Post by Yen Sid on Jan 13, 2014 19:22:09 GMT
The Recording of The Struggle for the Orbs,
Year 1,
By Master Yen Sid, Sorcerer of the Stars
June:
The beginning of our struggle started with the month of June. On the first of that month, King Mickey Mouse, my apprentice, addressed the crowds of heroes on Pride Rock for the first time, explaining to them about the Orbs and the nature of our situation. In short, why they were all called by me. After answering a few questions from one Jack Skellington about whether they could leave or not—to which the answer was, yes, they were not being forced to remain a part of the Struggle—he dismissed them all to begin setting up camp.
As they set up the tents not far from Pride Rock, it was decided that Lady Daisy's area for a hospital would be King Simba's sleeping cave, now labeled the Medical Den, which meant all of the lions in the pride would have to sleep in tents as well. The Forces of Good spent most of the day setting up. Various children, such as Oliver, Lucky, Two-Tone, Scamp, and Marie met one another and became fast friends, determined not to be left out of the preparations and the Struggle merely because they were young.
Meanwhile, late that evening in the Outlands, which serves as the headquarters for the Forces of Evil, a young wolf by the name of Taraha, son of the wolf Rama in Akela's pack from the Idian Jungle, arrived in the Termite Mounds. He was called Gray Brother in the Jungle by his stepbrother, Mowgli the man-cub. Gray Brother was secretly a loyal member of the Forces of Good, and had gone to join up with the Forces of Evil as a double-agent, a spy, who would learn all he could about the Villains and gain their trust.
He was confronted by Shere Khan himself, sub-General of the Forces of Good, as well as four others.
There was Rebecca, a Scottish female Dalmatian puppy who had met Lucky before, under magical circumstances, but had lost her memory and been picked up by the hyenas under Scar's command, and deceived into believing she had nowhere to go and nothing to do but join up with the Forces of Evil.
There was also Tama, a female lioness with a grudge against Simba for abandoning her in the long-gone days of Scar's takeover. She and her brother had been rogues during that time, but when the true Lion King had returned to take back his throne, Tojo, her brother, had gone back home to the Pridelands, leaving his embittered sister to join the Forces of Evil with thoughts of revenge.
With this welcoming party was Redeyes—a huge brute of a bear who wanted nothing more than to avenge himself on a fox named Tod and a hunting dog called Copper—and Lady Tremaine, a dignified but manipulative, malicious woman bent on destroying her stepdaughter, Cinderella.
Each of these Villains were initially suspicious of Gray Brother, who stuck to calling himself Taraha and feeding them a false story of how he was a lone wolf desiring revenge on Akela. In the end, they resolved to let him join, taking the young wolf to Prydain, the castle that served as a first line of defense for the F.o.E.
The next day, the Horned King himself called a meeting in the very same fortress, wishing for as many Villains to attend as possible. He was informed by Lady Tremaine of the suspicious wolf Taraha. Said wolf came to the meeting himself, hoping for information he could take back to King Mickey, and was led into the throne room by Garm, a large, gruff guard dog who was loyal only to the Horned King.
Others who attended the meeting were: Shan Yu, leader of the Villain's Scouting Parties, desiring his own honor to be taken back by killing the young warrior woman, Mulan. Rebecca, the young Dalmatian pup. Lady Tremaine. Merlock, a anthropomorphic wolf magician who wanted revenge on Scrooge McDuck.
During the meeting, while the others introduced themselves, the Horned King gave Gray Brother a vision in case he really were a spy, threatening him and warning the young wolf not to betray them. Shaken, but not surrendering, Gray Brother merely kept his head down and carried on with his act. He learned that Lady Tremaine was keeping a record of every member of the Forces of Good, their strengths, weaknesses, and desires. Knowing that this would be crucial information to give to King Mickey, Gray Brother decided to gain the old woman's trust to get closer to the records, but before he could, he was ordered by Shan Yu to go and guard a certain prisoner being kept in the Elephant Graveyard. The meeting concluded shortly afterwards with the Horned King assigning Merlock to casts spells and wards around Prydain to keep me from seeing within.
Meanwhile, the Forces of Good sent out a search party made up of the young Space Ranger Ty Parsec, Scamp's mother and father, Lady and Tramp, Mulan and her recently-arrived husband General Shang, and Violet Parr. Violet was a teenage superheroine from a family of "supers", able to turn invisible and cast force-fields.
Their mission took them to the city of New York, where they were meant to find the young Princess of Arendelle, Anna, and lead her back to the Forces of Good camp. Things became awkward when Violet's mother, the former Elastagirl, now Mrs. Helen Parr, AKA "Mrs. Incredible", found them there and scolded her teenage offspring for going into a public area in her super-suit. Helen, during the super hero "Glory Days" of her home city, had once been known as the flexible Elastagirl, able to stretch her body to immeasurable lengths. When the supers were forced to go into hiding, she settled down with the super-strong Mr. Incredible, Bob Parr, and had three children; Violet, Dash, her super-speeding son, and their youngest shapeshifting infant, Jack-Jack. She came to join the Forces of Good at my call to help protect her family.
The group soon got back on track, determining that they should split up to find the missing Princess Anna. While they got organized, Anna herself was roaming the streets of New York, completely lost and bewildered by the modern technology. She was not alone in her confusion. A young man by the name of Thomas, who had once sailed to the New World with the Virginia Company, was also searching for the Forces of Good, and ran into the Princess of Arendelle. They introduced themselves, and set off to find their way together.
Back in the Outlands that same day, Gray Brother went out to the Elephant Graveyard, as instructed, to find the "prisoner" he was meant to be guarding, knowing that any prisoner of the Forces of Evil would need to be in his report to King Mickey. When he arrived, he found that the imprisoned hero was none other than Kopa, prince of the Pridelands and second child of King Simba. The young wolf had many questions to ask the cub, but none of these inquiries could be made without blowing his cover.
Jack Skellington, who had wandered into the Outlands on one of his long walks and gotten past the sentries because of his villainous appearance, immediately scooped Gray Brother up and began proclaiming his outrage at the cub's imprisonment. Gray Brother's cover was nearly blown to Redeyes the bear, who had been guarding Kopa beforehand, but Jack managed to put two-and-two together due to Gray Brother's resemblance to Akela, and safely left, leaving Taraha's true identity a safe secret.
