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K looked around idly. A lot had changed, but then again, everything was the same, if that made sense. The happiest place on earth was still… well… the happiest place on earth. K had always heard you could never go back, but here he was, and it was a lot harder than he’d thought it’d be. He thought he’d be prepared for this moment, thought he’d stolen all of the moments he could to mentally go through everything that he needed to, so he could be here and be indifferent.

He felt like a rookie.

Not to mention that he had one walking next to him, bouncing around like a kid in a candy store.

“Nick, do you think it’s possible for you to calm down? Even a little.”

“I am calm; this is me being calm.” Nick grinned, his eyes widening suddenly. “Oooh look, mouse ears! Let’s get a pair, K!”

“No.”

“Don’t be such a sissy. EVERYONE gets mouse ears when they’re here; it’s an American tradition.”

K raised an eyebrow. “Not everyone gets a pair, and I’ve most certainly had my fill of wearing mouse ears to last a lifetime, thanks.”

Nick stared at him. “You won’t be able to hold out for long, ya know. You won‘t be able to resist the pull, the… need. You’ll succumb to the greatness known as ‘The Ears!’”

“Hmph, not on your life, pal,” K grunted.

K scanned the crowds of people, not really sure what he was looking for until he saw it, forcing him to come to a complete stop for a moment before quickly darting forward again.

A quick splash of neon blue, that stupid yipping monkey sound, and then suddenly he was back, back to where everything had started for him. It was as if he’d never left, a slow smile spreading across his lips

If he closed his eyes, he could feel himself, perched up on that float, waving at the smiling kids, the young woman at his side holding his hand, only it wasn’t the character she portrayed that he imagined sitting next to him. It was her; it was always her. There had been a time when K would look over at the woman and pretend he saw the character, but that had changed once he met her.

Kristin. The love of his life, as it would turn out. Sometimes he would see her in the crowd when he was in costume, and they’d share their secret smile, and it was great. He would’ve been her Aladdin any day.

Sighing, he turned to find Nick staring at him.

“What?”

“What’s with that goofy look?”

“Nothing,” K muttered.

Nick looked over and then back at K, grinning again. “It’s Jasmine, isn’t it? She’s hot, isn’t she? Ya know what I think?”

K groaned. He didn’t want to hear this; he knew he didn’t.

“What?”

“She needs more Carter in her life… more Nick Carter, if you know what I mean.” Nick winked.

“Oh lord, Nick, will you shut up, please?! Keep your eyes peeled; we’re supposed to be looking for anything out of the ordinary.”

Nick smirked, looking around, whistling softly.

Why was he here? He should’ve just stayed home, stayed away from all of this and all of the memories it invoked. He was a glutton for punishment. He couldn’t help but let his thoughts drift back to his time here prior.

It’d been fun… at first. After awhile, it was the same ol’, same ol’. New kids, same hot, uncomfortable costume, and the make-up. He was surprised his skin was still okay; the layers upon layers of that heavy make up and that music. If he had to hear “A Whole New World” one more time, he was sure someone was going to pay.

K frowned. As a matter of fact, he was sure he heard it now. It was soft at first, so soft that he thought it was part of the memory, but now he wasn’t so sure. He looked around; he heard music, but it wasn’t that. He knew he heard it, though; he…

K slowly turned his head to look at Nick, who was humming “A Whole New World” incessantly and emotionally… well, as much as you could while humming.

It was the final straw.

Reaching out, he smacked the young man hard upside the back of his head.

“Ouch!! Shit, what was that for?” Nick yelled, rubbing at the back of his head.

K shrugged, grinning suddenly. “I don‘t need a whole new world; I like this one.”

Nick watched as K strode off; he seemed preoccupied. K was one to always be off in his own world most of the time, but since they’d landed, it felt like he was miles away, distracted, which was rare for K. He was usually so on, so focused. The minute he’d stepped off of the plane, however, he’d lost that focus.

Shaking his head in confusion, Nick hurried to catch up.


