Chapter Twenty-Two: S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier
Base – 2012
“So you were Mickey Mouse the whole time and never even bothered to tell me?” Elendriel
questioned to Sammi, who she sat with at the table in the briefing room. They
were accompanied by Sean, Lisa, Rogers, Stark, Romanoff, Barton, and Pluto.
(Marvel Note: The briefing room is one of the notable locations seen in The Avengers, seen twice in the film - once during Fury's interrogation of Loki and later after the attack on the Helicarrier and the death of Agent Coulson. Fury threw Coulson's "mint-conditioned" Captain America cards, which he bloodied on purpose, onto the briefing room table.)
Sammi answered all of her burning questions while petting
Pluto. “Well, I couldn’t risk blowin’ my cover while Master Yen Sid and I were in
this realm. This may come as a surprise, but not everyone acts so calmly to
seeing a three-foot mouse.”
Elendriel nodded understandingly to the reasoning behind Mickey’s
disguise. “Now that your secret identities have been exposed, what’s keeping
either of you from returning to your real selves?”
“We have been suspended of our magic since Facilier took
control of the Guardian’s power.” Lisa explained. “Her power and her life force are connected to the
existence of our universe.”
“And now that Facilier’s in charge, the rules have
changed.” Sean deduced.
“Because he is
changing them.” Lisa acknowledged. “His sources – his ‘Friends on the Other
Side’ – have enabled him to take the power of the Guardian. Our worlds cannot
exist without one. But what Facilier does not realize is that black magic
cannot coexist with good magic. He’s
tearing apart every world in our universe as we speak.”
(Narrative Note: In each installment of the World of Disney series, the main antagonist has a scheme that threatens the Disneyverse and the other universes it has come in contact with, not because of their own wrongdoing but the consequences of it. Facilier's plan has the same worst case scenario as the Evil Queen's in the previous story.)
“How can we stop him?” Rogers asked.
Lisa sighed. “That is what I’m hoping Sheryl will tell us
when she returns.”
“Where is she anyway?” Sean inquired. “For that matter,
where’s my mother and Fury?”
“Right here.”
The voice of Nick Fury himself spoke not far from the
group as he, Ciciley, Maria, and a young woman who none of the people in the
briefing room had met before entered. The woman was a brunette and looked to be
the same age as Sean; her eyes were just as brown as his, and she was almost as
tall as him, carrying a slender yet toned physique. She was dressed in tight
leather pants, leather boots, and a leather top. Sean approached the mysterious
woman inquisitively and asked, “Who’s this?”
“This is our
secret weapon – Subject M1986.” Fury instantly answered, although his reply
garnered some offended stares from Ciciley and the woman known as “Subject
M1986.”
Ciciley cleared her throat, as if to notify the
S.H.I.E.L.D. director of his blunder, and stated, “Or ‘Mindy’ as she prefers to be named.” Her judgmental
tone seemed to have reminded Fury of that fact and the director appeared
slightly guilty. “Mindy, this is my son, Sean.”
(Biographical Note: "Mindy" is based on and inspired by Mindy Karuk, a fitness model and friend of Livingston's. The character was originally intended to be a female Caucasian clone of Agent Sean Livingston, hence given the codename "Subject M1986," which is the first letter of Mindy's name and the year of Livingston's birth. It was initially decided by the time of production on Tales of the Disneyverse that Mindy would be another reincarnation of Sean Thomas, discovered by S.H.I.E.L.D. during her rebirth process in 1986. The Marvel characters become aware of this secret during the events of Marvel Mayhem.)
Mindy stuck her hand out to the young agent. “Pleasure to
meet you, Agent Livingston.”
Sean took her hand and shook it, but during the
handshake, he felt her remarkable grip overwhelm his own, taking him completely
by surprise. Quickly, he yanked his hand away before Mindy actually shattered
every bone in it. “What in the…?”
Noting Sean’s reaction to the intense handshake, Fury
smiled. “Oh, I should’ve warned you of her strength. Mindy is the latest and
most successful product of the same Super Solider Serum that gave us Captain
America.”
(Marvel Note: "Project Rebirth" was once the secret U.S. government project administered by the U.S. Army to create "Super Soldiers" for its World War II efforts. Steve Rogers was their first and last successful test subject before the formula was lost. In the recent ABC television show Agent Carter, it was revealed that a sample of Steve Rogers's blood had been kept by Howard Stark in hopes of recreating the success of Captain America, but Peggy Carter poured the sample out from the Brooklyn Bridge to respect Steve's memory. The success of Mindy's "transformation" is actually a front she magically put into the minds of the S.H.I.E.L.D. officials to maintain her Guardian identity.)
