End Of Our Worlds? Not today Chapter 06
#6 of EOOW? NT
The flash fades away and the group start to get their senses back. They find themselves in a large room made out of stones. After a few blinks, they realize that they have been teleported in a library. Donald runs to the nearby window to get an idea of where they are.
"Guys? Come over here, you wouldn't believe this." He mentions them to come.
The country side in front them are several hills floating amongst clouds with several stars gleaming in the background. A courtyard can be seen on their left.
"I cannot believe it, where are we?" Ortensia wonders out loud. "I've never seen anything like it, nor read anything about it."
"You guys are in my domain, or I should say, I teleported you in my domain." A grave voice sound behind them, startling them. An old man with long grey hair, bushy eyebrows and a very long grey beard. He wears a blue, yellow stared decorated conical sorcerer hat. He wears long, billowing blue robes with sky blue lining.
"YEN SID?!" The squad scream together, all taken by surprised.
"I cannot believe it, is this really happening? Someone pinch me please." Donald mumbles in disbelief. Goofy is quick to acknowledge the demand and pinches Donald who almost jumps out of his feathers.
"You are welcome pal, always happy to help." Goofy lightly laughs, receiving a cold stare from Donald in return.
"Looks like I came in time this time. I do not detect any of you been bitten which is good, what were you guys doing in the rocky area? Didn't you guys hear about recent events?" Yen Sid sternly speaks.
"Yes, we did and we are actually going to check what is going on. We were on our way to Twilight Town actually." Oswald responds ignoring the magician's tone.
"Well, I must say you are all brave to go there, we will take everything we can get." Yen Sid's face remains stern but relaxes a bit. "You guys are not that far from Twilight Town, in fact, technically, you are in Twilight Town right now."
"Really?" Goofy scratches his head "In a different zone then or something. I don't see any houses."
"Heh you could say that, I will teleport you once you feel good enough to go. I suggest you rest first, meanwhile, I'm going to figure what weaknesses those monsters gained and lost. It's scary to know that Maleficent and The Horned King can do such things on a greater scale. We need to act quick and everybody knows that."
With that, the magician turns around to leave to his studies. The others get their mattress and quickly hopes in to catch some much-needed rest. Oswalt however, follows Yen Sid.
"I also have a question Yen Sid? I'm also looking for someone, my little brother, Michael 'Mickey' Mouse."
"Ahh yes, Mickey, he surprised me with his fire rune. When he told me he was a swordsman, I almost screamed 'Bullshit' but he did prove me that he was once he arrived here with me. Very quick learner, and keen to learn. Something that I've never seen before is that he loved trying out new things, fusing elements together. He crafted his own fighting skills, mixing sword and magic in a way I've never thought it would work. He...he was...I mean he still is a little 'prodigy'".
"Did you say 'was' something happened to him?" Oswald's heart starts racing. "I've lost contact with him eight years ago."
The duo arrives in the Sorcerer's Loft, a large room with several shelves containing many books and a large wooden desk behind which Yen Sid sits. Oswald sits on a chair right in front of the desk.
"Eight years? Great scot, you are one patient young man. Something did happen to him, he was on a trip to Radiant Garden as an assignment and on the road, a storm hit his location and he had to stop in a cave and wait for it to pass. The cave was not to big in size but really deep, it has multiple paths that leads god knows where. Mickey explored to pass the time and he found a massive, blue crystal in wider and much bigger interior. Knowing him, I think he was really careful about this situation but at one point he must have touched the crystal. I couldn't contact him and I sent three teachers on the spot to investigate. When they arrived, they saw Mickey sleeping in the crystal. We tried to get him out by any means but the crystal didn't move nor had any scratches. We tried to move the crystal here but every attempt was a failure. We studied the crystal, trying to figure out what it is and one day, a mage decided to transfer his mana to the crystal to see what would happen. We saw a bird made out of lightning appearing in crystal eating the mage's mana. The bird wrapped Mickey's body with it's wings from behind and disappeared suddenly. Following this event, I believed that the bird is leaving inside Mickey and is not ready yet. This reminded me of mages in the past, some were chosen by creatures to be nurtured inside and to basically fuse their powers as one. It's a strange concept but the mage's mana would disappear and be replaced by the creature's mana. The exact same thing is happening to Mickey but in the least conventional way. The only thing we can do is wait."
Oswald remains silent for a few seconds, processing the whole story.
"Soooooo we don't know how long he will sleep right?" he demands, half tired and half sad. He hoped that Mickey could join them right on.
