Everyone wears a mask, when will yours Break? || An Epic Mickey 2 Rewrite ||

Growing Pain

Mickey had been feeling off for a while after his visit to Wasteland and meeting his predecessor, Oswald the lucky rabbit. He could never quite forget their battle with The Blot, he always felt like a part of him was missing after having defeated the ghastly being, but oh how he missed that adrenaline of an epic adventure, more exciting than the ones he had in the Cartoon World. As time went on, he was hoping that he could experience that at least one more time when he received a message through the TV.

Meanwhile in Wasteland, Oswald, Ortensia, and Gus were all noticing some strange occurrences going on. Toons missing, Ink splotches randomly appearing and those same dark purple nimbuses returning. This could only mean one thing, The Blot. On top of this, The Mad Doctor had returned as a "changed toon". Psh, yeah right. Oswald didn't believe it for a second and neither did Gus or Ortensia. Yet, a part of Oswald wanted to believe he really was good again… He wants to believe the mad toon deserves a second chance. While Ortensia and Gus knew better than to trust someone like him, Oswald still held hope that The Mad Doctor still had some good in him. They all met in Dark Beauty Castle to decide what they were going to do.

"Oh, I still don't trust him. Once evil, always evil." Ortensia commented, cutting through the air of tension.

"How are we sure he won't turn on us again?" Gus asked, following up on what the cat had said. Oswald looked between the two.

"Look guys, I'm not sure what he wants. For all we know he could be plotting another stunt like last time..I…I just..." Gus gave Oswald an apologetic look

"Oswald, we know your history with him and how close you were, perhaps you could let us help in getting to the bottom of this?" Oswald looked down, his ears lowering out of shame and guilt.

"I know… it's just… I want to believe he's still good, Y'know?" He spoke, his tone low and defeated. Ortensia and Gus looked between each other as Oswald began to walk away.

"I'll go talk to him and see what he's up to… Gus, could you call Mickey just in case?" Oswald spoke as he waved to the two. Gus looked at Ortensia as the two looked back to Oswald walking away.

"I hope he knows what he's doing… I really do." Ortensia commented once Oswald was out of earshot.

Mickey approached the TV, confused. What was happening? Suddenly, he saw Gus and heard his voice coming from the staticky box of noise.

"Mickey! We need yoâ€" helpâ€" Wastelâ€"and is inâ€"perilâ€" Madâ€"cterâ€"" Mickey couldn't entirely make out what Gus was saying due to the static, but he picked up on it mostly. "Get the bruâ€"" it was at that moment that Mickey knew what had to be done. He stepped back, reeled up and launched himself into the TV, being taken back to Yen Sid's workshop. The very place it had all started, the TV-Portal brought him through the mirror of the workshop. Walking down the short hallway, he found the table with Wastelands overview on it, but something wasn't right with it. It was all dead, and… dark. He noticed his alewife hat next to it in a glass cover. The Brush was nowhere to be found and from the looks of it, Wasteland would need paint before he could re-enter. He looked around for anything that could help him out of this predicament.

There was a staircase, but it was blocked off, what could help him open it? He then noticed a bucket with various assortments of sticks and other pieces that could make brooms. Looking over at the blue, star patterned alewife and got an idea. He remembered the spin attack technique Gus taught him. He approached the table, hopped up and used his spin attack. As expected, the hat brought the brooms to life, one by one they flipped out of the bucket and started their march. This opened up the staircase and Mickey quickly ascended, being met with a large gap, he double jumped across, landing in front of another mirror. He jumped through it being brought to a large rock formation in the middle of a celestial realm surrounded by water.

Back down in Wasteland, awaiting his arrival at Dark Beauty Castle, Ortensia and Gus paced anxiously. Where is he? Did he not receive the message? Did he get hurt on his way to retrieve the brush? Before the two's thoughts could spiral further, a clap of thunder was heard, and Mickey fell through the roof.