That evening in the Forces of Good Camp, young Alice, a girl with the ability to travel to the mad world of Wonderland easily, fell asleep and went into the Tulgey Wood of said place to visit her friend The March Hare and take part in a tea party. She did not expect a few very bewildered friends from the Forces of Good to join her in Wonderland, including Piglet, an anthropomorphic pig who had been forced into joining the F.O.G by accident, Princess Rapunzel, who had left her husband and kingdom to help in the Struggle, and Princess Aurora, who had e same motives.
The next day, June 3rd, early in the morning, Gray Brother took Kopa out on a walk through the Termite Mounds so as not to be suspicious, and told the young Prince of his true identity as a spy for the Forces of Good. Kopa, in turn, put his trust in the young wolf by revealing that he was the son of Simba, and explained how he had been captured. The cub had been kidnapped by Outlander lions after running away from home.
Motivated even further by this to somehow devise a plan to smuggle Kopa back to his home, Gray Brother made sure the young boy understood the gravity of their situation and the need for secrecy and took him back to his cage. Both were heartened, knowing that they each had at least one person in all of the Forces of Evil that they could truly trust.
That afternoon, in the Forces of Good camp, a young spacer by the name of Jim Hawkins arrived after receiving my call and began nosing around. He found an old friend, John Silver, a former space-pirate turned cook, reluctantly helping out by cooking the evening meal. The two shared what had happened since their last meeting, why they had come to join the Struggle for the Orbs, and had a happy reunion.
Things did not go so well that day for Violet and her brother Dash, who snuck away together to the city of New Orleans, anxious to prove how experienced as Heroes they were and to get away from the overbearing Head Caretaker, Lady Daisy. The motherly cocker spaniel, Lady, followed their scent and found the two, but before she could bring them to safety, they had an unfortunate run-in with Maleficent, one of the Wicked Three, herself, as well as General Shan Yu and Garm. With help from Lady and quick thinking and use of their superpowers, they managed to escape the three powerful villains relatively unharmed and make their way back to camp.
Late that same evening, the Dalmatian puppy, Lucky, seemed to have the same idea, and snuck away from Lady Daisy and the other children in the dinner line, leaving camp. He took with him his three-legged brother, Tripod, his adopted sister, Two-Tone, her newfound friend, the mutt puppy Scamp, and his sisters Penny and Jewel. They adventured deep into the dangerous grasslands, against the rules, as the sun was going down, believing that they needed to prove themselves to the adults in the Forces of Good by mounting their own little search for the Orbs.
Lady Daisy Duck, appointed as Head Caretaker of the children as well as Lead Medic by me, did not notice they were gone until they had reached the river that served as a Border between the deadly Outlands and the wild Pridelands. After double-checking, she noticed that another dalmatian puppy, Dipstick, had also vanished. She quickly roused the entire camp into a search for the missing puppies.
As this was going on, Lucky and his group of mischief-makers stumbled upon Rebecca of the Forces of Evil, who had wandered alone across the Border into the Pridelands. Lucky was instantly smitten, though he, like Rebecca, did not remember that this was not the first time they had met. None of the Good puppies realized that Rebbecca was a member of the Forces of Evil, nor did any of them think to ask. She herself did not realize that they were enemies, whichever side they were on.
After conversing—awkwardly, when Two-Tone brought up her past date with Lucky—Rebecca happily decided to join the group of children in their misadventure looking for the Orb, leading them ever closer to the Outlands. They were found by a hungry hyena, who planned to eat each of the pups and revealed to them Rebecca's allegiances. As Tripod, thinking fast, chomped on the hyena's tail, Lucky sent Scamp and Two-Tone back to camp for help, but Two-Tone decided to stay when Lucky attacked the hyena in his brother's aid. Rebecca, deciding on the spur of the moment that she would rather be allied with her own kind than with hyenas, helped them while Scamp carried on alone.
Along the way, Scamp met Dipstick, who had tried to follow the others a little late. He quickly explained the situation and the two dashed straight into a frantically worried Lady Daisy. Meanwhile, at the Border, Lucky injured his paw being kicked by the hyena, and yapped frantically in case any older heroes were near enough to help. This brought Daisy straight to them, and Ty Parsec the Space Ranger flew in to scare the hyena off. After a stern scolding, the puppies were brought safely back to camp under the even more watchful eye of Daisy.
On June 4th, the Forces of Good had their first scouting party with Goofy, leader of the scouts. He took Ty, Mulan, Jim, John Silver, and a small blue alien called Stitch who had once been a genetically engineered monster created purely for wreaking havoc, with him. This day was uneventful, and most of the heroes spent a relaxing evening in their tents while Mulan was reunited with her ancestor-given, miniature dragon guardian, Mushu. What they did not know was that, miles, away, in the waters near Sydney, Australia, Ursula the Sea Witch was setting up her underwater lair. Jafar, one of the Wicked Three, paid her a visit to discuss the progress of her aquatic army. Monstro the massive monster whale joined their meeting, having been one of the underwater minions she called for.
On the fifth of June, I was visited by Mulan, who had several ideas for retrieving any Orbs in the unthinkable event that one of them was captured by the Forces of Evil first. Jack Skellington also came to invite me to a Halloween event he was planning to lift the spirits of the stressed Forces of Good. Meanwhile, in Prydain, Gray Brother ran into a peculiarly mad woman calling herself the Queen of Hearts, claiming she was the ruler of Wonderland.
The next morning, Mickey and Daisy were out for a stroll through the Forces of Good camp. Daisy was just pestering the inexperienced King about her troubles with the puppies when they stumbled upon a very strange scene. Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck's uncle, great uncle to Donald's nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, had arrived. Being the richest old miser in Duckburg, he had opted to join the Forces of Good, if only to keep an eye on his nephew, and was actually having his entire mansion moved to the Pridelands to avoid sleeping in a tent. Though overjoyed to see him, Mickey and Daisy soon became annoyed with Scrooge's lack of faith in their friend, Donald. Scrooge had many complaints about the order of things in the F.O.G., one of them being that his money-counter, Fenton, had run off and abandoned his job to join the Struggle.
