Season 1, Episode 6: It’s
a Small World
Part 7 of 9
Dr.
Rough’s senses were on overload as he waded through the canal of the ride,
shivering at the sudden change in temperature as the cool water quickly
saturated his robes. He rounded the
first bend of the canal and was rendered temporarily blind. The tunnel of water was plunged into
darkness, but his eyes adjusted to take in the bright lights and colors of the
platforms on both sides, where little, animatronic dolls danced and spun.
He
could no longer see the HimTak agents, not even their shadowy silhouettes, but
for a few seconds, he could still hear them splashing ahead of him. Then their watery footfalls were drowned out
by the music. That horrible music…
The
words were being sung in a language he didn’t recognize, but the melody, that
awful, unchanging melody, was one he would never forget, never get out of his
head again.
Dr.
Rough shuddered and pressed on. His
waterlogged costume had become heavy, and it tangled around his legs as he
tried to jog. On his shoulder, Dr.
Twitches squeaked in annoyance as he was splashed with a few drops. “We can’t let them get away, Dr. Twitches!”
Howie gasped. “They’ll ruin everything!”
Hitching
his dripping robes up with one hand, clutching his gun with the other, he
slogged on through the canal.
± ± ±
“This
music is the most fucking annoying thing I’ve ever heard!” Emerald hissed, as
Brian reached down from the bank of the canal and offered her his hand. She ignored it, boosting herself up and out
of the water with ease.
As
soon as she was on the stage, standing among the happy, moving puppets, she
aimed a kick at one of the little Swedish girls dancing on a rotating
platform. The doll toppled stiffly over,
pulling her dancing partner with her.
They lay dead among the other dancers, still spinning round and round.
“Aw
c’mon, don’t break the ride,” Brian chided her.
“Let’s just get out of here before he catches up to us. We can nab him on the other side.”
They
hurried through the scores of animatronics representing
“Emerald! Summer!” Brian cried out, appalled. “Stop that!”
He
grabbed her shoulder and twisted her away, yanking her through the rest of the
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Dr.
Rough heard the distant shots and quickened his pace, determined to catch
up. He could not let the two agents get
out of the ride alive.
Then
a disturbing thought occurred to him:
What if they were not just trying to outrun him, but planning to ambush
him? They could be hiding anywhere,
among the moving scenery and hundreds of dancing dolls. The gunfire could be one agent’s diversion
while the other was lurking somewhere, taking aim…
His
head jerked about on his neck, his frantic eyes darting in all directions. He felt very exposed standing in the middle
of the water, without even the hull of a boat to protect him. Fearful, he ducked low in the water, sinking
up to his neck. Dr. Twitches, now
half-soaked, chattered angrily. “Shush,
Twitches!” Dr. Rough hissed. “Daddy
needs his Twitches to be a good little boy now.
You like to swim, don’t you, baby?”
He mollycoddled the ferret in hushed tones, nervously stroking its damp,
matted fur. Dr. Twitches, who was
getting wetter with each pat, had had enough and sank his teeth into his
master’s neck.
Dr.
Rough swore and reached up to swipe at the ferret, but Twitches was too quick
for him and launched himself off his shoulder and onto the dry bank of the
canal, which served as the ride’s stage.
Watching his precious pet disappear among the animatronic scenery, he
gasped and splashed after him, struggling to pull himself up onto the stage.
He
forgot temporarily about the threat of Himitsu Takana as he raced through the
foreign lands after his prized minion.
He
knelt down behind a pyramid, topped with a man on a camel, and lifted his wrist
to his face. The glow of his watch
provided just enough light for him to fumble for the right buttons; moments
later, Mickey Mouse’s grin appeared on the clock face.
“Fatone!”
Dr. Rough gasped. “You’re still in
Fantasyland?”
“At
my cottage, guarding the machine like you told me too, Dr. Rough,” replied Joey
through his Mickey mask.
“Leave
it for the time being, and get to the Small World ride. Bring as many others as you can find. Himitsu Takana is here, and they’re waiting
to ambush me inside the ride… but not if FANS surprises them first. Come in through the ride’s exit.”
“On
it, boss. Over and out.”
The
time replaced the image on the watch’s screen.
Dr. Rough straightened and took off again. His breath came in short gasps as he ran,
bogged down by his soaking wet costume.
He looked neither right, nor left, determined to get himself through the
attraction and back out into the sunlight.
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Having
just made it out, Brian and Emerald finally stopped running and took cover
behind a trash receptacle just past the exit to “It’s a Small World.”
“He
couldn’t have been far behind us,” Brian spoke in a low voice, keeping his gun
concealed between his body and the trashcan.
