knees. He looked up to get a better view of the one who'd offered him a hand: a girl, about the same age as Aerrow, dressed in black and red. A spiky-haired brunette boy with a similar color scheme stepped into view next to her.
"I…don't think he's okay," Sora told Ruby and Papyrus, the latter of whom stepped in closer to complete the circle around Stork.
"This isn't happening," Stork muttered to himself. "None of this is happening. This is all a nightmare."
"What's wrong?" Ruby asked, growing ever more concerned, as were her two fellows. "Do you wanna talk about it?"
"They're gone," Stork whimpered. "They're all gone. My ship, everyone…" His voice cracked. "Everyone on it…" He steeled himself. "You should have just let me fall. I have nothing left to live for."
"WHAT?" Ruby, Sora, and Papyrus cried in unison.
"I SAID – "
"We heard you," Ruby said quickly to cut Stork off.
"What happened?" Sora asked, already knowing a terrible tale was coming.
"We were chasing Master Cyclonis," Stork explained breathlessly, his anxiety growing all the more as time passed that found him still alive. "She stole another crystal, and we were trying to get it back. All of a sudden, three people showed up out of nowhere on a rock that was floating in the air, and the next thing I knew, the ship…the ship!"
"WHAT DID THEY DO TO YOUR SHIP?" Papyrus inquired.
"It blew up in a green inferno," Stork muttered, really wishing these three would mind their own business, leave him alone, and let him die.
"Wait…" Sora was beginning to form a theory. "What did these three people look like?"
"I don't remember!" Stork snapped at him. "One of them was wearing all black and had horns, and two of them were wearing red. That's it. That's all I know."
"Maleficent," Sora muttered. "And she runs with plenty of people who wear red."
"You KNOW who blew up my ship and k…" Stork trailed off when he realized he couldn't bring himself to say the words "killed the crew."
"Yeah," Sora said somberly. "She hurts everyone she can. I wish we could've gotten here in time to fight her." He looked to Ruby and Papyrus, who he knew were thinking the same thing, even without knowing truly who Maleficent was: Maybe we could have stopped her.
"No offense," Stork said, "but that doesn't exactly make anything better."
"We know," Ruby told him.
"Um…conference?" Sora suggested.
He, Ruby, and Papyrus stepped off to the side. "We can't just leave him here," Sora stated softly. "Not when he wants to…you know…"
"The people on that ship must all have been his team," Ruby added. "His friends."
"WE SHOULD TAKE HIM WITH US!" Papyrus suggested. "HE COULD COME ON ALL OUR MANY ADVENTURES!"
"You know I can hear you, right?" Stork brought up. "You're just standing a few feet away."
The conference broke so all three of its members could turn back to face Stork. "So…what do you say?" Sora asked. "Do you want to come with us?"
"No," Stork growled. "But let's say I was thinking about it. Where are you even going?"
"We actually came here to stop someone else from messing with this world," Sora told Stork. "We didn't know Maleficent was here too."
"Unless they're all working together…" Ruby suggested.
"Huh." Sora considered it. "Maybe!"
"You say 'this world' like…you're…" Stork's mind rushed. "You're aliens, aren't you?"
"I…guess?" Ruby replied.
Stork scooted another few feet back.
"But we come in peace!" Ruby hastily added.
"WHAT DID YOU DO ON YOUR SHIP, ANYWAY?" Papyrus inquired.
"I was the carrier pilot and helmsman," Stork replied. "For the Storm Hawks."
"The what hawks?" Sora replied.
"Right, you wouldn't know," Stork realized. "Aliens. Always knew they were real, you know. 'There isn't life on any of the other planets, Stork!' 'You're making up more things that don't exist, Stork!' Well, now I can show them!" He realized what he'd said. "Actually, no. I can't show them." He hung his head, pressing it against his knees.
Sora knelt slowly beside Stork. "Tell me more about the Storm Hawks," he asked softly. "You make it sound like they were famous on this world."
"We were the defenders of Atmos," Stork answered, not looking up at Sora. "Both sides of it. Most Sky Knights stick to one Terra, but we went around the whole world recklessly endangering our lives on suicide missions in order to try and protect people. And you know what? Most of the time, we made it out just fine. Even when all the odds suggested we should have died horrible, painful, and slow deaths." Slowly, Stork raised his head to make eye contact with Sora. "Maybe after a while, I started thinking we were invincible against most forms of doom."