Fenton happened to not only be Scrooge's employee, but also his bodyguard; his secret identity was one of Duckburg's most beloved superheroes, "GizmoDuck". Fenton kept his secret identity safe even while in the Forces of Good, only putting on the gadget-filled Gizmo Suit in times of dire need. As the three welcomed and argued with Scrooge, yet another new arrival surprised them, literally running right into Mickey.
This new recruit turned out to be none other than Scoot, Mickey Mouse's scooter, whom he had brought to life with magic. Scoot was one of Mickey's close friends, despite his limited intelligence and speech, and was overjoyed to be joining the Forces of Good. Scrooge forgave Fenton for abandoning his job, and offered to take a turn watching the many children in the Forces of Good if Daisy should ever need a break. The offer was most welcome.
The next day, Akela managed to convince the Duck Companions to the King to allow a small training session for the children in their designated area under Pride Rock, believing that such an activity would be a good outlet for them that would hopefully dissuade any dangerous mishaps like the one Lucky and the pups or Violet and Dash had gotten themselves into. On this day a reknowned lady mouse from the Rescue Aid Society named Miss Bianca joined the Forces of Good, becoming a Caretaker and Medic alongside Daisy.
On the eighth, Oliver was surprised and overjoyed to greet his best friend and owner, Jennifer Foxworth. The eight-year old girl had rescued Oliver when he was an infant alley cat, and he, in turn, had led a band of street dogs to save her on her last birthday when she was kidnapped by a man named Mr. Sykes. The two were delighted to be reunited and Jenny became an assistant to Lady Daisy's Medics during her spare time. This same afternoon, Mulan tried to teach a training lesson for the Forces of Good, but it ended in wacky humiliation when Stitch arrived on the scene and accidentally reduced everything she had tried to set up to mayhem.
The very next day was quite uneventful, for the Forces of Good as the heroes busied themselves with plans and getting to know one another. For example, the princess Rapunzel, who had been impressed by Mulan's training session despite Stitch's antics, went to the Chinese heroine's tent, befriending Mulan.
These happy days for the Forces of Good were not to last, for in the Outlands, Shan Yu had gained permission from the Wicked Three to lead his own scouting mission right into the Pridelands' Gorge in hopes of gathering information on the enemy, or at the most, stumble upon an Orb. After a heated discussion with Shere Khan the tiger, Shan Yu chose said big cat to join the party, as well as hand-picking Redeyes the Bear, Biff the alley dog, and Gray Brother--secretly a spy for the FOG--for the small strike team. Kopa, the cub-Prince prisoner, was also chosen to be brought along in case the mission failed and they needed a hostage to escape.
The next evening, the struggle began officially. Shan Yu led his team into the Gorge. They had gotten deep into the Forces of Good's territory before they were spotted by the well-hidden Hunchback of Notre Dame, Quasimodo, and Mulan with Mushu, as well as Akela and Bolt. Bolt was a former television star who played the role of a superdog, and a close friend of Oliver's. Shan Yu and his team had just stumbled on a Virtue high in the side of the Gorge when the heroes broke cover, attacking the intruders. Quasimodo went after Redeyes with a crude club. Bolt attacked first Shere Khan, but was held back by Biff the alley dog. Gray Brother stashed Kopa out of the way, hoping to protect the prisoner from the battle, and was forced to fight his old pack leader, Akela, for the sake of maintaining his cover as a rogue. Meanwhile, Shan Yu and Shere Khan went after the Virtue, but Mulan held the Hun General at bay.
This gave the tiger a clear shot at the Virtue, but no sooner did Shere Khan reach the Orb when Kopa burst from his hiding place, determined to help, and swiped the Virtue. The big cat slashed at the Prince of the Pridelands with his claws, but Kopa managed to dodge long enough for Mulan to break away from Shan Yu. The Asian woman had stashed a bag of her belongings beneath a bush along with Mushu when she spotted the Forces of Evil scouts, and now ran back to get it. She managed to light and send up a firework as a cry for help to the rest of the Forces of Good back at camp with Mushu's aid before she was brutally stabbed in the side by Shan Yu.
Akela, having been injured in the throat by Gray Brother, managed to momentarily stun the double-agent and race to the Asian woman's rescue, attacking Shan Yu. Kopa reached Mulan where she lay with Mushu watching over her, Virtue in paw. Shere Khan and Gray Brother reached the two, and the wolf and cub were powerless to help when the tiger threatened to kill the wounded Mulan right then and there if he wasn't given the Orb. Before things could take a turn for the disastrous, help finally arrived. Violet Parr, invisible, created a thin force field around Mulan to protect her from Shere Khan and snatched the Orb from Kopa, running away with it towards the camp for all she was worth. Shere Khan, seeing the mud on her boots which revealed her location despite being invisible, gave chase along with Gray Brother, who told Kopa to make a break for freedom while the Villains were all in battle.
Ty Parsec also arrived and went quickly to help the wounded Mulan. Stitch also showed up, hampering Shere Khan from getting to Violet and her newly arrived brother, Dash. This gave the two super-siblings enough time to use Violet's force field combined with Dash's speed and dash all the way to Pride Rock where King Mickey waited, successfully getting home free with the first of the Ten Virtues and claiming it for the Forces of Good. Shan Yu, injured in both legs by Akela's fangs, reluctantly and furiously called for a retreat, knowing his first scouting mission had ended in disaster.
The very next morning, Jack Skellington helped to carry Mulan into the Med Den, where Daisy, Jenny, and Bianca tended to her wounds with Bolt, the newly returned-home Kopa, Oliver, and Violet's help. This was distressing for all of the Heroes, and they were all reminded of how serious the Struggle for the Orbs was.
After this, Kopa got the all-clear from Daisy to leave the Medical Den and go find his family, who would be overjoyed to see him home and safe. Finding the royal lions' tent, he first met Kovu, his big sister's boyfriend, who was ecstatic to see the cub, though worried about the danger his little friend had been put in during his time as a prisoner. In addition to this, the Prince also met Hazel for the first time. Hazel was one of the Outlander lionesses who had abandoned their hate-driven cause against Simba and joined the Lion King's pride instead, repenting of their evil ways and leaving their former leader, Zira, behind. Hazel was a shy but smart lioness who only wanted to be sure that King Simba and his royal family did not doubt her loyalty, despite the news that Zira and Scar, her former idols, were back. She warmly greeted Prince Kopa, as well.