± ± ±


Pearl tried to adjust her dress for what seemed like the hundredth time since she and Shazam had left the others to track the machine. The dress squeezed her body in all the wrong spots, forcing her to notice bulges in her body she knew did not exist before putting on the blue satin dress.

“I don’t think the weather machine is going to be found in that dress of yours, no matter how many bulges you find.” JC snickered as he passed the partner he was assigned to find the machine that was changing the weather at the “happiest place on Earth.”

Pearl rolled her eyes; she swore to herself that she was going to smack the pompous ass upside his head the next comment he made that didn’t pertain to actually being helpful in their search. “Well, I don’t see you looking very hard for this machine; it certainly is not in that mirror.” It was Pearl’s turn to snicker as she watched JC fluff the fringe on the shoulders of his costume.

A noise in the hallway caught Pearl’s attention away from JC before she could see him make a mocking face at the blonde. “Let’s move; I don’t want to get caught in this ridiculous outfit. I still don’t see why we couldn’t have dressed in uniforms…” Before she could finish her statement, she saw a rush of employees walking towards the duo. “Quick, we need to get moving; we have to look like we belong.” She grabbed JC’s arm and looped hers through his, plastering a wide grin on her face in an attempt to look as if she was actually happy to be dressed in her skintight satin garb. I had more room to breathe in that damned Playboy Bunny outfit, she thought to herself as she and JC maneuvered around a large group of food court employees.

“Shazam, where are you going?” Pearl shouted out at the ‘charming’ man as she rushed down the long, red corridor after him.

“We aren’t going to find the thing standing around and thinking about how awful you look in your outfit.” Besides, I want to be the one to save the day on this mission and prove for once and for all I am better than Carter, he thought to himself. The clicking heels of Pearl following him loomed in the background as he vainly attempted to figure out how he was going to find the weather machine and disable it.

“Shazam?” Pearl called out from behind with no response. “JC!” she called louder. “STOP!” she yelled at the irritating man.

“What?” he called back in response. “Glass slippers giving you blisters?” he asked, irritated.

“I think I found a room that may help us.” Pearl pointed to a doorway off to the side, labeled “Digital Animation Control Systems.” JC approached the door and looked around before he turned the handle. “Damn,” he cursed when the door did not budge. “Looks like I’m going to have to break it down.” He quickly moved towards the opposite wall and positioned himself to ram the door.

Pearl rolled her eyes and, spying the card swipe next to the door, pulled out the ID badge K had given her earlier and ran it down the reader. The light turned green, and the door clicked. “Shazam, I think we can…” Before she could finish her statement, a loud yell caught her attention, and nothing could be done before 006 slammed himself into the door, which gave away easily, causing him to fall flat on his face inside a room with computers standing in lines throughout the whole of it.

“Jackpot,” Pearl stated, ignoring her impulse to step on JC. Instead, she stepped over him to take a closer look at the computers inside the room. “There has to be something here to help us locate this weather machine.”

Pearl started maneuvering her way through the aisles of computers. Thankfully, the room monitor appeared to be on his break, and there was no one there to ask questions. There were computers monitoring the different areas of the park, but it would take Pearl at least an hour to make any sense out of what all the blinking lights really meant, and she had a feeling the technician who monitored that room was not going to be gone long enough for her to learn what she needed.

Noises coming from the other side of the room caught Pearl’s attention away from the computer she was currently looking at. She managed to move her dress around the aisle to find out what was going on. “Shazam!” she shouted as she caught her partner playing with one of the older machines, making beat box noises and pretending to be a DJ. “Who knows what you are doing up there.” Quickly, she pulled the man away from the computer and opened her mouth to reprimand the agent. Before she could get a word out, voices outside the door attracted her attention.

“Damn.” She pulled her prince across the room, and they ducked behind a bank of computers, attempting to hide themselves.