"SO YOU WERE A GREAT HERO!" Papyrus cried. "A HERO IS EXACTLY WHAT WE NEED TO HELP US STOP TORCHWICK AND MALEFICENT!"
"I don't know about 'hero'…" Stork said uncertainly. "I'm guessing that's what you three think you are."
"I know I'm a hero!" Sora said confidently. "I'm actually certified by Philoctetes as one!"
"I don't know if I'm a hero yet," Ruby admitted, "but I was hoping to become one. To protect other people and do good."
"I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM UNQUESTIONABLY HEROIC!" Papyrus announced.
Stork flashed the tiniest of smiles. This trio was strange to be sure, but they also reminded him of the friends he'd lost with those statements. Maybe, he thought, he should go with them after all. Then again, that was weighed against the deep pit within his stomach that urged him to just step over the edge of the Terra and fall into the void.
Sora gingerly put a hand on Stork's shoulder; Stork didn't brush it away. "We could really use somebody who knows this world well to show us around," he said encouragingly. "Maybe you could help us out with that, at least."
"You're not going to leave me alone until I agree to go with you, are you?" Stork sighed.
"Nnnnnnope!" Ruby said with a cheeky smile.
"I don't see why you care," Stork sighed. "You don't even know me."
"THEN WHY DON'T WE GET INTRODUCED?" Papyrus suggested. "AS I HAVE STATED, I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS! THIS IS RUBY ROSE AND THAT IS SORA, BOTH OF WHOM ARE ALSO QUITE GREAT!"
"What's your name?" Sora asked.
"Stork," Stork sighed. "My name is Stork."
"Well, Stork?" Sora asked. "What do you think?"
Stork went silent.
"If it helps," Sora reminded him, "we're going after the person who got rid of all your friends."
The look in Stork's eyes changed. "That's the only thing I want to do. Find that person, and make them PAY for taking MY ship and MY friends away from me."
"BUT WON'T THAT BE DOING TO HER WHAT SHE DID TO – " Papyrus began, but he was silenced when he saw both Ruby and Sora shaking their heads frantically for him to stop.
"I don't care," Stork muttered. "Maleficent took EVERYTHING away from me. She deserves to have everything taken away from her."
"We're gonna stop her," Sora reassured Stork. He sent a look to Papyrus that he hoped the latter could read. It came through loud and clear: We'll work out the details later. "So, you feeling ready to get up?"
"I guess."
Sora stood first, then offered Stork his hand. Stork gingerly took it, letting Sora pull him up to his feet.
"Welcome aboard, Stork," Sora stated officially.
"THERE'S JUST ONE THING THAT BOTHERS ME," Papyrus brought up. "YOU SURVIVED MALEFICENT COMPLETELY DESTROYING YOUR SHIP, RIGHT?"
"Yes…" Stork replied gingerly.
"WELL, MAYBE YOUR FRIENDS ALL LIVED, TOO!"
"They didn't," Stork sighed somberly.
"You saw them…?" Ruby asked softly.
"No," Stork admitted, "but there was no way they could have made it through that explosion."
"But YOU did," Sora reminded him. "Until we know for sure, we should have hope!"
Stork didn't think there was any hope that his friends were still alive, but he knew arguing it with Sora would just be futile. And if nothing else, there was now a little bit of hope in the situation in general. It came in the form of Sora, Ruby, and Papyrus.
...
It took Mozenrath and company a while to locate the downed Cyclonian airship. Using Corridors to teleport from Terra to Terra, they relied upon Vexen's observational skills and Snatcher's unparalleled ability to ask for directions until at last, they happened upon the expanse of wasteland where the ship had fallen. It truly was a marvel; its dark spire jutted upward to a dizzying height while the fortress beneath erupted into spine-like protrusions.
Inside, the ship seemed much more like a bastion than aircraft, with lofty rooms and winding hallways. "Feels like home to me," Wuya remarked, taking a look around at the dark architecture.
They happened upon the heart of the fortress, which contained a bizarre machine comprised of many levers and a dashboard. "I'm guessing this is the control room," Mozenrath observed.
Roman's eyes zeroed in on the dashboard. He had never seen such a glorious array of buttons in his life. Each and every one of them seemed to be begging him to press it. "I'm just going to go ahead and call this the best day ever," he stated before curbing his excitement and doing his best not to run toward the control panel. "Now, what shall we try first? How about…"
"NO!" the others yelled as one.
"THIS one!" Roman punched one of the buttons with a decisive index finger.