The next evening on the twelfth, Gray Brother had his first secret rendezvous with Akela and Mickey, meeting with them at the Border to pass on everything he had learned so far about the Forces of Evil. Though the meeting went well and they were not spotted, Akela was troubled at the way the young wolf seemed to be taking his perilous job as a double-agent very hard. However, he continued on, returning to the Outlands to carry on undercover.
On the fourteenth, in the Great Sand Desert, a small scouting party of the F.O.E.'s was uniting through the sandy wasteland for an Orb. Gray Brother, the spy for the Forces of Good, and Garm, the Horned King's personal guard dog, were following Lady Tremaine, who had taken them out on a wild goose chase for a Virtue in the hopes of learning more about Gray Brother's allegiances. She was still suspicious of him, being a very shrewd woman, but could find no proof that the double-agent was not what he claimed to be.
Meanwhile that afternoon in the Forces of Good, Lady Daisy took out all of the children who would come, as well as some adults, on a small trip to the Watering Hole to lift their troubled young spirits after the grisly events of the tenth. Among the kids attending were Lucky, Two-Tone, Oliver and the dainty French kitten he had a crush on, Marie, Violet, Bolt, Cody (who had been having nightmares about a little girl named Penny), Miss Bianca, and Kopa. Alice's pet cat, Dinah, had also joined the Forces of Good and came along, wanting to be near Oliver, being his secret admirer. Joining, too, was a rambunctious dalmatian pup, adoptive brother of Lucky, Two-Tone, and Tripod, named Aces. Though the little outing was supposed to be simple and fun enough, disaster nearly struck when the group stopped beneath a tree to rest. When the tree began to break, being dry at the roots, it would have crushed Violet and Cody if not for Bolt. The ordinary shepherd suddenly and amazingly, as well as mysteriously, acquired the same super-powers he was supposed to have in the television show he'd once been a part of, and super-sped over, super-barking the tree away before it could fall on the children. Everyone was incredibly confused, though most of the children were excited and enthralled, as well. Two-Tone, Pepper, Tripod, Lucky, and Aces' brother also joined the growing ranks of Dalmatian puppies. His name was Patch.
GizmoDuck, Piglet, and a young leopard Princess from the Hakuna Matata Paradise named Claudia joined them late. Kopa was happy to see Claudia in particular, having a crush on the other feline.
Meanwhile, in London, Thomas, the young man who had journeyed to the New World, then joined us after helping to find Princess Anna in New York, had gone to the Merged Worlds-version of his hometown, surprised to find it very different. Another curious passerby who met and joined him was Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Note Dame, Paris. The disfigured bell-ringer and young sailer-soldier became friends, and explored the town together before returning to Camp.
Later that same day, I received Bolt as my guest in my Tower. He was curious about his newfound powers, and wanted answers as to how they had suddenly and possibly magically appeared in his ordinary dog body. Unfortunately, I had no answers to his questions, for I had nothing to do with the matter. I did give him healthy advice though, speculating that the Orbs may have been the cause of this unexplained phenomenon, and that he had best exercise caution when using his powers, because we would never know if they re only temporary or permanent. I also instructed him to go and look at the one Virtue the Forces of Good had in their possession, knowing that the Orb had magical and mysterious properties, and might hold some answers.
On the fifteenth, Shere Khan took Gray Brother out to the Hakuna Matata paradise, the African Jungle, seemingly for a casual hunt together. It was not surprising when the tiger revealed his true motives for going out with the wolf alone and began to question 'Taraha', convinced rightly that the loner was no rogue. After a moment of hesitation, the depressed and tired double-agent satisfied the tiger by giving away a little of the truth without revealing himself as a Forces of Good Spy, and told Shere Khan that he was the son of Rama as well as Mowgli's brother. Though the mention of Mowgli angered Shere Khan, he surprised the wolf by offering his condolences and seeming to understand that the Man-Cub must have made Gray Brother's childhood relationship with his parents difficult. Gray Brother asked what the tiger's reasons were for joining up with the Forces of Evil, and learned that all Shere Khan supposedly wanted was to be able to drive Man from the Jungle, or at least remove their guns and fire from them. Taraha was conflicted, thinking that it perhaps might not be so bad if the big cat got what he wanted. Wouldn't it mean peace for the Jungles of India, for the animals to be left alone at last?
Later that day, Valder, the thickly-furred wolf, was at the Border between the Outlands and Pridelands when he was surprised to find none other than Piglet, the naive and easily frightened member of the Forces of Good, in the Outlander's territory. Seeing that Piglet did not apparently know what he had done, going so far as to ask Valder for help carrying a bag of seeds he'd gathered across the river, Valder did not attack the intruder. Instead, he reluctantly helped the kindly pig with his bag and saw him safely to the other side, revealing himself to be more kindhearted than most villains. Piglet, still not aware that the wolf was a Villain, and as such, an enemy, sketched Valder a picture as a thank-you and went happily back to the Forces of Good.
Gray Brother, recently returning from his hunting exposition with Shere Khan, saw all of this from a distance and questioned Valder without blowing his cover, wondering if, because of his display of kindness towards a Hero, the other wolf was also a spy. Valder quickly destroyed this theory, however, by explaining in a carefree way that Piglet had been so small and harmless that it hadn't seemed worth it to attack him. Gray Brother still insisted that he and his fellow wolf report the border incursion to Scar and Zira, however small it may have been.
On the seventeenth of June, back in the Forces of Good camp, Peter Pan convinced Jenny to shirk her duties collecting herbs for Daisy and play pretend with him, instead. She reluctantly agreed, having, as many young girls do, a slight crush on the flying Boy.
Time passed quite uneventfully after that. The Forces of Good continued to grow ever closer in their bonds with one another, despite coming from different worlds. Life began settling back down in the Pridelands, though the heroes were much more careful about their boundaries ever since the First Orb had nearly been stolen right out from under their noses, in their own territory, on the tenth.
On June 21, Piglet, the living stuffed animal from a boy named Christopher Robin's childhood imaginings, invited the life-loving princess Rapunzel over to his house for lunch. The house had been accidentally and magically transported to the Merged Worlds, and it reminded the pig of home as he tried to soothe his nerves by making new friends.
