Heroes of Disney #1: Rise of the Firebird

Ch. 3: The Gospel Truth

I was all alone in this safe house. Jasmine had left to Agrabah, and Mickey had left to Olympus. And I still had many unanswered questions.

I looked around the room I was standing in, looking for something to do.

Maybe there's something in one of the dresser drawers, I thought.

I walked to the four-drawer dresser on the other side of the room, and opened the top drawer.

There was nothing in it but dust. Same with the second and third drawers, but I did find something in the fourth drawer. I picked it up. It was a small handheld mirror. It was plain white with little glass leaves on its sides. Two glass roses were at the top and bottom of the frame that held the mirror. The handle was entwined with a white net, sort of thing. The entire thing weighed about three pounds. Maybe less. It was completely glass, and the mirror seemed to be completely free of any filthiness, not even dust shaded its glass brilliance. Remarkably it was a very nice, very pretty object. I remembered seeing a commercial for a toy version of this mirror for little girls to use. This mirror was the exact mirror owned by The Beast in Beauty and the Beast. And I knew exactly how to use it.

Without hesitation, I brought my reflection up close to my face and said the first thing that came to my mind. "Show me Olympus."

My reflection changed to reveal the City of the Gods. I was looking above the city, as I watched Olympian gods walk around and chatting. But I mainly focused on the throne room, which was just a large circular, ceiling less room surrounded by towers. Zeus and Hera were sitting in their thrones, talking with Hermes. I could see Mickey, Donald and Goofy conversing with Hercules. They were standing off to the right, a couple of paces away from the King and Queen of Olympus.

"Can you zoom in and focus on Hercules, Donald, Goofy and Mickey? And mute out other voices?" I asked the mirror. I really didn't think it could do that, but it worked. The screen zoomed in like a camera. Dang, this thing was the ultimate super spy tool.

I listened in on what Mickey was saying.

"We need to provide better defenses, Hercules. We've already lost seven out of twelve of the realms. I don't think we can afford to lose anymore."

Hercules shook his head. "Mickey, I wish we could. But I can't leave Olympus. I don't want it getting attacked. And you know Aladdin is still missing. All the other Heroes are worrying about their own problems."

"But, Hercules, can't the Gods protect Olympus? I'm sure that's perfectly possible. They are, well Gods, after all." Donald mentioned in his quacky voice.

"It's my duty to protect my home. I can't just leave whenever I want. Besides, I thought you were getting that Earthling to come help?"

"Well, Jamie...isn't what I expected him to be. He seems resistant."

Hercules rolled his eyes. "Well considering you took him out of his own free will....

"I did not! Jasmine convinced him to come."

"Why do you need him anyway? He has no weapon training, he can die, and he's sixteen. I wouldn't call that a hero."

I gritted my teeth to avoid saying something I'll regret.

"I don't understand either, but it was prophesied by the Magic Mirror. Here were it's exact words:

'The Hero will not be that made of drawing, but an adolescent who is made up of flesh and bone. He will save the World of Disney from the Lavas of Hell, and he will be knowledgeable on all things Disney. His name is Jamie Herinson'."

"How do you know you got the right person?" Hercules asked.

"Well, listen to the prophesy, Hercules. He won't be made of Drawing, so obviously he's not a Disney character. He's got to be from Earth, a teenager made up of flesh and blood. I don't know what the Lavas of Hell thing was about, but I'm pretty sure we got the right person. How many other Facebook pages about a teenager named Jamie Herinson has more pictures of Disney than himself? He photo shopped his picture into a group of Disney characters. If that's not liking Disney, I don't know what is." Mickey explained.

The Disney characters were looking at my Facebook page?! Ok, that's a little creepy.

Ok, maybe my Facebook page is a little Disneyfied. I just....I don't want to talk about it alright? Just read on and ignore that part. I don't know why I put that part in the story anyway.....

I wasn't sure what to make of this prophecy thing. The Lavas of Hell? That sounded scary. Am I going to have to fight people? Possibly even kill them? No, that's not right. Disney characters can't die, right? But, I'm not a Disney character. I CAN die. Maybe I shouldn't have accepted Jasmine's offer in the beginning, but I was already here, so I guess I must have to DO something. I just don't see how a normal teenager like me can save an entire world of Disney characters.

As I was pondering this, I heard a loud crash. I whirled around to face my closed door.

Someone pounded on the door. "Hey! Mickey! We know you're in there! Open this door!" Whoever it was tried to jiggle the doorknob, but apparently the door was locked.

"You'd better get out of that room Mouse! Or we'll bomb this so called safe house to smithereens!"

I stuffed the mirror into my back pocket and looked around the room. Whoever the intruders were were planning on bombing the place down, and I'd rather not be in it when that happens.

I looked around the room for someplace to go, but it was hopeless. This room was like a cage, and the person on the other side of the door was still pounding on the door, threating to bomb the safe house down. Somehow they'll manage to get in through the door, and I'll be toast.

I looked once more and found the only place I could possibly hide was underneath the bed. I crawled under just as the door flew open, and many pairs of feet walked in.

"Where are you, Mouse? We know you're in here."

I stared at the feet in front of me from under the bed. They were bird feet, with long legs. I figured they were flamingo feet. The only Disney characters that I knew who were flamingos were the ones from Fantasia 2000. The segment with the dancing flamingos and the yo-yos. But why would flamingos attack a safe house and try to kidnap Mickey?

I counted six pairs of flamingo feet, and I saw one walk over to the dresser and open the bottom drawer, the only drawer I could see from my vantage point.

Suddenly, the floor underneath me disappeared, and I fell through some kind of hole.

Too shocked to yell, I fell onto a fluffy mattress, hitting my head against a wall on the way down.

I guess that drawer opened some sort of secret trapdoor. But I opened that drawer earlier, but then again, I hadn't been underneath the bed when that happened, so how could I have noticed the floor falling out? Hopefully, the flamingos didn't notice either.

Rubbing the bump on my head, I got up and checked the mirror in my back pocket. Nothing broken.

Then I checked my surroundings. I was in a large tunnel, completely dark except for the soft glow of the mirror. I didn't even realize it was glow in the dark.

Above me there was no sign that there had ever been a trapdoor. No outline of light, no nothing. I was all alone in this catacomb-like tunnel, and I didn't dare call out, for fear of the flamingos hearing me above.

There was a wall behind me, and a huge vast of tunnel stretching ahead of me.

"Well, I guess there's only one thing to do." I said to myself, and began walking down the long tunnel.