"Well, I was about to go to the cave to test a theory of mine, you can come with me if you wish." The magician stands up and grabs a black book with cyan ornaments before turning to Oswald waiting for an answer which of course, was easy to guess.
"Of course, I'm coming," He hopes out from the chair and walks to Yen Sid and both of them disappeared in a flash of light to reappear in a gloomy cave lighten by the crystal in question. Oswald's first reaction is to gasp as he recognizes Mikey sleeping peacefully, trapped inside the crystal. "So, what is your theory?"
"I am thinking about giving most of my mana to the bird, making him grow in the process and probably waking Mickey in the process. It is a risky idea but I really want to try it so stand back, also, I've asked some help from other sorcerers in case things are going wrong."
Oswald stands back, enable to get his eyes off Mickey, he sits on a rock and silently watches Yen Sid walks to the crystal and touch it with his right hand.
The bird instantly appears, looking much bigger then before Yen Sid remembers. For a few minutes, nothing happens, well, maybe just Yen Sid starting to sweat lightly at first and then profusely almost ten minutes later. Without warning, the bird disappears and the crystal just shatters in millions of pieces. Surprisingly, Mickey does not fall at all but hovers in place until Yen Sid gently grabs him and carefully check his heartbeat. Mickey's body start to grow rapidly and soon enough, his body matches his age. Oswald runs to his brother.
"Is he okay?" His voice is gently with a hint of fear.
"He will be, his body is catching up on the time lost but do not fear, it's not dangerous." He spokes. "Let's go back to the tower, we will take care of him and he will wake up pretty quickly I bet, his body is almost burning with energy."
Back to the tower, Yen Sid places Mickey on a bed and calls in Flora, Fauna and Merryweather from the Wardrobe room.
"Ohhh he is finally back; your theory did work after all Yen Sid" Flora exclaims happily.
"Indeed, I've never thought it would work that well." He agrees. He looks around and does not see Oswald at all.
"He went to wake the others up." Merryweather informs.
"Good, as you can see, his body caught up to it's time and he needs new clothes, as you remember, he is quite a swordsman/mage." The mage explains shortly.
"Of course, I think we have something that would do quite well for him. We spent time designing some clothes for him, so when he wakes up, he can choose." Fauna answers.
"Thank you, maybe I can also think of a few designs for our guests as well, what do you guys think?" Yen Sid propose the answer is a quick nod from all three fairies with wide smiles.
About twenty minutes later, Mickey's eyes open and he looks at the ceiling, his brain slowly processing what he is seeing. 'Where...where am I?' he thinks while looking around in his bed 'Why is this place familiar to me? Have I been there before?' he gets out of bed and realize that he knows this place. His eyes rests on a picture of Yen Sid and the fairies which triggers a cascade of flash-backs from his childhood all the way to the cave. Once he gets back to his senses, he finds himself on the ground sweating profusely and panting. He stands up and walks to the Wardrobe room to get some clothes from the fairies. The moment he enters the room, he is greeted with a massive hug/takedown from Oswald, Donald and Goofy.
"Hey guys, long time no see!" Mickey says under the pile of hugs he was receiving.
"Hey brother, how do you feel?" Oswald grins.
"Flatten as a pancake right now."
"Oops sorry" they say as they remove themselves from Mickey, letting him get up.
"You have awakened faster than I would have anticipated Mickey." Yen Sid says gently. "That's good, you have awakened in a time of need. I'll bring you up to speed but first, let's get you dressed up." He mentions the mouse forward and the fairies circles him.
"We have one design that we managed to come up with while you were sleeping. Now, we had multiples design before but since your body and element changed, we scrapped them. So here it is." Flora says as she flicks her wand.
Mickey finds himself in a black leather with cyan outlines outfit. The outfit is composed of a short-sleeved leather shirt, long black pants with cyan outlines around the pockets and normal, comfy, black shoes. On the top of that, a long black coat.
"looking sharp Mickey" Goofy comments with a thumb up.
"Heh thank you Goofy." He moves around to see how comfortable the outfit is. After a few movements he smiles, satisfied. "Thank you so much, this is great".
"And that's not all, your clothes will handle any electrical charge you deal or receive so don't worry about shredding it." Merryweather adds.
"I want to train with you Mickey" says Yen Sid "I want to see what you are capable of and most importantly, what you gained from all of this. I feel that not only your mana changed, a lot more switched of you and I want us to discover what this is."
Mickey nods "I'm game for some sparring matches." He smiles looking at his mentor, his voice was now lower but still recognizable.
And with that, they all walk to the training room lead by Yen Sid.