Year 1,
By Master Yen Sid, Sorcerer of the Stars
June:
The beginning of our struggle started with the month of June. On the first of that month, King Mickey Mouse, my apprentice, addressed the crowds of heroes on Pride Rock for the first time, explaining to them about the Orbs and the nature of our situation. In short, why they were all called by me. After answering a few questions from one Jack Skellington about whether they could leave or not—to which the answer was, yes, they were not being forced to remain a part of the Struggle—he dismissed them all to begin setting up camp.
As they set up the tents not far from Pride Rock, it was decided that Lady Daisy's area for a hospital would be King Simba's sleeping cave, now labeled the Medical Den, which meant all of the lions in the pride would have to sleep in tents as well. The Forces of Good spent most of the day setting up. Various children, such as Oliver, Lucky, Two-Tone, Scamp, and Marie met one another and became fast friends, determined not to be left out of the preparations and the Struggle merely because they were young.
Meanwhile, late that evening in the Outlands, which serves as the headquarters for the Forces of Evil, a young wolf by the name of Taraha, son of the wolf Rama in Akela's pack from the Idian Jungle, arrived in the Termite Mounds. He was called Gray Brother in the Jungle by his stepbrother, Mowgli the man-cub. Gray Brother was secretly a loyal member of the Forces of Good, and had gone to join up with the Forces of Evil as a double-agent, a spy, who would learn all he could about the Villains and gain their trust.
He was confronted by Shere Khan himself, sub-General of the Forces of Good, as well as four others.
There was Rebecca, a Scottish female Dalmatian puppy who had met Lucky before, under magical circumstances, but had lost her memory and been picked up by the hyenas under Scar's command, and deceived into believing she had nowhere to go and nothing to do but join up with the Forces of Evil.
There was also Tama, a female lioness with a grudge against Simba for abandoning her in the long-gone days of Scar's takeover. She and her brother had been rogues during that time, but when the true Lion King had returned to take back his throne, Tojo, her brother, had gone back home to the Pridelands, leaving his embittered sister to join the Forces of Evil with thoughts of revenge.
With this welcoming party was Redeyes—a huge brute of a bear who wanted nothing more than to avenge himself on a fox named Tod and a hunting dog called Copper—and Lady Tremaine, a dignified but manipulative, malicious woman bent on destroying her stepdaughter, Cinderella.
Each of these Villains were initially suspicious of Gray Brother, who stuck to calling himself Taraha and feeding them a false story of how he was a lone wolf desiring revenge on Akela. In the end, they resolved to let him join, taking the young wolf to Prydain, the castle that served as a first line of defense for the F.o.E.
The next day, the Horned King himself called a meeting in the very same fortress, wishing for as many Villains to attend as possible. He was informed by Lady Tremaine of the suspicious wolf Taraha. Said wolf came to the meeting himself, hoping for information he could take back to King Mickey, and was led into the throne room by Garm, a large, gruff guard dog who was loyal only to the Horned King.
Others who attended the meeting were: Shan Yu, leader of the Villain's Scouting Parties, desiring his own honor to be taken back by killing the young warrior woman, Mulan. Rebecca, the young Dalmatian pup. Lady Tremaine. Merlock, a anthropomorphic wolf magician who wanted revenge on Scrooge McDuck.
During the meeting, while the others introduced themselves, the Horned King gave Gray Brother a vision in case he really were a spy, threatening him and warning the young wolf not to betray them. Shaken, but not surrendering, Gray Brother merely kept his head down and carried on with his act. He learned that Lady Tremaine was keeping a record of every member of the Forces of Good, their strengths, weaknesses, and desires. Knowing that this would be crucial information to give to King Mickey, Gray Brother decided to gain the old woman's trust to get closer to the records, but before he could, he was ordered by Shan Yu to go and guard a certain prisoner being kept in the Elephant Graveyard. The meeting concluded shortly afterwards with the Horned King assigning Merlock to casts spells and wards around Prydain to keep me from seeing within.
Meanwhile, the Forces of Good sent out a search party made up of the young Space Ranger Ty Parsec, Scamp's mother and father, Lady and Tramp, Mulan and her recently-arrived husband General Shang, and Violet Parr. Violet was a teenage superheroine from a family of "supers", able to turn invisible and cast force-fields.
Their mission took them to the city of New York, where they were meant to find the young Princess of Arendelle, Anna, and lead her back to the Forces of Good camp. Things became awkward when Violet's mother, the former Elastagirl, now Mrs. Helen Parr, AKA "Mrs. Incredible", found them there and scolded her teenage offspring for going into a public area in her super-suit. Helen, during the super hero "Glory Days" of her home city, had once been known as the flexible Elastagirl, able to stretch her body to immeasurable lengths. When the supers were forced to go into hiding, she settled down with the super-strong Mr. Incredible, Bob Parr, and had three children; Violet, Dash, her super-speeding son, and their youngest shapeshifting infant, Jack-Jack. She came to join the Forces of Good at my call to help protect her family.
The group soon got back on track, determining that they should split up to find the missing Princess Anna. While they got organized, Anna herself was roaming the streets of New York, completely lost and bewildered by the modern technology. She was not alone in her confusion. A young man by the name of Thomas, who had once sailed to the New World with the Virginia Company, was also searching for the Forces of Good, and ran into the Princess of Arendelle. They introduced themselves, and set off to find their way together.
Back in the Outlands that same day, Gray Brother went out to the Elephant Graveyard, as instructed, to find the "prisoner" he was meant to be guarding, knowing that any prisoner of the Forces of Evil would need to be in his report to King Mickey. When he arrived, he found that the imprisoned hero was none other than Kopa, prince of the Pridelands and second child of King Simba. The young wolf had many questions to ask the cub, but none of these inquiries could be made without blowing his cover.
Jack Skellington, who had wandered into the Outlands on one of his long walks and gotten past the sentries because of his villainous appearance, immediately scooped Gray Brother up and began proclaiming his outrage at the cub's imprisonment. Gray Brother's cover was nearly blown to Redeyes the bear, who had been guarding Kopa beforehand, but Jack managed to put two-and-two together due to Gray Brother's resemblance to Akela, and safely left, leaving Taraha's true identity a safe secret.