Hearing this, Rogers looked impressed, gazing upon Mindy
with a whole new perspective. “You mean she’s…?”
“Got all of your skills and hardcore strength.” Ciciley
said with a huge grin. “With her and you on our side, that brotha in the funky
hat doesn’t stand a chance against us.”
Mindy kept her focus on Sean the entire time. “Director
Fury and your mother brought me up to speed on our situation here. I promise
that I’ll do whatever I can to ensure the defeat of this enemy. I would’ve been
involved in the battle in New York last month, but the doctors said that I
wasn’t quite suited for combat yet. Now that I am, I’m really looking forward to kickin’ some butt.”
(Narrative Note: With Mindy's presence in this chapter onward, The Marvelous World has - in retrospect - featured three different Guardians, two that are reincarnations of Sean Thomas and one a reincarnation of Joanie Navarro-Thomas. There are also three different versions of Sean, taking his Marvel Universe counterpart into consideration.)
Sean nodded and smiled over Mindy’s enthusiasm. “Well,
that’s awesome. But I’m sure you won’t need to do very much in this fight, not
with a powerful sorceress on our side.”
“Cool!” Mindy exclaimed before looking around the room.
“Where is she?”
Sean stammered on his reply; he couldn’t give her a
straight answer because he didn’t
know where Sheryl was. Fortunately, the
stammering did not last very long. A bright flash of light momentarily emerged
within the briefing room and then dispersed. Everyone suddenly saw Sheryl
standing in the room with a family of people wearing red suits (complete with
black masks, gloves, boots, and briefs and gold belts) that had a lowercase “I”
insignia on the chest of each. There was no denying at first glance that this
family was one of superheroes.
“Wow.” Stark uttered, sounding more bemused than
impressed.
The father then stepped forward and addressed the group:
“You people called for help. Well, fear no more. The Incredibles are here to
save the universe.”
Jack-Jack giggled in the arms of Helen, gaining the
attention of a worried Natasha Romanoff. “Is that…a baby?”
Fury spoke for every puzzled soul in the room when he
asked, “What the hell’s this supposed
to be?”
“I recruited the best heroes in the Disneyverse I could
find in helping us stop Facilier.” Sheryl said. “These guys are more than the
best – they’re the greatest. With them
and your Avengers side-by-side, we can end Facilier’s nightmare together.”
“I would’ve had something better in mind than The Brady Bunch’s answer to the
Fantastic Four.” Ciciley criticized.
Dash cringed at the team name Ciciley mentioned.
“Fantastic Four? What kind of a lame superhero team is that?”
“This is not
gonna work.” Fury told Sheryl. “If your idea was to build an army against
Facilier, then you should’ve tried harder than this.”
Fury’s words greatly offended Bob. “Hey, buddy. Give us a
break. You haven’t even seen what we can do yet.”
(Disney/Marvel Note: Samuel L. Jackson, who portrays Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, also voiced the character Frozone in The Incredibles.)
“Fury, with all due respect, we don’t need a whole army
of super-powered heroes to go up against Facilier.” Sheryl rationalized. “All
we’re dealing with are a bunch of thugs he picked out of taverns and off the
streets. Your men won’t have a problem with them, but I’ll need the Incredibles
to help me get the Hulk back in our good graces. I’ll need everyone’s help in this.”
“You sure will.” They all turned to see Rapunzel enter
with Flynn Rider and Pocahontas. “That’s why we’ll be helping out whatever way we can.” Rapunzel saw Fury open
his mouth to protest and quickly interrupted him. “I know what some of you are
thinking – that we’re just fish out of water here – but so are the guys we’ll
be fighting. We have what it takes to defend ourselves. With Flynn’s strength,
Pocahontas’s speed, and my…uh…frying pan, we can help you win this battle.”
(Authorial Note: Livingston envisioned the team-up between the Disney and Marvel characters to be a "once-in-a-lifetime" moment that could only happen in a fanfic like The Marvelous World. However, a year later, Marvel's top superheroes would team with Disney characters Phineas and Ferb in the television crossover Phineas & Ferb: Mission Marvel. Another year later, the popular video game Disney Infinity 2.0: Marvel Super Heroes would enable free roam team-ups between characters out of the two universes in the game's Toy Box mode.)
