Mickey Mouse in the Public Domain - Chapter 19
The Mickey climbed back on the boat. Taking his place behind the wheel, he hit the lever. The engines sputtered and coughed to life, the Screamboat shooting poisonous black smoke into the atmosphere. The Mickey pulled the whistle, and a piercing cry shot through the smog. The Screamboat began to chug forward, straight for the opening of the Time Portal.
Mickey stood on the other side, this was the moment he had been waiting for, the moment of reckoning.
The boat made its way through the time portal, gears grinding, gaskets misfiring, as if the Screamboat didn't fully belong on the other side of 2024. Bones flew, subtle references built into the ship's hull broke off that were not protected by Fair Use, as if magnetically repelled by the outdated copyright laws of 2024; One of the mouse's prisoners, an unnamed 1929 sailor, unable to pass through the portal, was thrown hollering into the river behind, cage and all.
But the Screamboat made it through with limited scars upon its exterior, and it did not stop to slow down, for The Mickey had his eyes ever on Mickey, determination to enact his revenge.
And then the Screamboat hit the dock, wood exploding and splintering. Mickey leapt up, grabbing the Screamboat's anchor and climbing up with every bit of purpose he had in him, The Mickey was going to die, and he was going to see to it.
The shattered dock was already well behind them as Mickey pulled himself onto the deck of the ship, he took out his knife and looked at himself in its reflection, knowing that his reflection, no, his shadow, was going to be the next victim of this knife.
As you can clearly see, I'm just spouting out imagery here, hoping some or two of it will stick, but hey, you gotta admit, it does sound pretty good, doesn't it?
Mickey slunk across the deck, making his way toward the staring wheel, his focus was so intently on the fiend, he didn't even notice the female mouse suspended in a cage over the deck with chains, watching his approach, her heart filled with misgivings and hope. Who was this mouse who had crawled on board, was he here to help, or had he already become lost in hate.
Mickey stepped out from behind the crate from which he was hiding just a deckwidth apart from his foe. The Mickey looked up, rotated his head the full 160 to look at him, breaking every bone in his neck to do so, yet not breaking a single bit of the malice that held him together.
Minnie saw it first, just opened her mouth for the warning, "Mickey!" And Mickey had a second to look up and see his sweetheart hanging up there before The Mickey pulled the lever.
Instantaneously, a trapdoor opened under Mickey's feet, as if it had been planned for there all along, and Mickey plummeted down, into the dark underholds of Screamboat Willie.
He landed with a thump like most cartoon characters do, but with a scary thump to keep with the vibe of this dark and grisly place.
He was already down here, his feet clanking across the floor, his claws scraping across metal. A heavy mallet clattered across a fleshless ribcage like a xylophone, hammered against a skull like a drum, he came closer and closer, growing in the shadows, the sounds of his mallet piercing through the dark; the bones of his victims his musical instruments.
Our Mickey was aghast; At least his victims were still alive when he used them as his musical instruments.
Wait, was that any better?
But fury hardened out rational thought, the fear of this darkness overtook him, and all he could see was The Mickey and the carnage he had brought forth. He had already forgotten; Oswald, Felix, and even Minnie, all he cared about was revenge.
He looked into the blade of the knife, and felt a smile rise across his lips, not revenge, just blood. Red, sticky blood.
And he was going to get that blood, regardless of who he had to slice through to get it.
He pulled himself to his feet, and leapt forward, slicing his knife into the darkness like a curtain and disappearing inside after it.
And that's when the blaring whistle of another Steamboat pierced the air; another ship was hurtling straight at Screamboat Willie.