Everyone else flinched, expecting something to backfire upon them due to Roman's lack of care. What occurred was perhaps the most stunning result of all: absolutely nothing.
"Huh?" Roman pressed another button, then another. Nothing and nothing. He swept his arm across the entire dashboard.
Vexen sent Snatcher a meaningful glare; Snatcher returned an even more venomous one. Sighing, Vexen turned away. "Obviously, something is wrong with the internal mechanism of the ship," he stated. "I can root out the heart of the problem, but given the size of the craft, it will take me a while."
"Fine by me," Mozenrath replied. "That'll just give the rest of us a chance to look around and break in the new lair."
As the majority of the group dissipated, Roman halfheartedly jabbed one more button, then sighed deeply when nothing happened.
Yzma and Wuya made their way to the upper balconies. Stepping out on one of the topmost levels, they discovered an enormous rotating cannon affixed to the balcony. "Finally, a TURRET GUN!" Yzma cried, rushing forward to grab ahold of the cannon's controls.
"Don't hog it all to yourself!" Wuya hissed, making a grab for the controls as well.
"This is my gun!" Yzma seethed as the pair seized the cannon, shoving at each other for full possession of it. "Go find your own!"
Angrily, Wuya pulled one of the triggers. "It's dormant anyway!" she realized.
"If it's dormant, you don't need it," Yzma decided. "Now let go of it!"
Wuya's left eye and Yzma's right eye moved into the scope at the same time, and they both caught sight of the pair of humans moving quickly across the wasteland below, making a beeline for the warship. "Is that…!" Wuya gasped.
"Intruders!" Yzma cried.
That got both of them to drop the cannon and make a run for the lower levels.
Most of the group had reconvened in the control room already. "I seem to have located the problem," Vexen announced. "This ship runs almost entirely on crystal technology, and features several apertures for crystals in its weaponry, as well as an engine room designed to support a larger crystal. However, the crystals themselves are nowhere to be found. It would take a powerful type of stone indeed to manage workings of this magnitude."
"So all we're missing are some powerful crystals," Mozenrath translated. "I could probably dig up a few of those in the Black Sands."
"You think this thing could run on Dust power?" Roman suggested.
"I wouldn't recommend it," Vexen stated coldly. "My hypothesis is that this entire ship was built to run on very SPECIFIC crystals, else they would have been replaced by another would-be conqueror by now. Attempting to use a substitute could have disastrous results."
"How disastrous?" Mozenrath asked.
"I've been set on fire and immolated from the inside out once already," Vexen retorted. "I have no desire to go through it a second time."
"Intruders!" Yzma cried as she and Wuya barreled into the room. "INTRUDERS!"
"We spied two little sneaks through the upstairs scope!" Wuya clarified. "They're headed this way as we speak!"
"Actually, given the time it took us to get down here," Yzma realized, "they're probably already onboard."
The sound of footfalls alerted the seven to an approaching presence. When all eyes turned to the hallway from which the sound had come, it immediately ceased.
"We already know you're there!" Snatcher called out.
There was a brief pause. Then came the sound of hurried, pounding footsteps and a wild yell. A muscular man with spiky purple hair, dressed in crude armor and wielding an enormous crystal-studded mace, charged at the seven with all his might, bellowing "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" all the while.
Mozenrath flicked his wrist, and a swirl of black sand surrounded the mace-wielder's feet, causing them to stick to the ground. The mace-wielder nearly lost balance once his feet were halted; angered, he flung his mace at Mozenrath with a wild "RRRRAAGH!", letting it leave his hands completely. Mozenrath put up a hand, stopping the mace in midair inches before it would have obliterated him upon impact.
"A for effort," Mozenrath smugly told the purple-haired man, letting the mace clang to the ground. "F for execution."
"What's the big idea?" the man yelled, tugging at his feet fruitlessly. "Lemme outta here!"
Mozenrath turned to Yzma. "Didn't you say there was more than one?"
While the sorcerer's head was turned, an arrow zipped out of the hallway, headed directly for it. The Huntsman was quick to slash it out of the air, and halves of a crystal-tipped shaft clattered to rest alongside the mace.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are," Mozenrath beckoned, twirling his hand in the air with his index finger extended as though he were gesturing for the other intruder to come out of hiding. She was dragged into the room by a blue aura. In contrast to the broadly muscled man, she was rail-thin, with spiky pink hair and lips that were painted to match the shade.
