Season 1, Episode 6: It’s
a Small World
Part 5 of 9
Nick
and K made their way around the vast park.
It was huge; Nick didn’t remember it being so big before. Although they were supposed to be focused on
this mission, he couldn’t help but be excited to be there. K, he noticed, was still quiet and pensive,
which was really bothering him because here he was, walking around in an Abu
costume, and his “Aladdin” was barely paying attention to him.
“K,
you alright, man? You’re not acting very
Aladdin-like, ya know. Your partner in
crime would like a little attention.”
K
rolled his eyes. “I’m fine, Nick – I
mean, Abu.” He smirked.
Nick
cleared his throat. “You don’t act
fine.”
“Hey,
you shouldn’t be talking – Abu doesn’t talk; he squeaks. I’m not answering unless you squeak from now
on.”
“You’re
a jerk.”
“Yoo-hoo!!!
Nicky!!!”
“Oh
god,” Nick groaned, just as his secretary, Mr. Lancybassy, made his way up
beside him. “What are you doing here??”
“I
thought I saw you! Then again, I don’t
know how I could miss you in such a tight…tight
costume. Ya know, Nick, that costume is
very becoming on you.” Lancy winked.
Nick
turned to look at him. “You think so?”
“Oh
definitely! I could just eat you up!”
Nick
stared at him, his eyes widening in horror. “Uhh, okay. What about you? What are you doing here? And why the hell
are you in some fairy outfit?” He’d
never really noticed what he was wearing.
“Tinkerbell
is not a fairy! She’s a pixie! Do you like the wings?” Lancy turned, wiggling a bit, making the
gossamer wings flutter.
“Oh…
uh, yeah, they’re really… neat.”
“Maybe
if you’re lucky, I’ll sprinkle you with some of my special… ‘pixie dust.’”
Nick
looked over when K suddenly busted out laughing. He glared; wasn’t the head honcho even pissed
that Lancybassy had somehow snuck his way on board the mission? He wasn’t even an agent!
“Shut
up, K!”
“What?
What was that? I didn’t hear anything; was someone talking?”
Nick
had been so busy messing around with Lancy, he didn’t even notice that there
were some small people in weird costumes coming up to him and K. They slowly made their way forward until Nick
stopped and looked at them, and then, suddenly, they were running.
“Move,
Nick! Hurry!!” K yelled.
Nick
hurried after him, giving Lancy a small shove. “Move!”
“Ohh
my, I don’t know if I can run in these slippers!! They weren‘t made for running; they were made
for floating, for gliding along gracefully! This isn‘t graceful!”
They
all ran; the minions seemed to keep coming from out of nowhere. Suddenly, a song popped into Nick’s head; he
was surprised K hadn’t thought of it – technically, it was his song.
“Gotta
keep… one jump ahead of the breadline…
one swing ahead of the sword. I steal only what I can't afford… that's
everything!”
K
turned his head to look at him in shock.
They
turned a corner, the minions hot on their heels. K pointed to a building labeled “Tiki Room,”
and they made their way in. Somewhere
along the way, they’d lost Lancy; with a final cry of something about “not
ruining a perfectly good pair of slippers,” he’d fallen behind.
“One
jump ahead of the lawmen… that's all, and that's no joke. These guys don't appreciate I'm broke,”
Nick continued, skidding to a stop as a group of minions appeared out of
nowhere in front of them.
“Shit,”
K muttered.
“One
jump ahead of the slowpokes… one skip ahead of my doom… next time, gonna use a
nom de plume. One jump ahead of the hit
men… one hit ahead of the flock... I
think I'll take a stroll around the block…”
“Nick!
Will you shut the hell up?! This is no time for singing, even though the
song is kind of fitting.”
“Ohh,
you can’t hear me, right? So you can’t
hear my singing, and you can’t tell me to stop!” Nick announced triumphantly.
K
winced, stepping out of the way when one of the minions jumped at him, and, suddenly,
they were fighting. Somehow, they
managed to get backed into a corner, and Nick continued to sing, though K
couldn’t figure out how he could sing and fight at the same time. Sometimes, that kid amazed him.
“One
jump ahead of the hoof beats…”
“Vandal!”
“One hop ahead of the hump…”
“Street
rat!”
“One trick ahead of disaster…”
“Scoundrel!”