“No, Lou, I can’t take another fifteen minutes for a cigarette break; that new machine for Fantasyland has to be calibrated by the end of the day, or Steve is going to have my head.” The voice was now inside the room, and the agents were beginning to sweat. They looked at each other as the door, the only door in and out of the room, shut. The man started to whistle as he moved further into the room and positioned himself at the chair behind the keyboard JC had just been standing at.

“Nothing’s messed up; it hasn’t even been calibrated yet,” JC bragged in a whisper, now that Pearl’s earlier comment was called invalid.

“What the hell!” the man at the desk called out as he began to look around the room. “This is not how this board was left. Crap, Steve is gonna go ballistic if he finds out that the Country Bears program has new moves.”

Pearl looked at JC and rolled her eyes, re-validated in her comment about him screwing with the park mechanics. “Move towards the door,” she mouthed to JC. They started to sneak along, Pearl finally falling to her hands and knees so that her heels would not clack against the hard floor.

They managed to reach the door unseen, unheard, but now they had to think about how to get out of the room.

“I got an idea,” JC whispered.

Quickly, he moved to the door and flung it open. “Hey, what are you doing in here?” The technician looked up and saw JC standing in the doorway.

“I am new here. I really need to use the john; some guy in a monkey suit told me it was down this hall and to my right.”

“To your right about three more doors down.” The man rolled his eyes. “Newbie,” he grumbled and turned away from JC.

JC motioned for Pearl to move through the door quickly, but Pearl’s attention was hooked on something else. The light board for Tomorrowland looked different then the others. Most of the boards had a similar amount of blinking lights, showing the amount of electricity the areas were using, but Tomorrowland appeared to have more lights blinking than the others.

“What are you still doing in here? You certainly can’t whiz here,” the man grouched at JC, who was still standing in the doorway waiting for Pearl.

“Sorry,” JC responded. “It just looks interesting to work in here, is all.”

The man started to grumble about how hard his job really was and that no moron off the street dressed as Prince Charming could just waltz in and perform his duties, no matter what his boss Steve told him. While ranting, the guy stood up and started moving towards a back bank of computers, leaving the doorway completely open for JC and Pearl to make their escape.

“Now, Pearl!” JC grabbed hold of Pearl’s large satin hoop skirt and pulled her through the door. “Mind telling me what that was?” he snapped at her when they were safely back in the hallway.

“There looks like something could be up in Tomorrowland; let’s head that way.” She looked at the wall; they were still in the red corridor, indicating they were near Fantasyland. “It looks like we need to keep moving until we find the blue corridor.”

The two started to move again, Pearl’s heels clacking against the floor, causing a headache. “Look. Blue.” She smirked and started to move faster.

“Hey!” a voice called from behind.

“Now what?” Pearl remarked. “Do you think the bathroom scheme would work again?” she asked JC.

“You two are late,” the old man huffed as he reached Prince Charming and Cinderella. “The parade started ten minutes ago; you are lucky the Cinderella float isn’t at the beginning of the route.” The man grabbed both JC’s and Pearl’s arms and started to pull them back the way they had come. “If you want to keep working here, you best pay attention to your time table and don’t go wandering into worlds you don’t belong. Cinderella and Prince Charming should NEVER go into Tomorrowland.”

Pearl grimaced, tripping on her dress as she was pulled along. They did not have time for this, but the old man’s grip was deathly, and she knew that K would kill her if she blew their cover and they weren’t able to disable the weather machine. Quickly, her mind started formulating a plan to get off the float and make their way to Tomorrowland.

“Now get on your float.” The old man pushed the two dazed agents onto a float shaped like the pumpkin carriage. Pearl looked terrified as the float started to move out onto the street, where eager children were waiting for a glimpse of Cinderella.

“For God’s sake, smile,” JC muttered as he plastered a stupid grin to his face and started to wave. Pearl gulped and smiled as she was pulled through the streets.


± ± ±


Emerald could feel the tail of her giant, padded duck butt wagging from side to side as she walked – waddled, really –
silently cursing K with every step. How was she supposed to scope out undercover FANS agents when all her concentration was going towards simply not tripping over the enormous orange feet covering her own? They were like clown shoes! If she wasn’t careful, she was going to fall flat on her stupid, duck-billed face.