"You…idiot," she seethed through gritted teeth, eyes flicking toward the purple-haired man. "We could have gotten away if you hadn't just decided to RUN AT THEM."
"You fired the arrow!" the man snarled back.
"Who are you," Mozenrath asked, "and why are you onboard what is now OUR ship?"
"That's none of your – " the woman began.
"YOUR ship!" the man laughed. "HA! You're in big trouble now, 'cause this ship belongs to Cyclonia! And you just messed with Snipe and Ravess of Cyclonia!"
"DON'T TELL THEM OUR NAMES!" the woman, now identified as Ravess, cried in horror.
"Well, Snipe and Ravess of Cyclonia," Mozenrath announced, "I have both of you immobile and unable to attack us. I don't think I'm the one in trouble."
"I hadn't thought Cyclonia was still an active power," Vexen observed. "At least from hearsay."
"Well, uh, we don't exactly know what happened to everybody," Snipe admitted. "Since we got banished and all. But we thought if we came back to the old ship, then we could find out!"
"Shut up, shut up, shut UP!" Ravess hissed.
"I wouldn't tell him to shut up if I were you," Mozenrath told Ravess smugly. "After all, the more information you can give us, the fewer reasons we have to destroy you right here and now."
Ravess gulped audibly.
"So you don't know where anyone else associated with Cyclonia is," Mozenrath reiterated.
"Like my brother said," Ravess confirmed, "we were banished before the great battle. We saw this ship rise, but we weren't on board."
"So you wouldn't know how to power it," Mozenrath replied.
Ravess began to sweat. "Of course we know how to power it!" she said quickly, hoping to preserve her own life with what little information she could give.
"No, we don't," Snipe told her, confused. "We got banished before Cyclonis could tell us what the big plan was. Don't tell me you forgot!"
"What I MEANT to say," Ravess quickly amended, "was that, no, we don't know what powered this ship, but what we do know is that Master Cyclonis wanted desperately to get to the Far Side! Whatever crystal she used to levitate this ship must have been there!"
"Now we're getting somewhere," Mozenrath stated with a satisfied smile.
"Y'know," Snipe thought out loud, "THAT'S probably where Cyclonis is. Maybe we should've found a way there to look for her!"
Mozenrath turned back to his six cohorts. "It looks like the Far Side is where we want to be, too," he pointed out. "It should only take one Corridor to get us there."
"You can get to the Far Side?" Ravess asked incredulously.
"Yes…" Mozenrath turned back to size up Snipe and Ravess. "I wonder."
"You're NOT thinking what I believe you're thinking," Vexen sighed.
"They do know this world better than we do," Mozenrath reminded him.
"Hey, what are you tryin' to rope us into?" Snipe growled.
"Not only did your Master Cyclonis banish you," Mozenrath pointed out, "but I'm willing to bet she has only half the powers we do."
"Wanna bet?" Snipe urged.
"Snipe, don't – " Ravess said worriedly.
"If you need a demonstration…" Mozenrath smirked. "Vexen, if you would do the honors."
Several ice spikes jutted up from the floor around Snipe, each stopping mere centimeters before they could pierce his skin. Snipe shivered, looking worriedly at the spikes.
"Too cold for you?" Mozenrath asked; he waved a hand, and blue flames swallowed the spikes, melting them completely and converting them to steam. The flames formed a ring around Snipe, making him feel no safer than he had when Vexen had him surrounded with ice.
"Wuya," Mozenrath then said, "if you could – "
"I'm already ahead of you," Wuya replied smugly. She formed the rising steam into the shape of a dragon, one that reared back its head and blew green fire down at Snipe, mildly singing his hair. The dragon soared up high, then dove, flicking its steamy tail at Snipe's face.
"We believe you!" Ravess whimpered. "You're far more powerful than Cyclonis ever was…or could be!"
"Now you're just kissing up," Snatcher observed.
"But I like that," Mozenrath admitted.
The fire and steam all vanished in an instant. "I'm not completely unreasonable," Mozenrath went on, adjusting the fingers of his gauntlet. "If you guide us through this world far enough to get the crystal we need, we'll let you both live. Sound fair?"
"And how do we know you'll hold up your end of the bargain?" Ravess asked.
"Do you see any other way out of the situation you're in?" Mozenrath posed.
"All right," Ravess sighed. "We'll help you."
"Try and shoot any of us," Mozenrath warned her and Snipe, "or bash any of us with a mace, and our deal is off."
