I'll Be Dog-Gone (6)

"I know." Kara sighed. "The pirate ship doesn't have a motor so the heat seeking function isn't working. There's nothing to lock on to."

She started rifling through various nearby cabinets. Kara and Sweetiepie heard an occasional "Oh my!" and "My word!" and wondered what she was finding in there. What ever it was it was apparently NOT a technical manual for longboat operations.

"Holy canoli," Chryse whispered as she and Viridian crept down into the bowels of the ship, "Does anyone ever take a BATH in this place?"

"This is not exactly a bunch of neatniks," Vi whispered back. They heard the sound of running footsteps and ducked out of sight as a bunch of pirates ran by. The ship was in an uproar, especially since the pirates had seen the longboat disappear into the water. "Do you suppose Ragnar came back to attack Hook?" Vi wondered.

The duo carefully tried each door. Fortunately, no pirates were behind any of them. The last door was locked. Chryse and Viridian looked at each other. "You must have something to pick that lock in those pockets of yours."

trying hard to wash the mud off, without attracting unwanted attention from the kitchen workers, who were mostly male, and who had been doing nothing but kitchen duty for WAY too long.

*I just can't believe he'd do this to me!* she wailed in her mind. She had expected Ragnar to be mad at her, but selling her? She had thought him beyond that kind of stuff. *there's no way he'll actually LET them sell me...is there?* she thought, ducking her head into the water, and scrubbing hard, working the mud out of her red hair.

She leaned back up after a few minutes, water dripping down her face, and peered directly into Durm's irritated face. Startled, she stepped backwards onto a bar of soap, and fell backwards. She lept back up, and darted around the kettle, grabbing Drum in a huge hug.

6th began to think aloud. "Reuardless of what he's doing to screw with my head, we do need those supplies. I think it would mess up his relations with these smugglers if we caused any trouble. I think our best bet is to play along."

"Don't worry about that." 6th said, "You can still go back and get the supplies, and then just go hang out with Rag...He doesn't want to sell YOU!"

Drum shrugged and started off. 6th grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. "Not yet!" she said, smiling. "I need you to do something for me first!"

"We'll manage." 6th said, "I have to go serve dinner to my 'Master' soon. I'm going to impress upon him my good qualities, so he will decide to 'keep' me. And I need something to wear that I don't look like a mud puppy in. That's where I need you. You can change my clothes for me!" she said, trying not to grin too big at his expression.

He chanted, picturing in his mind. closing his eyes, he pointed at 6th. There was a flash, and 6th gasped. Drum started to open his eyes.

"Why? what went wrong?" Drum asked, his eyes closed. A thought had popped into his head almost unbidden as he had cast that spell, and he wondered...

"Oh...nothing." 6th looked down at what she was wearing. Or wasn't wearing. "This just shows off a bit too much..." 6th watched him swallow hard, trying not to laugh at his guilty expression. He began chanting again.

"Well, if you want..." 6th said. Drum peeked one eye open. Instead of her mud-covered clothes, 6th had on a almost translucent tunic on, with sandals that laced up to her calves.

"A maid's outfit, huh?" 6th grinned twirling around. The skirt was high enough, and with the crinoline underneath, it stood out almost virtically.

"Just...just don't bend over or anything." Drum gulped. His face was redder than it had ever been. Why was his imagination seeping through into his spells so badly?

6th laughed, "Try again, one more time." Drum sighed and began chanting again. A flash...he opened his eyes when he heard 6th whistle low and appreciatively.

"Now THIS is a slave's outfit!" she laughed, clapping her hands. Drum found it hard to swallow. Black leather, and not much of it...but quite a bit of thin silver chains...

6th winked at Drum, and said "You go get those supplies, and bring them back up to Rag, we need them for the trip. I'll give him the opportunity to change his mind about selling me, we'll get the stuff and get out of here!" Drum nodded and hurried off. With 6th in that outfit, speech was nearly impossible.

6th sauntered into the kitchen, scooping up a plate of food in each hand, ignoring the sound of dropped plates, stares and mutterings that went on behind her. She walked back to Mama's main room, stopping just outside the door. She could hear Rag and Mama laughing inside. 6th took a deep breath, smiled, and pushed the door open with her hip, walking slowly into the room.

Mama barely flinched as she took in 6th's appearance, not the same with Ragnar. Knowing him as well as she did, she could barely keep from laughing watching the viking struggle with his emotions.

"Dinner time, my master and his friend." she breathed huskily as she set the plates down in front of them. Then she knelt beside Ragnar and threw her arms around his leg.

"Please, sir, don't sell me. I will be good from now on, I promise! Just please, please don't get rid of me!" glancing up at his face she winked at the startled viking. "I will do anything you ask, but the thought of having to leave you has terrified me!" she cried, managing to get a tear to leak out of the corner of her eye. Ragnar looked like he was about to choke.

Drum walked in, carrying several sacks full of supplies. He dropped them uncerimoniously on the floor saying, "Here's your supplies...sir." and leaned against the wall, eyeing Rag and 6th.

Ragnar took his cigar out of his mouth and ran his hand quite firmly across his jaw. One eye zoned left for Momma's reaction and the other spared a quick glance for Drum. This wasn't exactly what he had in mind.

Didn't 6th realize that if he hadn't claimed her as his property then Momma WOULD have since she was caught in her lair?...of course selling her was tempting...not that he'd ever sold one. Bought a great many but.....well that was HIS secret.

He reached out and lightly patted her on the head..."Uh...that's...thats...enough woman...We'll see. One moments behavior won't make up for all the trouble you've caused!"