That evening in the Forces of Good Camp, young Alice, a girl with the ability to travel to the mad world of Wonderland easily, fell asleep and went into the Tulgey Wood of said place to visit her friend The March Hare and take part in a tea party. She did not expect a few very bewildered friends from the Forces of Good to join her in Wonderland, including Piglet, an anthropomorphic pig who had been forced into joining the F.O.G by accident, Princess Rapunzel, who had left her husband and kingdom to help in the Struggle, and Princess Aurora, who had e same motives.
The next day, June 3rd, early in the morning, Gray Brother took Kopa out on a walk through the Termite Mounds so as not to be suspicious, and told the young Prince of his true identity as a spy for the Forces of Good. Kopa, in turn, put his trust in the young wolf by revealing that he was the son of Simba, and explained how he had been captured. The cub had been kidnapped by Outlander lions after running away from home.
Motivated even further by this to somehow devise a plan to smuggle Kopa back to his home, Gray Brother made sure the young boy understood the gravity of their situation and the need for secrecy and took him back to his cage. Both were heartened, knowing that they each had at least one person in all of the Forces of Evil that they could truly trust.
That afternoon, in the Forces of Good camp, a young spacer by the name of Jim Hawkins arrived after receiving my call and began nosing around. He found an old friend, John Silver, a former space-pirate turned cook, reluctantly helping out by cooking the evening meal. The two shared what had happened since their last meeting, why they had come to join the Struggle for the Orbs, and had a happy reunion.
Things did not go so well that day for Violet and her brother Dash, who snuck away together to the city of New Orleans, anxious to prove how experienced as Heroes they were and to get away from the overbearing Head Caretaker, Lady Daisy. The motherly cocker spaniel, Lady, followed their scent and found the two, but before she could bring them to safety, they had an unfortunate run-in with Maleficent, one of the Wicked Three, herself, as well as General Shan Yu and Garm. With help from Lady and quick thinking and use of their superpowers, they managed to escape the three powerful villains relatively unharmed and make their way back to camp.
Late that same evening, the Dalmatian puppy, Lucky, seemed to have the same idea, and snuck away from Lady Daisy and the other children in the dinner line, leaving camp. He took with him his three-legged brother, Tripod, his adopted sister, Two-Tone, her newfound friend, the mutt puppy Scamp, and his sisters Penny and Jewel. They adventured deep into the dangerous grasslands, against the rules, as the sun was going down, believing that they needed to prove themselves to the adults in the Forces of Good by mounting their own little search for the Orbs.
Lady Daisy Duck, appointed as Head Caretaker of the children as well as Lead Medic by me, did not notice they were gone until they had reached the river that served as a Border between the deadly Outlands and the wild Pridelands. After double-checking, she noticed that another dalmatian puppy, Dipstick, had also vanished. She quickly roused the entire camp into a search for the missing puppies.
As this was going on, Lucky and his group of mischief-makers stumbled upon Rebecca of the Forces of Evil, who had wandered alone across the Border into the Pridelands. Lucky was instantly smitten, though he, like Rebecca, did not remember that this was not the first time they had met. None of the Good puppies realized that Rebbecca was a member of the Forces of Evil, nor did any of them think to ask. She herself did not realize that they were enemies, whichever side they were on.
After conversing—awkwardly, when Two-Tone brought up her past date with Lucky—Rebecca happily decided to join the group of children in their misadventure looking for the Orb, leading them ever closer to the Outlands. They were found by a hungry hyena, who planned to eat each of the pups and revealed to them Rebecca's allegiances. As Tripod, thinking fast, chomped on the hyena's tail, Lucky sent Scamp and Two-Tone back to camp for help, but Two-Tone decided to stay when Lucky attacked the hyena in his brother's aid. Rebecca, deciding on the spur of the moment that she would rather be allied with her own kind than with hyenas, helped them while Scamp carried on alone.
Along the way, Scamp met Dipstick, who had tried to follow the others a little late. He quickly explained the situation and the two dashed straight into a frantically worried Lady Daisy. Meanwhile, at the Border, Lucky injured his paw being kicked by the hyena, and yapped frantically in case any older heroes were near enough to help. This brought Daisy straight to them, and Ty Parsec the Space Ranger flew in to scare the hyena off. After a stern scolding, the puppies were brought safely back to camp under the even more watchful eye of Daisy.
On June 4th, the Forces of Good had their first scouting party with Goofy, leader of the scouts. He took Ty, Mulan, Jim, John Silver, and a small blue alien called Stitch who had once been a genetically engineered monster created purely for wreaking havoc, with him. This day was uneventful, and most of the heroes spent a relaxing evening in their tents while Mulan was reunited with her ancestor-given, miniature dragon guardian, Mushu. What they did not know was that, miles, away, in the waters near Sydney, Australia, Ursula the Sea Witch was setting up her underwater lair. Jafar, one of the Wicked Three, paid her a visit to discuss the progress of her aquatic army. Monstro the massive monster whale joined their meeting, having been one of the underwater minions she called for.
On the fifth of June, I was visited by Mulan, who had several ideas for retrieving any Orbs in the unthinkable event that one of them was captured by the Forces of Evil first. Jack Skellington also came to invite me to a Halloween event he was planning to lift the spirits of the stressed Forces of Good. Meanwhile, in Prydain, Gray Brother ran into a peculiarly mad woman calling herself the Queen of Hearts, claiming she was the ruler of Wonderland.
The next morning, Mickey and Daisy were out for a stroll through the Forces of Good camp. Daisy was just pestering the inexperienced King about her troubles with the puppies when they stumbled upon a very strange scene. Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck's uncle, great uncle to Donald's nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie, had arrived. Being the richest old miser in Duckburg, he had opted to join the Forces of Good, if only to keep an eye on his nephew, and was actually having his entire mansion moved to the Pridelands to avoid sleeping in a tent. Though overjoyed to see him, Mickey and Daisy soon became annoyed with Scrooge's lack of faith in their friend, Donald. Scrooge had many complaints about the order of things in the F.O.G., one of them being that his money-counter, Fenton, had run off and abandoned his job to join the Struggle.