"You mean you'll let us go if we try to kill you?" Snipe reiterated, confused.
"NO," Ravess sighed. "He means he'll kill US without giving us a chance."
"Oh, I like her," Wuya whispered to Yzma.
"I prefer the stupid one," Yzma whispered back. "They're always better at taking orders than the smart ones."
"We're in," Snipe decided. "And as a bonus, we'll bash all your enemies for ya!"
A hand tapped on Mozenrath's shoulder. "Lord Mozenrath," Snatcher announced. "A word."
"Don't move," Mozenrath ordered his two prisoners.
"We CAN'T move," Ravess growled.
Mozenrath and Snatcher stepped off to the side, speaking in hushed tones. "You realize if they run into that master of theirs whilst investigating the other side of this world," Snatcher informed Mozenrath, "depending on how powerful this Cyclonis truly is, we may very well kiss their loyalty goodbye. And the three of them against us…"
"Then we'll just have to be careful about who we send to the Far Side," Mozenrath whispered. "But I'm not worried. If I could incapacitate two Cyclonian soldiers so easily, how bad could their master really be?"
"You've really got to stop saying such things," Snatcher groaned. "It invites disaster is what it does."
Mozenrath turned back to the group at large, flicking his hand out toward Ravess and Snipe. Ravess found herself mobile once more while Snipe was finally able to pull his feet out of the sticky sand. "You two will lead a faction of us to the Far Side," Mozenrath announced. "The rest will stay here and make sure no one gets to this ship first." He turned to the Huntsman specifically; "If you want to stay behind and guard a base, now is the time."
"I assume you'll be going to the Far Side," the Huntsman stated.
"I will," Mozenrath confirmed.
"Then I believe it would be in my best interest to accompany you," the Huntsman decided. "After all, we don't yet know what dangers we may face." This was said with a pointed look toward Ravess.
"You think we're going to turn traitor on you, don't you?" Ravess sighed. "Haven't you heard of innocent until proven guilty?"
"I have," the Huntsman told her. "Whether I subscribe to it is another matter entirely."
"I'll need at least one more person to come to the Far Side with us," Mozenrath announced.
Roman clutched the dashboard protectively.
"I believe it is in my best interest that I stay here as well," Vexen pointed out. "Perhaps I can discover more about the ship's workings and even get parts of it running again."
"If it's all the same to you, I'll be remaining with Torchwick," Snatcher stated.
Yzma threw her hands up in a dramatic shrug; "Eh, why not?" She stepped forward, volunteering herself to go with Mozenrath and the Huntsman.
"Then I might as well stay here," Wuya decided. "In case something these three idiots can't handle comes calling."
That earned her angry glares from Roman, Snatcher, and Vexen…as well as from Yzma, who warned her, "Don't touch my turret gun while I'm gone."
"Oh, I will," Wuya replied with a grin.
"If that's all arranged," Mozenrath said decisively, "then let's go bring back some flying horsepower."
He cast a Corridor, and he, the Huntsman, Yzma, Ravess, and Snipe crossed through to the Far Side.
...
Aghoul, Neo, and Mim arrived in a town where the tall buildings were strung with an array of multicolored lights to offset the deep dark of the night sky above; a vista of stars was offered to view.
"What is this place, anyway?" Aghoul asked.
"It's a strange little world," Mim explained. "It exists for poor little lost lambs whose worlds have been destroyed to come live somewhere safe. At least, they THINK it's safe. They don't know I know about it!"
Her gaze flicked upward, and she gasped. "LOOK, LOOK!"
"At WHAT?" Aghoul responded; Neo flinched.
"All those stars up there are the other worlds!" Mim explained. "This is one of the few places you can see them all lined up! And one of them's going out right now!"
Aghoul and Neo craned their heads up to the sky just in time to see a star go completely supernova, radiating a brief flash of neon color across the sky before fading into nothingness. To see what they knew to be a planet of hundreds of thriving civilizations suddenly disperse into utter destruction and despair for nothing of its former beauty to remain afterward was nothing short of gorgeous.
After watching in awe, Aghoul voiced a sudden thought that had occurred to him: "That better not have been Twilight Town."
Mim shrugged. "We'll find out when we get back."
She informed them that they were standing in the midst of the First District, and where they wanted to be was the Third District. She proudly led the way to said district, where at the far end of an open arena presumably used for festivals, there was a wooden door marked with a flame symbol inconspicuously tucked away.