“He should come out any minute.”
And
then they would make their move. Point
their guns, force him to surrender his weapon, and arrest him, even before he
was clear of the exit line. With any
luck, no children would even witness what was about to happen. And if they did, they could play it off. “Daisy and I are honorary police! We’re here to arrest Jafar for his crimes
against Aladdin and Jasmine!” The kids
would buy it, no problem.
So
they waited, eyes trained on the exit for the first sign of movement.
But
it was movement in their peripherals that got their attention first, and too
late for them to react. Emerald managed
to raise her gun, but it was quickly kicked out of her hands by Pluto, and
before Brian could get in a shot of his own, Mickey Mouse – the Mickey they had
been looking for – raised his own weapon and pistol-whipped him. The light and heat of the
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Inside
the neverending ride, Dr. Rough skidded through
“It’s a small world after
all…”
He
found himself in a large room where all the dolls were dressed in white, and
they danced and sang in English.
“It’s a small world after
all…”
A
shudder ran through him; the world controlled by Dr. Rough would not be a small
one. It would be an empire, the likes of
which had never been seen. He would do
what the great leaders of history, what Alexander, what Napoleon, what Hitler
had set out to do, but never accomplished.
He would rule the entire world!
“It’s a small world after
all…”
And
that world would not be small! He hated the world small!
“It’s a small… small… world!”
“No!”
Dr. Rough cried out. “It’s not a small
world! It’s not a small world! It’s not!
It’s not!”
“There is just one moon and
one golden sun…”
“I shall rule the moon! I
shall rule the sun! I am the sun!” screamed Dr. Rough. “The fate of the world depends on me!”
“And a smile means friendship
to everyone…”
“There
shall be no smiles! There shall be no
friendship!”
“Though the mountains divide,
and the oceans are wide…”
“No! Noooooo!”
Dr. Rough fell to his knees, clapping his hands over his ears.
“It’s a small world after
all…”
“It’s
not! It’s not a small world!” he
pleaded, lowering his forehead to his knees and rocking. “It’s not… a small… world! I’m… not… small!” The great leader of FANS fell over, curled
into the fetal position, and twitched there on the floor, whimpering over and
over again, “I’m not… I’m not small; I’m not…”
When
his minions found him there, Joey gave Abs a grave look and murmured, “No one
is to ever know about this, got it? You
calm him down and get him out of here.
I’ll take care of our HimTak friends.”
± ± ±
“Hey Cinderella!” someone shouted.
“Quick, before tourists catch us,” JC
seethed.
“We have to be careful; with a bomb there,
someone will surely be here to stand guard!”
They managed to find a doorway towards the back
that led to the maintenance room for the ride.
JC tried the door, and when it did not budge, he glanced around quickly,
finding the key badge lock. He was not
going to make himself look a fool again by attempting to bash down the door.
“Another room full of computers.”
"What is that thing?" he asked, knowing
full well that with her, watches never told time.
"It's what the military's calling a Fido
sensor; it sniffs out bombs. Only mine's
a better model – and easy to wear in watch form. I wear it on missions, just in case." She had forgotten she had the thing on when
they had left for the so-called vacation.
Lucky for them.
“No lock on this door.” JC grinned and shoved the door leading to the
Omega track open; they stepped through and were plunged into total
darkness. “Great, how are we supposed to
find this thing now? And how are we
supposed to avoid the coasters?”
“I glanced at the schedule inside that room; the
Omega track is in repair at the moment.
Perfect opportunity for someone to place something inside this
ride.” Putting her gloved hand against
the wall,
It took them only a matter of minutes and quite a
few stumbles and cursing out of the blue dress and heels before
Her eyes adjusted more to the dark and scoured
the room, but the flashing blue lights disoriented her, making the search seem
longer.
“What is that?”
JC tapped her shoulder and grabbed her head to make her look at the
large box attached to the track.
“I can move my own head.”
Her question unanswered,
“Right; I should have known.” JC looked anxiously around. Though
“My fingers can’t grasp the right wires.”
“Perhaps you should remove the gloves.” JC sneered at his colleague and her
forgetting that she was wearing something that would hinder her finger
movements. He heard
Hands now gloveless,
She felt something cool next to her and reached
for it; JC had managed to sneak something useful into his costume after
all. Holding her breath and wishing for
luck, she severed the red wire. The
clock on the timer automatically shut off.
She sighed deeply with relief and set about unstrapping the bomb from
the track.
“About time.”
JC sighed with relief. He was
glad it was dark enough in the room that
“Let’s take this to K.”
“Thanks,”
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