Season 1, Episode 6: It’s
a Small World
Part 8 of 9
K heard footsteps come from behind. Nick. Speak of the golden-haired devil. He looked sheepish and apologetic.
“K, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pressed, dawg. I’ve been there too, ya know? And-“
K shook his head and held up his hand to stop
him. Something else, something more
important, was capturing his attention. There.
There was the leader of FANS, the one
from the file, only now, he was Jafar. How
ironic. The man looked panicked and
seemed to be running from something. He
tapped Nick and pointed in the enemy’s direction.
“Let’s get to work.”
“Right.”
The two quickly followed the character’s
direction. At least they all happened to
be characters from the same movie, so although this wouldn’t be a normal
happening at Disney World, it wouldn’t look terribly strange either. They raced after him across the park, further
in. Nick, fed up with the monkey suit,
tossed off the oversized Abu head behind him.
“Nick!” K hissed at him with a well-aimed nudge. The stealthy pursuit became a full-blown chase
within seconds.
“I can’t exactly breathe, and that’s the leader;
I need my A-game,” Nick answered and only received annoyed muttering in
response.
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“Jafar” shoved by the many people. Children were pushed to the ground with no
regard. Parents could be heard shouting
after him, but were completely ignored.
Dr. Rough stole a glance at the agents pursuing
him, and he wanted to explode with rage. More agents of Himitsu Takana. Carter… that was someone he’d expected. But accompanying him… could that really be
him? The man beside Carter was a man who
had become legend. A man who had almost become
myth within the underground villainous world he lived in. Agent K.
There wasn’t any villain who didn’t know who he was. He couldn’t help but feel smug that he had
caught such a feared agent’s attention. He
reached for a small device within his ear; he knew just the one who could him
help take them on.
“Yo, what up, dawg?”
What Dr. Rough wouldn’t give to rid his best
agent of such hideous abuse of the English language. “I have Agent K and Carter on my tail. I’m headed to…” He glanced around for something to delay the
other agents with. Something he could
use to make it difficult. He smiled when
he spotted it. “
“Aight, I be on it.”
He clicked the communicator off as he changed
direction. He threw the innocent
bystanders behind him, knowing that Carter and K would never let civilians come
to harm.
“You were taller in the movie!” one kid yelled.
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Nick had heard that and couldn’t help but laugh. The chase continued, and they saw their enemy
race to the tall fake mountain before them and attempt to start climbing. He pulled out his gun as they grew closer to
the ride and Dr. Rough seemed to decide to avoid the people. Kevin gave him a look as he also pulled out
his gun and carefully kept it from view.
“Wait till we’re in a less crowded area.”
“I know that, K.
I’m-” He stopped when bullets began to whiz by them angrily. “And now the groupies are here.”
K shook as head as he picked up speed. “Focus.
Be careful, but remember, we want the leader. Cover me.” He began the climb up after Dr. Rough, who,
for such a small man, was able to speedily get up the mountain. Nick slowed down, trying to distract the
minions and give K the chance he needed. He leapt over the tracks as he heard the carts
for the roller coaster come closer. Ducking
down, he began shooting and chuckled when one collapsed immediately.
The rest of the minions froze when one of their
own went down.
“He’s got a gun!”
Another, the one who seemed to be leading this
almost embarrassing chase, rolled his eyes at his fellow FANS members. “You idiots – we’ve all got guns!”
Nick couldn’t help but laugh, despite the
situation. “And HimTak thinks I’m a spaz.”
He heard the coaster approaching and
leapt inside one of the carts, which, to his joy, was almost empty except for
two people too wrapped in each other to notice much else. He sat back, ready to take a breather till he
grew close enough to jump off and climb up to K and Dr. Rough. That was, until he saw the minions realize
what he’d done and jump in the very next cart.
Gunshots rang out around him as he ducked down,
thankful for the protection of the roller coaster. He took his shots carefully, knowing that
while he had many targets, they only had one. Nick carefully stayed crouched in the small
seat, where they couldn’t get a good shot at him. He flipped open his watch, finally able to
admit he needed backup.
“
A frustrated face appeared on his tiny screen. “I’m here, whatcha need Nick?” She gave a small smile, happy to talk to him
rather than JC.
“Send Shazam’s dumb ass up to
“On it; I need a break from the asshole.”
He flipped the watch off and, taking a breath,
jumped off the cart and over to the mountain. A small cord shot from his watch and swung
around a ledge, gripping it tightly. He
smiled. Maybe it was a good thing the
damn watch couldn’t tell time. Nick
released the cord after he got a good grip and footing. Then, he began to quickly ascend the mountain
to help his mentor.
“Hold on, K, I’m coming.”
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JC
Chasez had never expected to see this day come. He nodded at
He
was heading towards
The head
was missing from a man in the bright blue costume of Genie, and a small snicker
came. Ironic – most of them had gone
Aladdin-themed. Then he spotted the
face. An eye was missing, replaced with
a robotic one, attached to a long, metal headband that wrapped around the
forehead. Kids scrambled away in fear
from him. JC released a sigh. It was Justin.