"It's sealed off by magic," Mim explained. "You have to use fire to open it."
"He drew the key to breaking the spell right out on the front of the door?" Aghoul was astonished.
Mim cast altogether too much fire at the wooden door, and it burned to ashes from the center outward. Satisfied, Mim strode through, with a delighted Neo and an impressed Aghoul in tow.
Beyond the door was an unexpected sight that completely contrasted with the brightly lit town outside: a stone cavern dominated by a small freshwater lake, with a patchwork-esque house situated on a small island in its midst. "That's where Merlin lives when he stays here," Mim said softly, gleefully.
"What's the plan?" Aghoul asked. "Invasion?"
"Actually, I was thinking we could just…wait."
"Wait? For what?"
Mim marched forward until she'd splashed right into the lake. Once there, her form began to shift; she grew and grew, filling up the lake. Great magenta tentacles thicker than tree trunks snaked in and out of the water. Mim had become a kraken.
"We wait for THIS!" Mim announced, letting out a giggle that came out as literal bubbles while she sank below the surface to hide.
Aghoul cleared his throat loudly, then beckoned Neo back to the doorframe. "That Mim," he remarked with a wave of the hand. "So beautiful, and such a kind soul!"
There was no response.
"Good," Aghoul sighed. "Judging from how she didn't make my death more of the permanent kind, she can't hear us. And if she can't hear us, then it's the perfect time for you and me to talk about…" He winked and nudged Neo in the side. "Relationships."
Neo immediately slapped Aghoul so hard that his neck cracked a degree off center.
"Not…" Aghoul placed his hands on his chin and the back of his head. "With…" He jerked his bones back into place with a crack. "You. With HER." He gestured to the lake.
Neo mouthed an understanding "Oh."
"I haven't met a woman that LIVELY since the Agrabanian princess," Aghoul confessed. "I couldn't control her no matter how hard I try. I didn't think I'd like that, but it turns out that's what makes me want her even more than any wife I've ever had."
Neo nodded fervently, smiling broadly.
"Which brings up the question of how to win her," Aghoul muttered. "You're a woman. What would you suggest?"
Though Neo was a little offended that Aghoul believed her femininity made her an authority on all women, she thought on it anyway. She then drew her hands around her neck, creating the illusion of wearing a heavy gold necklace.
"Trap her with a cursed necklace?" Aghoul said in disbelief. "First of all, she'd find a way to turn it back on me even worse than the last sorceress did. Second of all, a woman like her deserves a little better, wouldn't you think?"
Neo smacked her forehead with the heel of her hand.
"Oh, you meant give her a precious necklace as a gift!" Aghoul realized. "An enchanted amulet with powers to actually HELP her!"
Neo nodded all the more enthusiastically before dismissing the illusion.
"Now all I have to figure out is where to get one of those…hmm." Aghoul thought it over. "Back in the Seven Deserts, magical amulets were a denarius a dozen. I wonder if this Traverse Town has any – "
A loud splash caught his attention. Mim was smacking the water with one tentacle and calling out, "AGHOUL! NEO!"
The pair rushed over to the edge of the lake.
"It's been too long!" Mim huffed, surfaced just enough that her mouth was above water. "Go see if anyone's home!"
"Right away, dear!" Aghoul said before swiftly hopping across a pathway of stones to get to the house. Neo mimed a giggle before following.
"…Dear?" Mim repeated once she was left alone.
"Here's the other thing," Aghoul whispered to Neo. "She's positively gruesome in a way I've never known before. When she talks decapitation, my heart melts. When she says 'fatal disease,' I can't say no! And if I'm being honest, the tentacles make her all the more desirable."
Neo pointed back to Mim with one hand and Aghoul with another before forming both hands into the halves of a heart.
They slipped into the house through a back door to find it completely devoid of furniture or decoration, let alone any powerful wizards. All that was there was an empty gray chamber. After poking and prodding the walls to make sure Merlin couldn't be hidden anywhere and discovering an equally empty attic, they returned to the outside of the house. "No one's home!" Aghoul reported.
In moments, Mim was human again, albeit soaking wet, and standing on the shore. "Drat," she muttered. "Oh, well. Onto the next world!"
"Where are we going this time?" Aghoul asked.
"You're going to hate it," Mim explained as she cast the Corridor. "It's a ridiculously sunny and happy kingdom. Even the name is stupid. 'Enchancia.'"
...