K
blinked. Were the minions filling in the
crowd parts?
“They're quick, but I'm much faster”
“Take
that!”
He
shook his head. They were, and it wasn‘t even the right
character singing the song, but they didn‘t seem to care. The power this place held baffled him; even
the bad guys could break out into song and have perfect pitch besides.
“Here goes, better throw my hand in, wish me happy landin’, all I gotta do
is juuuuuump!”
Nick
had just finished the song, surprised he knew most of it, when he realized
they’d defeated all of the minions. So
that’s why music always played during fight scenes on TV and in movies; it made
defeating the bad guys ten times easier!
“Uh,
don’t let your guard down just yet, Nick,” K muttered, pointing up.
Nick
looked up; out of nowhere, they were surrounded by a swarm of what appeared to
be birds, but not the nice, flitty ones that were in the movies. No, these appeared to be evil birds.
Stupid,
animatronic parrots. What did they want?
± ± ±
Meanwhile, Lancy found himself in what could actually be
interpreted as one of his wildest dreams – depending on how you looked at
it. Having seen Lancy talking to and
then trying to run off with K and Nick, some of the minions had managed to
catch him after he’d stopped chasing his colleagues, and Nick’s overly-faithful
secretary now found himself imprisoned in a dimly-lit room, stuck in a chair
and surrounded by tough-looking men in costumes. The only reason Lancy knew he wasn’t dreaming
was because a shirtless Nick was nowhere to be seen.
“I’m not gonna ask you again,” one of the minions began, having
been dubbed “lead Green Army Man” by Lancy because of both his Green Army Man
costume from Toy Story and the fact
that he had done most of the talking since Lancy’s capture. “What do you know
about the plans?”
Lancy shrugged and, once again, tried to turn his head around
enough to check on the state of his pixie wings. Who cared about some stupid plans when
fabulous costumes were being damaged right then? It was bad enough that he’d almost ruined his slippers, but this
torture was too much. “I don’t know
anything about any plans, I told you!” Lancy
pouted. “If the stupid airport didn’t
have CNN on 24/7, I totally wouldn’t have even known about the stupid blizzards
and stuff. They totally killed my cute
outfit plans for my vacay.”
Lead Green Army Man sighed. “Cut out the ‘vacation’ crap, Tinkerbell. We know who those guys are that you were
talking to, and we know what you’re all here trying to do. So just tell us what you’ve found out and
what your orders are.”
“For seriously, boys, I have no idea what you’re talking about! The only orders I know about are the ones I’m
gonna make at the bar tonight,” Lancy told them. Oh, what he would do for a decent
Cosmopolitan right then – the drink and
the magazine.
One of the other minions pulled Lead Green Army Man aside. “Maybe we should just let him go. We’ve tried everything, and he still keeps
saying he’s on vacation.”
The third minion had now joined them and chimed in agreement. “This guy is not only clueless, he’s a weirdo,
too.” All three minions shuddered as
Lancy stared at them and winked when they looked up at him. “Can we please get him out of here?”
Lead Green Army Man sighed and pushed past the other two minions
as he stood in front of Lancy again.
“Fine. We’re letting you go. But if we catch you with those guys again or
any of the others like them, we’re not taking ‘vacation’ as an answer. Got it?”
“Yes sir!” Lancy said, saluting Lead Green Army Man as the other
minions grabbed him by the arms and led him out of the room. They exchanged a glance with each other as
Lead Green Army Man opened the door of the room, and the two minions shoved
Lancy out into the secluded alleyway that led into one of the maintenance
areas. Lancy huffed as he adjusted his
pixie wings before he quickly scurried around the corner of the building when
the door opened once again. He leaned as
close as he could to the side of the building so he could overhear the minions
as they discussed their new orders.
“I guess now that all of these agents are running around, the Doc
wants us to go stand guard at Space Mountain and make sure no one messes with
the bomb,” one of the minions reported, and Lancy recognized the voice as Lead
Green Army Man’s.
“We better hurry over there so he doesn’t get mad about us
kidnapping that weirdo!” another minion exclaimed. They all hurried off, leaving Lancy alone
once again to watch people running off somewhere without him.
“Who are they calling a ‘weirdo’? They’re the ones in plastic olive drab…” Lancy
muttered to himself as he made his way back out into the park, pulling out his
cell phone when he realized he’d just overheard an important piece of
information. He knew immediately who he
needed to spill the news to.