“And I thought dressing like a Playboy Bunny was bad,” she huffed to The Rok, who made a far better cartoon duck than she did.

“First you’re a bunny; now you’re a duck – you’d think it was Easter,” he joked. “What’s next, a chicken?” The CIA guy almost seemed to be enjoying himself. Emerald just felt ridiculous.

“No offense, but I’ll kill your cousin before I put on a fucking chicken costume for him. At least I looked sexy as a Bunny… now I just look like fucking klutz,” she complained, as her feet scuffed against the pavement, which was still strewn with drifts of snow, despite the Florida heat.

“Shh…” Brian lowered his soft, Southern drawl to a whisper, and Donald leaned close to Daisy. “Watch the F-bombs, alright? Daisy Duck doesn’t swear, ya know.”

In spite of her suffering, Emerald managed to laugh. “I dunno, Rok; I’d say a cursing Daisy Duck fits in pretty well with a Mickey Mouse who flips the bird. It’s the dark side of Disney.”

“Still… let’s not traumatize any more kids than Mickey already has.” The agent’s voice was light, but serious. Grudgingly, Emerald resolved herself to keeping her language in check.

It was a good thing, for as they waddled further from the concealed entrance to the sanctuary of the utilidors below and started their first lap around Mickey’s Toontown Fair, they were quickly ambushed by a group of small children, whose parents hung back, a few feet away, with cameras ready. “Donald Duck!!” the kids cried in excitement. “Daisy!!”

Beneath the stifling Daisy Duck mask, Emerald groaned, but her partner sprung into character. “Hello there!” he chirped in his Donald Duck voice, which he had clearly honed. “My name is Donald Duck! What’re your names?”

The children all recited their names, shouting over each other so that it was impossible to decipher most of them. Even so, Brian quacked to his companion, “Oh boy! Did you hear that? What beautiful names!”

The kids were quickly all over him, hugging him from every angle. They flocked to Emerald as well, who settled for waving and patting heads with her plush, white-gloved hands. She had no idea what Daisy Duck’s voice even sounded like, let alone any confidence that she could mimic it.

Luckily, The Rok’s imitation was good enough for the both of them. He hammed it up while the parents snapped pictures, twisting his padded gloves into thumbs up as he put his arms around various children, and wagging his duck tail for the cameras. The kids shrieked with laughter, and the parents were chuckling too. Even Emerald had to smile underneath the head of her costume. Admittedly, she’d found the CIA agent charming before, but now, he was just downright adorable. And “adorable” was not usually a part of Emerald’s vocabulary.

The smile lasted until Donald grabbed Daisy’s hand and forced her into a clumsy do-si-do, then spun her under his arm. Dizzy and wobbling, Emerald wanted to kill him, but the children clapped and whooped, enjoying the antics. Donald bowed. To her great surprise, “Daisy” found herself pulling a curtsy. The kids’ parents herded them away to the next attraction, and for a moment, the two large ducks were alone again.

“So, is that what you CIA guys do with your time – practice your cartoon impressions?” Emerald leaned close to him to mutter.

“What?!” Brian quacked in Donald’s voice, feigning shock. “I’m hurt you think I need to practice. Don’t you know? I’m a duck of many talents.”

“Well, I hope targeting enemies is another one,” Emerald shot back, “’cause don’t forget, that’s really what we’re supposed to be doing here. This isn’t play time. We have to be on the lookout for any suspicious characters. See any?” She looked around, noticing the various rides and cartoonish buildings that surrounded her.

Brian leaned back in. “I see Mickey.”

“Where?” Emerald asked hastily. She remembered what K had said about the Disney icon’s strange behavior.

Brian pointed. “There.”

Her eyes followed his gesture; her heartbeat quickened with the rush of adrenaline a mission always brought about. “Great. Let’s follow him.”


± ± ±