Cyclonis had led Maleficent, Jafar, and Cinder to the heart of a deep, dark forest comprised of thick trees and tangled canopies: this was Terra Nox. Here, swathed in shadows, the four found the seclusion they needed in order to plot.
"My empire on the other side was destroyed when the Storm Hawks found a way to overload the crystal that powered my warship," Cyclonis explained. "They killed my best warrior in the process. If we had that ship back, we could devastate Terra after Terra until we found out which one had the book you're looking for."
"Could the crystal be replaced?" Cinder asked.
"Easily," Cyclonis answered. "My family has ties on this side of Atmos. I could retrieve another simply by stating that the daughter of Master Anarchis demanded it. The ship is another matter. It went down on the other side."
"It could be easily retrieved," Jafar assured her. He produced a black slate, a sheet of parchment, and an inked quill pen from thin air, handing it to her. "Show us where it can be found."
Cyclonis set quill to paper, sketching out a map of the side of Atmos she'd grown up on and where her ship had gone down. "You know, I'd never heard of the Book of Prophecies before you turned up," she remarked. "If I didn't know better, I'd say your informant lied to you."
"We'll deal with her if that turns out to be the case," Cinder stated. "In the meantime, we'll leave no stone unturned."
"If nothing else, we can establish our names upon this world as those to be reckoned with," Jafar added.
Cinder turned to him; "I like the way you think."
Cyclonis finished the map and handed it over to Jafar. "Cinder Fall and I shall see to securing the ship before any other claimant does," the genie stated.
"As for the crystal," Maleficent told Cyclonis, "that shall be our duty."
Looking over the freshly drawn map, Jafar cast a Corridor. "After you, my lady."
Cinder nodded politely; "Why, thank you." She strode through, and Jafar followed.
"Before we go to Terra Valhalla to retrieve the crystal," Cyclonis told Maleficent, "I want to call in some reinforcements."
"What did you have in mind?" Maleficent asked.
"As a matter of fact," Cyclonis informed her with a smirk, "they're already here."
Maleficent then became aware of the hundreds of pairs of luminescent eyes that watched her from the darkness of the forest, from between branches and around trunks.
"Meet the Nightcrawlers," Cyclonis introduced.
"I am quite pleased to make their acquaintance," Maleficent replied calmly.
...
The town of Briarwood had been left in shambles by Maleficent's invasion. All around, people were trying to pick up the pieces and live out their lives as per usual. The Rock-Porium record shop was no exception, with employees Nick Russell, Chip Thorn, Xander Bly, and Vida and Madison Rocca sweeping up broken glass and putting merchandise back on shelves. They did so halfheartedly, knowing the damage that had been caused to them was much greater than that of a few broken windows.
The store owner, Toby Slambrook, was arguably in an even worse condition. He simply sat behind the counter, staring glassy-eyed out at the sales floor. Even his usually wild and curly hair seemed subdued and slack. After so long, he sighed and announced, "You can head out for the day."
"Are you sure?" Vida asked in concern.
"Yeah, go on, get out of here." Toby waved them away. "I'm sure you have other things you need to check up on. Power Ranger things."
"We really should check in and see how the others are doing on Rootcore," Xander said softly.
The others agreed. "Thanks, Toby," Madison said as the group filed out one by one.
"Yeah…" Toby muttered, his gaze unfocused.
Nick was the last one to leave. Before he did, he turned back to address Toby. "We'll find her," he said determinedly. "I promise."
Toby didn't respond.
As Nick exited the record store, he, Xander, Chip, Vida, and Madison began their walk toward the forest. "I heard what you told Toby," Xander stated. "It's great that you have so much hope, but where else are we going to look? We've already checked out everywhere the dark forces would have been holding Necrolai and Leelee."
Nick shook his head. "There has to be something we missed."
"What if there are mystical realms outside of Briarwood?" Chip wondered out loud. "What if they took them to a whole other WORLD?"
"It's not outside the realm of possibility," Madison suggested.
"But what would we even do then?" Vida asked.
Nobody had an answer.
They entered the tree portal that took them into the expansive forests that made up the mystical realm. A short walk through the forest led them to what was once a massive wooden dragon's head set into an enormous tree; it had been burned so that it was no longer recognizable. It still functioned as a gate, but the inside of the tree they called Rootcore had been ravaged, all of its magical devices broken or stolen. Through this mess, five people wandered: the sorceress Udonna, her husband Leanbow, their niece and apprentice Clare, their brother in arms Daggeron, and the catlike genie Jenji whom they called friend.
