DISNEYLAND – SLEEPING BEAUTY CASTLE
ORANGE COUNTY, CA
10 NOV 2011, 17:05 PST
While the wreckage of the tower was still arcing through the air, Duncan was busy grabbing at Elias' soul. He had him anchored to a crystal before the pieces reached the peak of their flight, and had just enough time when Elias cried out “Lilith!” to prevent a large chunk of the wreckage from landing on a woman who was sprinting away from the tower.
After deflecting two smaller pieces and ensuring her safety, Duncan turned his attention back to Elias. “Who was that asshole?”
“Jonas Stinson. Vice president in charge of park operations. My boss.”
“He doesn’t like you very much.”
Elias chuckled wryly. “Yeah. First time he’s blown me up, though. I’m sure he’s wanted to for some time.”
“Sorry about that.”
“At least you saved me. And Lilith. Thanks.”
“Least I could do. C’mon, let’s get you to her...” Duncan flew the two of them down toward the woman who was staring in horror at the wreckage. Before he could get far, Elias was yanked back toward the remains of the tower.
Elias cursed his father’s thoroughness at binding him to the magic of the castle. “Now what do I do?”
Duncan turned to study the flaming remnants. He returned his focus to his crystalline self, still floating near Sidney. He apologized for the noise, and left her a small communications crystal before teleporting to the tower so he could fix the mess before the dust settled and made everything far more difficult.
Just as with the CN Tower, the design was there, written in the tower’s long-standing presence and the magic that had woven through it. Working together with Dia they had a replacement in place in moments, re-tasking most of the wreckage in the process. A further moment of focus made sure that everything within would stay even after the Moon waned.
Duncan landed his robotic body beside the person who had watched his latest act of reconstruction. She was still staring up at the newly rebuilt tower, open-mouthed.
“Lilith, I presume?”
She startled, then turned to him and nodded. “Is Elias...” her voice thickened with emotion.
“Alive, in a sense,” replied Duncan.
“How?”
“Magic, of course. Come, I’ll take you back to the tower. No bombs, this time.”
Duncan took her hand, and they both soared back up to the tower. One of the windows parted obediently before them.
Lilith stared at the fist-size glowing crystal on her boss’ desk. “Elias?”
“It would seem it’s not quite my time,” replied the crystal, glow flickering in time with its speech.
She scooped up the crystal and hugged it to her chest. “Thank God.”
“Thank Mr. Faulkner here.”
Duncan bowed. “Glad to be of service. Despite the whole ‘trying to kill me’ thing.”
“That wasn’t me,” protested Elias. “Though I did think about it as you came charging up. Why the change in tone?”
Duncan shrugged. “My family is safe. Whose idea was the kidnapping?”
Elias didn’t have a face to wince with, but Duncan could hear it. “Mine in part. Jonas got wind of it and things... escalated, especially when other factions got involved. I wasn’t going to keep them in the hostage suite, but my authority is more limited than I had believed.”
“I see. Let’s see how limited Jonas’ is... Where would I find him?”
“Glendale, he has a corner office in the corporate HQ.”
Duncan nodded, and memorized the address Elias supplied. He then stepped back through the open window, closed it behind himself, and arrowed off toward the northwest.
“What about your family?” asked Gwen over their mutual crystalline link.
“Given how many times I’ve been attacked recently, I think their odds are better where they are.”
“Then tell them that.”
Duncan pinged the crystal in Sidney’s hand. She wasn’t happy about being left behind, but agreed that her husband seemed to be a “bit of a trouble magnet”, and promised to keep the kids from worrying too much.
*** *** ***
DISNEY CORPORATION HEADQUARTERS
GLENDALE, CA
10 NOV 2011, 17:11 PST
Duncan blinked through the window of a corner office, and settled to the floor with a soft tap. The silver-haired man behind a remarkably ornate desk turned to face him. “Mr. Faulkner. You are a difficult problem to get rid of.”
“Jonas. You should have listened.”
The executive shrugged. “I’ve been assured the problem is manageable.”
Duncan narrowed his eyes at Jonas. Something about this felt too familiar, but he couldn’t quite taste the cause. “Assured by who?”