Pearl,
darling, I have MAJOR news for u! Call
me ASAP! Lancy typed furiously on the keypad of his phone.
Lancy sighed, his gaze fixed on his cell phone – he didn’t even
care that people were staring at him as he walked past them in his fabulous
costume. Finally, he was able to help
out on a mission, and just by doing what he did best – texting and
gossiping! Noooo, Pearlllll! This is ABOUT
your mission!
No more than thirty seconds after his message was sent, Lancy’s
phone was ringing, and
“Only THE most fabulous bit of news that I could EVER have
heard! Oh, you are so going to love me forever once I tell you-“
“Lancy! The news…”
“Okay, okay, O M G you are grumpy today!” Lancy huffed. “Anyway, I heard some guys around here talking
about guarding some bomb, and-”
“Bomb?! What bomb?! I'm looking for a weather machine!" There was a pause, and then… “Forget it - you know where the bomb is?”
“Yes, yes, and YES!” Lancy replied, still walking around the park
aimlessly. The only complaint Lancy had
about Disney World at the moment was its lack of bars, since he really felt
like having a good drink while he dished his big news. “Do you want me to tell you where this bomb
thingy is hiding or not?”
“Yes, tell me already!”
“It’s at
“Thank you, Lancy!”
“Welcome as always, darling!” Lancy responded before he heard
± ± ±
She was smirking at the white-gloved “pageant
wave” Shazam had perfected as Prince Charming, when the phone buzzed against
her chest. The one place she was able to
stash a phone in this damned costume was within her bra. She almost felt like Diamond. Slipping behind JC, she reached for it
discreetly and checked the caller ID. Lancy.
She shouldn't be answering his texts,
but something told her to, and she did, ignoring JC’s protests.
"Mommy, what are they doing?" The mother turned her daughter's head away,
swearing to herself she'd never go to anything Disney-related again.
"What is it, Lancy?"
“Pearl!
What are you doing?!” JC hissed from his seat, but she quickly shushed
him.
“Shh, quiet!
I’m trying to hear a tip from Lancy!”
She dipped her head lower and clutched the phone
to her ear, listening carefully.
Finally, she rose up with a small grin and turned off her phone, stowing
it back down the front of her dress. The
scientist stood once more and looked over at JC. "We have a new problem. Forget the weather machine for now." She glanced around at the horrified and angry
crowd. "What's with them? They look peeved."
JC gave her an exasperated look; his face was
slightly red. She wondered, but didn’t
bother to press him. There was a bomb in
Tomorrowland; they had to get off. Now.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw an alley
way that was being kept clear; costumed people, however, were freely roaming
around. Bending over quickly and
clutching her stomach, she moved towards the edge of the float nearest the
alley. “Follow me,” she mumbled to JC as
she passed him. She jumped off the float
and flew into the alley way, where she pretended to be sick.
JC looked around anxiously, alone on the float. Everyone looked at him with wondering eyes. He laughed nervously. “It looks like Cinderella had some bad pumpkin
juice,” he quickly said. “I will go
check on her, being the charming prince that I am.” With that, he quickly turned and jumped off
the float, following
“Do you mind telling me what that was all about?”
JC grabbed
“Shut up,”
“Look, Mommy, Cinderella is talking to Prince
Charming like you talk with Daddy,” a little girl pointed out to her mother.
± ± ±
“In the tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki room… in the tiki, tiki,
tiki, tiki, tiki room..."
Weren’t those damn birds annoying enough? Did Nick really have to sing along
with them, even when that damn Iago bird came down to interrupt and sing his
own even more annoying song? K wondered
if maybe he should have brought Diamond instead, like Shazam wanted
originally. Or even an agent of non
00-ranking. They usually – after the
first month of intense non-stop basic training – were sent on missions with talented
00-agents for more intense training. It
depended on K’s or Grasshopper’s evaluations of the agents involved. Sometimes... he wondered if those damn
evaluations were inaccurate. They had said...
"Nick!"
"The birds sings words, and-”
… That Nick was actually sane for example.
“Nick…”
“-the flowers croon!"
And moments like these definitely proved
differently.
"Nick..."
"In the tiki, tiki,
tiki, tiki, tiki room!”