"Did you find anything yet?" Nick asked as the five youths walked through the door.
"I'm afraid not," Udonna said sadly. "We haven't been able to repair any of the devices that could show us where our enemies came from or where they took Necrolai and Leelee."
"I thought I had the right spell to put the crystal ball back together," Clare said sheepishly, "but…it kind of just broke into more pieces." Her eyes flickered to a pile of glimmering shards.
"You'll be the first to know the minute we figure anything out," Daggeron promised.
"What about the Xenotome?" Vida asked.
Udonna shook her head. "We still haven't found it. We think it was taken by the enemy."
"I'm still concerned with how suddenly our new enemies appeared, and how powerful they were," Leanbow admitted. "We were only just able to fend them off, and even so, we still lost Necrolai and Leelee to them. I don't recall facing anything like them during the war."
"I still think they're from another world," Chip pointed out.
"I suppose we can't discount the possibility," Udonna admitted.
"We have things under control here for now," Leanbow stated. "If there is other business you must attend to, you may."
"What else can we do?" Madison wondered out loud.
"We could check out the rest of the forest," Xander suggested. "See if anyone needs our help."
"I like that plan," Chip said with a nod.
Nick, Vida, Chip, Madison, and Xander then found themselves patrolling the forest, keeping eyes and ears out for trouble. "You think they'll come back?" Xander mused. "The dragon lady and her friends, I mean."
"I hope not," Chip said with a shudder. "I'm not sure we could take them again!"
The quintet became alerted to the sound of very loud sobbing coming from nearby. "That sounds like…" Madison began.
She didn't have to finish. They all knew who it was and exactly why he was crying. They adjusted their course in the direction of the noise until they found a certain troblin (half troll, half goblin) dressed in rags sitting upon a felled tree, weeping into a handkerchief.
"Phineas?" Madison greeted as the five drew closer.
"Oh…" Phineas hastily stuffed the handkerchief into his pocket. "Hi." He gave a half-hearted wave.
"You okay?" Nick asked, though he already knew the answer.
"I, uh…" Phineas sighed. "No. I'm not. I just…I wish I knew where she was…and that they weren't doin' anything bad to her…"
"Don't worry," Vida tried to reassure him. "If we know Leelee, she's going to be the one dishing out butt-kicking to THEM."
"I just want her to be safe," Phineas continued, eyes watering. "I wish I could find her. Has…has Udonna been able to…"
"Not yet," Madison said somberly.
"Oh," Phineas responded. "If I knew where she was, I'd go right after her and make sure she was okay."
"I'm sure she's fighting her way back to you as hard as she can," Madison replied. "She loves you a lot."
"An' I love her a lot," Phineas lamented. "Leelee…wherever you are…I hope you're okay…an'…an' I miss you. If I knew where to look, I'd find you."
"Wait!" Chip cried, looking past Phineas. "What's that?"
"Huh?" Phineas turned his gaze to where Chip had indicated.
A bright glow of pure light had appeared from nowhere, sparkling brightly. It grew larger and brighter until it was a shining mass that reached from the ground to about six feet up.
"It looks like some kind of portal," Chip identified.
"This is going to sound crazy," Madison stated, "but what if Phineas' love for Leelee opened up some kind of portal to wherever she is?"
"Couldn't hurt to take a look," Xander said with a shrug.
"But what if it leads somewhere we can't get back from?" Madison worried.
"It might," Vida told her, "but I don't feel like we can just let something like this get away. It's obviously important. We'll just have to be confident we can deal with whatever's on the other side."
"And we WILL get back here," Nick insisted. "No matter what."
"Whaddaya say, Phineas?" Xander asked.
Phineas stood bolt upright. "If there's a chance Leelee might be in there…"
"Then let's go." Nick strode toward the portal, waving on the others. He, Phineas, Vida, Madison, and Chip all approached it with hardly a second thought; only Madison gave a look back to the forest before stepping into the light, wondering if this was a good idea after all. But Vida was right. Leaving the portal alone would have been a grave missed opportunity; it had obviously appeared for a reason. She turned back toward the light, walking into it, letting it envelop her.
When she came through to the other side, she and her five companions were standing in the midst of a bustling town square built of cobblestone. "What is this place?" she wondered out loud.
The others wondered the same thing as they looked around at the metropolitan heart of Radiant Garden.