Fenton happened to not only be Scrooge's employee, but also his bodyguard; his secret identity was one of Duckburg's most beloved superheroes, "GizmoDuck". Fenton kept his secret identity safe even while in the Forces of Good, only putting on the gadget-filled Gizmo Suit in times of dire need. As the three welcomed and argued with Scrooge, yet another new arrival surprised them, literally running right into Mickey.
This new recruit turned out to be none other than Scoot, Mickey Mouse's scooter, whom he had brought to life with magic. Scoot was one of Mickey's close friends, despite his limited intelligence and speech, and was overjoyed to be joining the Forces of Good. Scrooge forgave Fenton for abandoning his job, and offered to take a turn watching the many children in the Forces of Good if Daisy should ever need a break. The offer was most welcome.
The next day, Akela managed to convince the Duck Companions to the King to allow a small training session for the children in their designated area under Pride Rock, believing that such an activity would be a good outlet for them that would hopefully dissuade any dangerous mishaps like the one Lucky and the pups or Violet and Dash had gotten themselves into. On this day a reknowned lady mouse from the Rescue Aid Society named Miss Bianca joined the Forces of Good, becoming a Caretaker and Medic alongside Daisy.
On the eighth, Oliver was surprised and overjoyed to greet his best friend and owner, Jennifer Foxworth. The eight-year old girl had rescued Oliver when he was an infant alley cat, and he, in turn, had led a band of street dogs to save her on her last birthday when she was kidnapped by a man named Mr. Sykes. The two were delighted to be reunited and Jenny became an assistant to Lady Daisy's Medics during her spare time. This same afternoon, Mulan tried to teach a training lesson for the Forces of Good, but it ended in wacky humiliation when Stitch arrived on the scene and accidentally reduced everything she had tried to set up to mayhem.
The very next day was quite uneventful, for the Forces of Good as the heroes busied themselves with plans and getting to know one another. For example, the princess Rapunzel, who had been impressed by Mulan's training session despite Stitch's antics, went to the Chinese heroine's tent, befriending Mulan.
These happy days for the Forces of Good were not to last, for in the Outlands, Shan Yu had gained permission from the Wicked Three to lead his own scouting mission right into the Pridelands' Gorge in hopes of gathering information on the enemy, or at the most, stumble upon an Orb. After a heated discussion with Shere Khan the tiger, Shan Yu chose said big cat to join the party, as well as hand-picking Redeyes the Bear, Biff the alley dog, and Gray Brother--secretly a spy for the FOG--for the small strike team. Kopa, the cub-Prince prisoner, was also chosen to be brought along in case the mission failed and they needed a hostage to escape.
The next evening, the struggle began officially. Shan Yu led his team into the Gorge. They had gotten deep into the Forces of Good's territory before they were spotted by the well-hidden Hunchback of Notre Dame, Quasimodo, and Mulan with Mushu, as well as Akela and Bolt. Bolt was a former television star who played the role of a superdog, and a close friend of Oliver's. Shan Yu and his team had just stumbled on a Virtue high in the side of the Gorge when the heroes broke cover, attacking the intruders. Quasimodo went after Redeyes with a crude club. Bolt attacked first Shere Khan, but was held back by Biff the alley dog. Gray Brother stashed Kopa out of the way, hoping to protect the prisoner from the battle, and was forced to fight his old pack leader, Akela, for the sake of maintaining his cover as a rogue. Meanwhile, Shan Yu and Shere Khan went after the Virtue, but Mulan held the Hun General at bay.
This gave the tiger a clear shot at the Virtue, but no sooner did Shere Khan reach the Orb when Kopa burst from his hiding place, determined to help, and swiped the Virtue. The big cat slashed at the Prince of the Pridelands with his claws, but Kopa managed to dodge long enough for Mulan to break away from Shan Yu. The Asian woman had stashed a bag of her belongings beneath a bush along with Mushu when she spotted the Forces of Evil scouts, and now ran back to get it. She managed to light and send up a firework as a cry for help to the rest of the Forces of Good back at camp with Mushu's aid before she was brutally stabbed in the side by Shan Yu.
Akela, having been injured in the throat by Gray Brother, managed to momentarily stun the double-agent and race to the Asian woman's rescue, attacking Shan Yu. Kopa reached Mulan where she lay with Mushu watching over her, Virtue in paw. Shere Khan and Gray Brother reached the two, and the wolf and cub were powerless to help when the tiger threatened to kill the wounded Mulan right then and there if he wasn't given the Orb. Before things could take a turn for the disastrous, help finally arrived. Violet Parr, invisible, created a thin force field around Mulan to protect her from Shere Khan and snatched the Orb from Kopa, running away with it towards the camp for all she was worth. Shere Khan, seeing the mud on her boots which revealed her location despite being invisible, gave chase along with Gray Brother, who told Kopa to make a break for freedom while the Villains were all in battle.
Ty Parsec also arrived and went quickly to help the wounded Mulan. Stitch also showed up, hampering Shere Khan from getting to Violet and her newly arrived brother, Dash. This gave the two super-siblings enough time to use Violet's force field combined with Dash's speed and dash all the way to Pride Rock where King Mickey waited, successfully getting home free with the first of the Ten Virtues and claiming it for the Forces of Good. Shan Yu, injured in both legs by Akela's fangs, reluctantly and furiously called for a retreat, knowing his first scouting mission had ended in disaster.
The very next morning, Jack Skellington helped to carry Mulan into the Med Den, where Daisy, Jenny, and Bianca tended to her wounds with Bolt, the newly returned-home Kopa, Oliver, and Violet's help. This was distressing for all of the Heroes, and they were all reminded of how serious the Struggle for the Orbs was.
After this, Kopa got the all-clear from Daisy to leave the Medical Den and go find his family, who would be overjoyed to see him home and safe. Finding the royal lions' tent, he first met Kovu, his big sister's boyfriend, who was ecstatic to see the cub, though worried about the danger his little friend had been put in during his time as a prisoner. In addition to this, the Prince also met Hazel for the first time. Hazel was one of the Outlander lionesses who had abandoned their hate-driven cause against Simba and joined the Lion King's pride instead, repenting of their evil ways and leaving their former leader, Zira, behind. Hazel was a shy but smart lioness who only wanted to be sure that King Simba and his royal family did not doubt her loyalty, despite the news that Zira and Scar, her former idols, were back. She warmly greeted Prince Kopa, as well.