“Nick!
Could you stop with the damn singing of Disney songs?!”
“You’re too uptight, K. How often do you get a cool mission at the
happiest place on Earth? I mean, jeez,
enjoy it while you can. Live life to the
fullest, for the future is scarce and all that.”
I sometimes wonder if you know how scarce it is, K mused silently. “Seems
like you’ve had your fair share of the more unique missions lately.”
Nick grinned as they wandered further through the
animatronic bird room of pure torture.
“I’m a one-of-a-kind agent, so it fits.
Extraordinary missions for an extraordinary agent, right?”
K sighed.
He’d never admit it to anyone, but Nick reminded him of someone dear and
lost to him. A reminder of what “could
have” been. Potential for greatness he
had seen once, but it had been painfully snuffed out before he could shine. Something that had pained him ever
since. He knew this was where his
protectiveness stemmed from. He never
wished to admit this, but it was painfully, almost blatantly, true.
“In the tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki room…”
His thoughts were interrupted once more. Must that blasted kid always sing?!
“You know, 008…”
“00Carter!
…the birds sing words-”
“008. You
need to take your mission far more seriously.
You’re a talented agent, Carter, better than most want to say. That’s why you made 00-rank so young, you and
Diamond both. But if you don’t take your
job seriously-“
"I take it seriously."
"You do."
"Yes!"
"Your actions say differently."
“K, listen.
I. DO. TAKE. IT. SERIOUSLY,” Nick stated, all singing, jokes and
lighthearted attitude aside.
“So singing and goofing off is taking it all
seriously. I’d like to see you brushing
it off lightly then.”
The blond rolled his eyes and roughly poked one
of the robot birds that suddenly seemed to mock him now. When it tipped off its perch, falling and
shattering upon the floor, he walked back towards Agent K with a slight
innocent whistle.
“That’s how I deal. How else can I without going insane? I’m the reason why we lost an agent. I’m why that same agent is now with the enemy
and now evil. I keep letting that same
agent get away, and he’s here. I know he
is. And if he kills anyone before I do
finally catch him, it will be blood on my hands. My fault.
I take all my missions to heart, K.
I really do. I just joke, sing,
and all so I can keep my sanity and maybe help everyone else keep theirs.”
K was a bit stunned. It hit him that he shouldn’t be, but he was
all the same. Few of HimTak could or
would even try guessing at the depth hidden within the “goofball” agent of the
organization. In fact, he could only
think of two members who could.
Nick looked at his superior agent, one of his
mentors. For the first time in his five
years at Himitsu Takana, Nick caught a glimpse of the great pain buried within
those usually closed-off, jade eyes belonging to K. Nick released a breath, easily able to
recognize that angst, for he had some of his own to deal with.
“So, when did you lose them?”
K stared at Nick sharply. “What the hell do you mean?”
“Whoever it is, the one or ones causing you so
much hurt, man. That’s why you’re so
cold, right? Why you don’t really care
about me, about us, only the mission?”
With that, K angrily, furiously, stalked out of
the Tiki Room, for once not caring if the enemy spotted him or Nick. In his mood, he’d almost challenge them to
try it.
Nick thought he didn’t care?
Had he really become so cold?
He simply sighed despondently. Kristin wouldn’t recognize him now. Nor would she want to. K gazed around at all the people, all of them
happy, all ignorant to what he dealt with daily to keep them safe. Was it worth it? Sometimes he wondered. K questioned it enough, thought of the
sacrifices made. Some intentional and
others unintentional. His lost wife, his
beautiful, blond, blue-eyed son. He’d
never forgotten either; they plagued his thoughts daily, despite the passage of
time.
Kristen. They had met, here. Fallen in love, here. She had always supported him in his
choices. Even called him “the hero” when
he took on the duties of HimTak.
Nathaniel.
His son. He had looked like
Kristen, possessed her energy, her spirit, along with Kevin’s own determination
and logic-loving intelligence. Crazy
enough, from the moment Nick had first entered HimTak, he’d reminded K of
him. Of what Nathaniel could have been,
had he been allowed to grow older than the tender age of ten.
Nathaniel.
Kristen, the loving one, the lighthearted side
he didn’t possess. Married to him since
they were both kids of eighteen. What
would she think of him now? He knew the answer.
She would be greatly disappointed.
± ± ±