“That doesn’t matter. We’ll be fine. The deal will benefit everyone.”
There it was again, a hint of sing-song recitation. “Whose words are those?” asked Duncan. “They’re not yours.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” argued Jonas. “I’m not beholden to anyone. Check my shield, Walt himself set it up.”
Duncan studied the magic protecting Jonas. “It does seem pretty thorough. And yet... There’s definitely something wrong. Who told you the worldstone problem is manageable?”
Jonas shrugged, opened his mouth, then closed it again with a scowl. “Why should I answer you?”
“Because you know what I am capable of, and if my alter ego gets started tearing this place apart, there won’t be a Disney left to complete the deal.”
Jonas’ expression froze for just a moment, then he returned to his calm demeanour. “. see. This is not a... manageable problem. Not any more. And yet...” His hand shook as it reached towards something in one of his desk drawers.
A flick of power slammed the drawer shut. “That wouldn’t have worked, it would only have killed you.” Duncan sniffed at the air again. Not the faintest hint of ghoul, but an echo of something else familiar. The image snapped into mind, of a little girl named Ruby who had been dying of Windsor Syndrome. Something Doctor O’Brien had said on the last visit... “Cobalt. Do you have any cobalt?”
“I don’t see why that would matter,” grumbled Jonas. “Oh, wait! Walt was big on cobalt, said it saved his life. He made sure we all had rings... where did I put that?” He dug through one of his desk drawers, slammed it shut, and went down to the next in the column. Before long he held up an ornate ring-box with a flourish.
“Put it on.”
Jonas did so, then frowned. “I feel... Holy hell, what was I thinking? I just torched the castle!”
“There you are. Who put you up to all this?”
Jonas shook his head in confusion. “I haven’t the faintest idea. It’s been subtly growing for... I have no idea how long. I’ve been pushing for acquisitions for years, but most of them made financial sense. Four billion for Star Wars? What the hell were we thinking?”
“That Leia would be an awesome addition to the lineup of Disney Princesses?” asked Duncan, grinning at the thought of how his daughter had reacted to seeing her in action.
Jonas chuckled softly. “Yeah. The grandkids are fans, too. Look, I can do a little to slow this down, but...”
“I still need to deal with the Worldstone. Do you have any idea where it is?”
Jonas shook his head. “Walt kept too many secrets. I fear he may have taken that one to the grave. If the information is anywhere, it’ll be at his private office in Boulder.”
“Colorado?”
Jonas nodded. “The place is so heavily warded, nobody’s been... what the hell is that?”
Duncan turned to see what had made Jonas’ eyes widen in fear. An F-18 was plummeting directly toward them, trailing smoke. Stopping the engines with hardened air would do nothing, it was already on a ballistic trajectory. Same for affecting the pilot, the canopy was gone and a parachute visible in the distance.
Duncan took the last option he could think of, and teleported both of them straight up, where they watched in shock as the fighter impacted the building. “That was clo
*** *** ***
CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN
COLORADO, CO
10 NOV 2011, 18:15 MST
A mournful siren wailed briefly, followed by the overly loud clatter of a teletype machine. Everyone turned to look at it, some with a more worried expression than others.
“What’s that?” asked General Shepard.
“Nuclear Detonation Detector,” said one of the soldiers, hustling over to it. “GPS satellites picked up a flash, it’s usually a false... God.”
NDS DETONATION REPORT
LAT 34.1608 LONG -118.2858 AGL 0.02 MI [GLENDALE,CA,US 1.8MI NE]
YIELD 00010 kT MATCH B61-Y1 95%
“What does that mean?”
“It means... Fuck. We just got nuked. By one of our own weapons. At least it was set to minimum yield.”
Agent Brown was staring at a satellite view of the LA basin on one of the larger screens. There was a roiling cloud in the northwest that hadn’t been there a moment ago. “That’s where our target stopped four minutes ago. Someone feared Faulkner enough to nuke them.”
“Huh. Well, I guess that wraps this up,” said General Shepard with a sharp nod. “God, what a mess.”
“Fast mover headed our direction. Mach 4, Mach 5 and climbing,” called out another soldier. A new track on the display led directly away from the center of the explosion.
“WHAT?”