The next evening on the twelfth, Gray Brother had his first secret rendezvous with Akela and Mickey, meeting with them at the Border to pass on everything he had learned so far about the Forces of Evil. Though the meeting went well and they were not spotted, Akela was troubled at the way the young wolf seemed to be taking his perilous job as a double-agent very hard. However, he continued on, returning to the Outlands to carry on undercover.
On the fourteenth, in the Great Sand Desert, a small scouting party of the F.O.E.'s was uniting through the sandy wasteland for an Orb. Gray Brother, the spy for the Forces of Good, and Garm, the Horned King's personal guard dog, were following Lady Tremaine, who had taken them out on a wild goose chase for a Virtue in the hopes of learning more about Gray Brother's allegiances. She was still suspicious of him, being a very shrewd woman, but could find no proof that the double-agent was not what he claimed to be.
Meanwhile that afternoon in the Forces of Good, Lady Daisy took out all of the children who would come, as well as some adults, on a small trip to the Watering Hole to lift their troubled young spirits after the grisly events of the tenth. Among the kids attending were Lucky, Two-Tone, Oliver and the dainty French kitten he had a crush on, Marie, Violet, Bolt, Cody (who had been having nightmares about a little girl named Penny), Miss Bianca, and Kopa. Alice's pet cat, Dinah, had also joined the Forces of Good and came along, wanting to be near Oliver, being his secret admirer. Joining, too, was a rambunctious dalmatian pup, adoptive brother of Lucky, Two-Tone, and Tripod, named Aces. Though the little outing was supposed to be simple and fun enough, disaster nearly struck when the group stopped beneath a tree to rest. When the tree began to break, being dry at the roots, it would have crushed Violet and Cody if not for Bolt. The ordinary shepherd suddenly and amazingly, as well as mysteriously, acquired the same super-powers he was supposed to have in the television show he'd once been a part of, and super-sped over, super-barking the tree away before it could fall on the children. Everyone was incredibly confused, though most of the children were excited and enthralled, as well. Two-Tone, Pepper, Tripod, Lucky, and Aces' brother also joined the growing ranks of Dalmatian puppies. His name was Patch.
GizmoDuck, Piglet, and a young leopard Princess from the Hakuna Matata Paradise named Claudia joined them late. Kopa was happy to see Claudia in particular, having a crush on the other feline.
Meanwhile, in London, Thomas, the young man who had journeyed to the New World, then joined us after helping to find Princess Anna in New York, had gone to the Merged Worlds-version of his hometown, surprised to find it very different. Another curious passerby who met and joined him was Quasimodo, the Hunchback of Note Dame, Paris. The disfigured bell-ringer and young sailer-soldier became friends, and explored the town together before returning to Camp.
Later that same day, I received Bolt as my guest in my Tower. He was curious about his newfound powers, and wanted answers as to how they had suddenly and possibly magically appeared in his ordinary dog body. Unfortunately, I had no answers to his questions, for I had nothing to do with the matter. I did give him healthy advice though, speculating that the Orbs may have been the cause of this unexplained phenomenon, and that he had best exercise caution when using his powers, because we would never know if they re only temporary or permanent. I also instructed him to go and look at the one Virtue the Forces of Good had in their possession, knowing that the Orb had magical and mysterious properties, and might hold some answers.
On the fifteenth, Shere Khan took Gray Brother out to the Hakuna Matata paradise, the African Jungle, seemingly for a casual hunt together. It was not surprising when the tiger revealed his true motives for going out with the wolf alone and began to question 'Taraha', convinced rightly that the loner was no rogue. After a moment of hesitation, the depressed and tired double-agent satisfied the tiger by giving away a little of the truth without revealing himself as a Forces of Good Spy, and told Shere Khan that he was the son of Rama as well as Mowgli's brother. Though the mention of Mowgli angered Shere Khan, he surprised the wolf by offering his condolences and seeming to understand that the Man-Cub must have made Gray Brother's childhood relationship with his parents difficult. Gray Brother asked what the tiger's reasons were for joining up with the Forces of Evil, and learned that all Shere Khan supposedly wanted was to be able to drive Man from the Jungle, or at least remove their guns and fire from them. Taraha was conflicted, thinking that it perhaps might not be so bad if the big cat got what he wanted. Wouldn't it mean peace for the Jungles of India, for the animals to be left alone at last?
Later that day, Valder, the thickly-furred wolf, was at the Border between the Outlands and Pridelands when he was surprised to find none other than Piglet, the naive and easily frightened member of the Forces of Good, in the Outlander's territory. Seeing that Piglet did not apparently know what he had done, going so far as to ask Valder for help carrying a bag of seeds he'd gathered across the river, Valder did not attack the intruder. Instead, he reluctantly helped the kindly pig with his bag and saw him safely to the other side, revealing himself to be more kindhearted than most villains. Piglet, still not aware that the wolf was a Villain, and as such, an enemy, sketched Valder a picture as a thank-you and went happily back to the Forces of Good.
Gray Brother, recently returning from his hunting exposition with Shere Khan, saw all of this from a distance and questioned Valder without blowing his cover, wondering if, because of his display of kindness towards a Hero, the other wolf was also a spy. Valder quickly destroyed this theory, however, by explaining in a carefree way that Piglet had been so small and harmless that it hadn't seemed worth it to attack him. Gray Brother still insisted that he and his fellow wolf report the border incursion to Scar and Zira, however small it may have been.
On the seventeenth of June, back in the Forces of Good camp, Peter Pan convinced Jenny to shirk her duties collecting herbs for Daisy and play pretend with him, instead. She reluctantly agreed, having, as many young girls do, a slight crush on the flying Boy.
Time passed quite uneventfully after that. The Forces of Good continued to grow ever closer in their bonds with one another, despite coming from different worlds. Life began settling back down in the Pridelands, though the heroes were much more careful about their boundaries ever since the First Orb had nearly been stolen right out from under their noses, in their own territory, on the tenth.
On June 21, Piglet, the living stuffed animal from a boy named Christopher Robin's childhood imaginings, invited the life-loving princess Rapunzel over to his house for lunch. The house had been accidentally and magically transported to the Merged Worlds, and it reminded the pig of home as he tried to soothe his nerves by making new friends.