Everyone
at Himitsu Takana knew the story of Nick and Justin, what had once been a tight
friendship gone sour in ways no one expected. Everyone knew the story of
The
entire idea of Shazam being the one to bring in Drums suddenly became
bittersweet. And that was when Justin
happened to turn his head, and stared directly at him. Rather than shoot at the easy target, however,
he went for the quickest escape possible, and that was straight into
Cinderella’s castle.
JC
pursued him through the employee back ways, and shots were finally fired. It surprised him even more: why wait until the bullets were more likely
to miss? JC fired none in return. It was pointless, anyway; they would simply
bounce off of the metal rails and steps with no true hits.
Perhaps
the man wasn’t beyond reach after all. Could
that be why Justin hadn’t made a true attempt to kill him?
Soon
they both reached the roof of Cinderella’s castle. That was when JC decided he’d try not to kill
him. That was when he decided this man
wasn’t beyond help.
The
two circled each other, similar to cats about to fight. Neither spoke a word. Justin’s remaining eye was steely and cold, even
compared to the robotic red eye that only emitted a blinking red light.
“Justin…
we can talk about this.”
“Yo,
we ain’t gonna rap like dat.”
He
sighed. “Justin, you don’t want to kill
me. I don’t want to kill you. You
don’t have to do this. We’re friends.”
He wasn’t sure what he said that triggered it. And he was given no opportunity to think about
it. Justin’s face had gone from fierce
to emotionless, robotic, cold, deadly. His voice was flat and determined.
“You ain’t nevah had a friend like me.”
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She finally had gotten the bomb locked down enough
to feel she could safely bring it out of
Voices shook her away from her thoughts.
“Oh my god, is that a new show?”
“Why does the genie not have his head on?”
“What is with the park today? First Cinderella was giving Princey a BJ,
Mickey has been horrific, and now…”
She raised a brow, but a song of screams kept her
from pursuing that last statement. She
looked up, and there was JC and Drums. Within
seconds, she saw why people were screaming. “Prince Charming” had been shoved off of the
castle roof by Aladdin’s Genie.
Everyone moved away, panicking and fleeing the park
that had gone bad.
She stared in horror, unsure of how to react. This was worse than anything she had seen,
including the Phoenix Suicide and the aliens. Her mind just couldn’t process that JC, like
him or not, had been thrown to his death right before her eyes. She shifted her gaze and saw Justin running
off from view, but she was still frozen, unable to give chase.
Slowly, she approached the still body, as blood
pooled around his head and seeped into his dark, matted hair. His eyes were open, staring off into something
no living person could see. Cautiously,
she took in several breaths to calm herself.
“Pull it together, Kitana,” she commanded herself. She paged Brian in hopes of an answer, having
hacked into his CIA line in her earlier attempts. “Rok, this is
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Justin watched through one of the windows along
the large, blue castle. No one came
inside; too many were focused on the commotion just beyond the castle
steps. The crowd around JC was massive,
and it kept him from rushing off like he had planned. It forced him to only gaze upon the damage he
had done, from a distance, as always, because of his robotic handicap. It made him think about something he wanted
to just toss aside. He wanted a plea of
forgiveness for what he had done.
He would never utter the words aloud, would never
give them any thought after today, he knew; he would rationalize it later. Not that he could ever get such a thing. Forgiveness was forever out of his
grasp. Because he was dead.
Because Joshua Scott Chasez was dead.
There was no question of that, and it had been a
horrific scene. One that was guaranteed
to scar the children at the park for a lifetime, promising future trips to therapists
throughout their lives. But Justin
didn't care about that. He only cared
that JC had died. JC had died by his
hands. There was no blood upon them, but
he could swear he felt it dripping from his shaking fingers. He wasn't sure why he hadn't expected it to
be so messy as he watched the man fall to his demise. But he hadn't. The head had been so fragile, had crushed so
easily. It had hit the pavement and
splattered upon it like a dropped watermelon.
Better to compare it to something
so ordinary and simple, better to think of it all as just ruined fruit. He'd much rather think of that than the fact
that he’d killed a man, a man he’d once called friend.
JC, Josh, Shazam.
He was dead, but he hadn't done to him what the others had. There’d been no stabbing betrayal between
them. But he had fought alongside the
traitors Justin loathed. That had been
enough to set his tragic fate. He’d
deserved what he’d gotten, Justin knew, not that he felt comfortable with
it. Yet something inside settled. So that had to mean something had shifted for
him. The bitterness that raged within
seemed to simmer slightly with just one HimTak agent death. Such a thing proved to him that he was on the
right path.
Though he had to wonder, why hadn’t JC tried to
kill him? He’d had the open shot. Why hadn’t he taken it? Why had he tried to talk him down? Had he really been blind to the fact that
Justin was luring him to a more painful death?
Nick had done the same at Global Idol, tried to rationalize with him. He wasn't Justin anymore. Not the one they’d known. Couldn't they see that?
Justin was dead, and Nick had killed him. Jewel had presided over the death.
Though, if that were true, would he be doing more
than watching
Like K, and Nick. The ones whom Dr. Rough was encountering at
that moment. Dr. Rough, his savior. He needed him right now. He couldn't waste any more time now that the
chaos had finally begun to die down.
As
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