Chance Encounters in Traverse Town
PJ, Max, and Daisy's trip was pretty uneventful so far. They managed to avoid the chaos in-between worlds via some "shortcuts" PJ knew. They were currently flying in the space near Traverse Town when Max finally asked,
"Hey, PJ. How do you know how to get to Wonderland?""Oh, I don't." PJ replied confidently while keeping his eyes forward.
"Wait, you don't? Then where are we going?" Max asked.
PJ shrugged.
"I thought I'd just fly until I found it. It's not that hard a world to spot."Daisy's eyes widened. She couldn't believe she was trusting a teenager to actually take things seriously.
"I rather not be lost in the Space Between Worlds. We're near Traverse Town. Let's stop there and get directions from Merlin.""Merlin?" Max asked, sitting up in his chair.
"I haven't seen him since my trip to Camelot with my dad and King Mickey. What's he doing there?""It's his home away from home as he travels between worlds. Go on, PJ. Straight to Traverse Town.""Yes, ma'am." PJ nodded before making his direction to the world for marooned souls.
PJ stayed on the Gummi Ship while Max and Daisy entered the First District of Traverse Town and were met with another trio holding a sign that read, "
ITEM SHOP: GRAND OPENING". This was a group of young ducklings Daisy was all too familiar with.
"Huey, Dewey, and Louie, what on Mickey's Magic Kingdom are you doing here?""Aunt Daisy!?" The duck trio yelled out in unison as they dropped their sign on their webbed feet. They jumped in shock in pain before falling back down to land crisscross applesauce to rub their injured feet. "First Uncle Donald and now Aunt Daisy. Who's next, Uncle Scrooge? We're just here trying to make money."
"Wait. Donald's here? They haven't found the Prince, yet?"Huey shook his head and spoke. "Last we saw, he and Mr. Goofy were still looking for him."
"The last thing I need to hear is my dad telling me I should be home. Let's get to Merlin's." Max said, preparing to head to the next district.
"Or Donald worrying about me. Let's go." Daisy agreed.
"Before you go." Huey said, stopping them. "You should talk to Cid. He has a book of Merlin's that both are too lazy to cross districts to exchange. They call it being busy, but they're not the ones opening a new shop."
Daisy laughed to herself, forgetting that she wasn't in the court and didn't have to be a proper lady.
"Just be careful, okay?" She said to her nephews before heading to Cid's shop with Max.
Meanwhile Donald and Goofy finished searching the Third District and there were still no signs of the keyblade wielding prince. Donald was beyond annoyed by this point.
"WHERE IS HE!?" He yelled out to no one in particular with a bright red and searing face.
"Why don't we cool off and think? Aha! What if we asked Merlin to help us find him?""As if that old quack knows anything." Donald responded, his face now returned to normal.
"Well, we couldn't find him on our own so it doesn't hurt to try. And you know what they say. If you've searched everywhere, it's the one place you haven't looked." Goofy said confidently.
"It's always the last place that you look." Donald corrected.
"You sure? This is the last place we looked and he wasn't here.""... Fine. We'll ask him." Donald said in defeat, heading to the otherworldly magician's home.
Someone didn't like how easy of a time Alias and Alice were having on their journey through Wonderland. Alias' presence alone was already providing a better experience for Alice than she was supposed to have, but Alice being here and happy kept Alias from falling into despair or thinking too deeply about not knowing where his friends were. He was able to compartmentalize and focus on keeping Alice safe and getting her answers from the White Rabbit and hopefully staying off the Queen's Radar. If it only it could be that simple.
The downside to having a carefree life back on Destiny Islands was the inability to discern when things have been going a little too well. Now he was about to learn just what it meant to wait for the other shoe to drop. It dropped hard when they arrived to the Queen's Court to see it and everyone in a state of distress. Flowers that were painted red were destroyed, card soldiers and their weapons laid flat across the yard. The Queen of Hearts was furiously yelling in the distance.
"My word. What could've happened here?" Alice asked. She had never seen anything like it. Things started off weird here, but they hadn't been this bad.
"Could it be the heartless again?""I don't know," Alias replied while conjuring his keyblade.
"But stay close to me." He walked forward to fully enter the Court with Alice following closely behind them.
The White Rabbit was frantically pacing back and forth until he noticed Alias and Alice. "It's them! It's them! The monsters have returned!"
"Monsters?" Alice asked, looking behind her and Alias. No one else was there besides them.
"You can't possibly mean us.""Only monsters could do this. You've upset the poor Queen!"
The Queen of Hearts turned into a fury to spy Alias and Alice.
"The nerve. To return to the scene of the crime! Off with your heads!" A silence followed as she had no readily available soldiers to deal with these threats.
"But we just got here!" Alias pointed out.
"We couldn't have done this. Give us a chance to find the real monsters.""They looked like you! But... since my other soldiers won't be here for a while I'll spare your life for now and give you one chance to find the true culprits and bring them or evidence back. But if you come back to attack we'll be ready to take those heads of yours!"Alias gulped and nodded to show that he understood. Alice nodded nonstop like a bobblehead until Alias grabbed the back of her hair to get her to stop.
"Yes, your majesty." He finally said, rubbing his neck. He grabbed Alice's hand to run them out of there so they could find these monstrous doppelgangers.
"Alias, how can heartless look like us?" Alice asked inquisitively as they disappeared into another dense forest.
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