All was quiet after Rapunzel’s abrupt announcement.
Sheryl simply smiled in appreciation of the bravery in the three volunteering
characters. Everyone else, with the exception of Fury, seemed to have accepted
it; they agreed with Sheryl – they would need all the help they could get in
the oncoming battle. Fury still had his reservations even on the Incredibles
getting involved; but he soon came upon the same realization as everyone else.
“Alright, fine,” he finally acknowledged, “regulations will be broken – but,
then again, the laws of physics have been broken these past months – so…what
the hell.” He uttered the last half of his declaration with a very nonchalant
attitude. He then turned to Tony and said, “Stark. You’re up.”
Stark stood up from the table and addressed one more
(unseen) character there in the room. “J.A.R.V.I.S., put the battle schematics
up, will ya?”
“Right away, sir.” The automated voice of Stark’s A.I.
computer said from practically everywhere in the room. Rapunzel, Flynn,
Pocahontas, and the Incredibles were surprised by the voice, looking around
them to see where it had come from. They were all even more surprised by the
holographic images of the Helicarrier and the Sphere that were suddenly
projected from the center of the briefing room’s table.
Sheryl approached the images, pointing directly to the
one of the Sphere. “Our main objective is getting me – and only me – into
the Sphere. The hole that Tony made into its hull will be the perfect
entranceway for me to get inside. Sean, you and Elendriel will fly me to that
breach. As soon as I’m inside, you get away immediately.”
“We must take into consideration that Facilier, with his
new power, can alter reality at will.” Lisa notified. “He will make your
approach on the Sphere extremely difficult, possibly going as far as turning it
into a weapon of mass destruction – the opposite of what it was initially
designed to be.”
“I’ll do what I can to prevent many alterations from
happening.” Sheryl assured. “I may be the child of the Guardian, but Facilier
still carries more magic than I do, so let me apologize in advance for any that
manage to get through.”
(Marvel Note: In the Marvel Universe, one superhero who has the ability to manipulate reality is Scarlet Witch, who will be seen as a semi-antagonist/protagonist in Avengers: Age of Ultron this year.)
“We have enough firepower between the Helicarrier and
Stark’s armor to provide enough cover.” Fury said. “But there’s one big problem that we should focus on –
the Hulk. How will he play into all
of this?”
“Facilier will no doubt magically teleport the Hulk and
his army into the Helicarrier as soon as we’re airborne.” Sheryl cautioned. “In
that event, you all will need to hold these men off here long enough for me to
take the power back from Facilier and do what needs to be done.”
“And what are you going to do?” Rogers asked with
interest.
Sheryl briefly paused before she answered him. “I’m going
to send the Sphere out of this dimension and into another.”
Her plan was met with grand amusement from the others,
but a slight amount of disapproval from Stark. “You know, I’m not the one to
reject even the most alien piece of
technology, but wouldn’t it be best just to – I dunno – destroy the Sphere and save some of the other poor schmucks in that
other dimension the trouble of what we’re going through now?”
“The Sphere is the only link between the Guardian and the
Disneyverse.” Lisa informed the billionaire. “To destroy it would be to
permanently sever the only access those of us from the Disney worlds have in returning home. You wouldn’t want to
leave several Disney characters – many of whom are highly dangerous – stuck in this world, would you, Mr. Stark?”
With Lisa’s question, Tony quickly found himself the
subject of some judgmental stares, mostly from Flynn, Rapunzel (and Pascal),
Pocahontas, and the Incredibles. To save face, he directly answered, “N-No. Of
course not. I’m all for sending it to another dimension – totally.”
Sheryl chuckled over Stark’s shamefaced demeanor in
reaction to being put on the spot. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure to send the
Sphere somewhere it can’t trouble anybody
– maybe someplace where the far reaches of space is an option.”
(Narrative Note: Sheryl's solution, as well as Stark's earlier inquiry, both serve as strong foreshadowing of the story's epilogue, which in itself serves as a lead-in to World of Disney 3.)
“Then we’re all set for our mission.” Fury professed.
“All we need now is to find…”
“Director Fury!” A S.H.I.E.L.D. agent had rushed into the
briefing room unannounced, which Fury would have scolded him over had it not
been for the frantic expression on the agent’s face. “They’re here.”
(UP NEXT: The final battle begins!)
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