"Now finish serving the meal and you..."He motioned to Drum "take all theis stuff and the rest of this list down to the dock and load the launch."

demurely, as she served Ragnar and Mama their meal. She even tasted his food for him before he ate any, saying she should do so, since his regular food taster was not here.

Ragnar was good, she'd give him that. Aside from the startled reaction she'd gotten at first, he'd recovered quickly and was now acting like 6th walking around in next to nothing was an everyday occurance. Upon reflection, she guessed it WAS an everyday occurance, but her friend had never before been able to act so calmly about it. She was impressed, and combined with the sight of him dressed as he was, well...she decided to play this slave thing to the hilt.

"Sir..." she knelt again beside him, laying one hand gently on his leg. He looked down at her and raised one eyebrow. "Is there anything else you require of me?"

"Master, if I may?" 6th asked softly. How she could manage to change not only her attitude, but her voice inflection and demeanor as well? Aside from looking like herself, she acted nothing like the usual in your face, overexuberant 6th. Ragnar had to give her credit as an actor. He nodded, interested to see what she'd come up with. He had begun to realize when she had winked at him, that she was trying to play along and not blow his cover. "Go on then." he said.

6th stood, her hands held behind her back, her gaze locked with his, though she spoke to Mama. "Aside from the many talents I posess which my Master is WELL aware of, which would not be appropriate to demonstrate at this time, unless he so wishes, I can also play several musical instruments, sing, dance and do acrobatics for your entertainment and enjoyment." she took a deep breath, "Would my Master care for me to demonstrate something for the lady, so as to show the impeccable quality in choosing slaves that you possess?"

"Hmmmm..." Ragnar leaned back and smiled at 6th, who kept her eyes locked on his, the barest hint of a smile on her lips. "How about a dance then?"

"Don't get uppity!" Ragnar leaned forward, pulling 6th down by the chains hanging loosely around her neck. Her brought her in close to his face and saw that although she gave the impression of being frightened her eyes were twinkling merrily. He let the chain slide from his hand, and leaned back again. "Just dance for us and keep your mouth shut!"

"As you..." she caught his look, and shut her mouth, nodding instead. She turned away from them for a second, so she could wipe the huge grin off of her face.

A beefy muskateer thrust a rope in Drums hand then turned back to help wrestle the big cannon the group of them were dragging towards the beach. Around him, though it were night, the beach front was alive with men in the uniform of men in the Kings Muskateers.

Explosions began to errupt errupt amung the men as the cannoneers on the ships opened fire. Ships? Drums eyes widened for there were truely a dozen of them now....

Ragnar watched 6th with...well appreciation but he was also very keenly aware of the male static she was stirring up around the room!

Viridian allowed herself to be ushered into the room by Chryse, who shut the door. Vi stood there silently, watching the boy who stared back with young/old eyes. Her friends waited to see what would happen.

Vi broke her stare. "My name from another life." She introduced Chryse to the world's most famous child. Her friends notice how subdued she was. Chryse decided she would find out the reasons why later.

Peter arose from the bed. " We have got to get out of here. Hook is on some sort of a rampage against another boat-- Jila says it belongs to a friend of yours?"

Peter broke into a wide grin."Ragnar! Wellll, it's a small world!" He opened the cabin door and peeked outside. "C'mon ladies, let's go before the Viking sinks Hook once and for all."

The big drunken smuggler stumbled foreward. Dinner still fancied itself a home in his unkept bead and he was steady chugging the local hooch thru his four...errr...no three remaining teeth.

Momma's brow furrowed...Skipping around her fingers she did some quick math...."I reckon about three bags of gold coin..." Momma was banker to many who worked for her. They insisted she claimed.

There were hoots and catcalls aplenty as he raised his drink and gloried in the attention and applause. He kept learing at 6th thruout the whole ordeal.

"Well Rag, what'd ya say. That's twice the going rate!" Momma leaned over and in a lower voice. "Ya do intend to sell the little tramp don't you?" There was a bit of steel in her eyes. Momma didn't like to think she might be being taken.

Ragnar realized what some parts of the old days he didn't miss at all. But what to do. He really didn't plan to sell 6th...well not too much of him, but the other ladies hadn't arrived. Where he may have started out only looking for a bit of information and supplies he couldn't bring himself to leave who ever was unfortunate enough to fall into Mamma's hands there. He WAS a little suprised she had taken up slavery again.

the sidelines. They were new to Mama's band and, truth to tell, didn't much care for her. They didn't much care for their new comrades either. In fact, they were looking to make a quick exit. To that end, they had filched a fair amount of gold from Mama's safe and had transportation out all lined up.

"She's fine all right." Pedro said. "She'd be worth a lot that's for sure. Maybe we should buy her ourselves and sell her off later, after we're through with her."

Sixth went down the hall to the linnen closet and started taking out napkins. She was pleased at how her teasing was working out and was busy chuckling to herself. Thus she didn't notice Pedro and Jeff until it was too late.

Jeff grabbed Sixth, threw her over his shoulder and the two of them snuck off to where Pedro had hidden their helicopter. They fastened Sixth down in the back and then with a WHUP WHUP WHUP they took off.

as the helicopter flew out over the ocean. They figured they had pulled a pretty fast one over on old Mama and the Viking. Not only had they carted off more gold than belonged to them, but they'd taken the hottie as well.

"What do you think, Jeff..." Pedro asked, turning the map this way and that, trying to find Playboy land "... should we get her to do some Jello wrestling first, or see what other talents she had that she was bragging about?" he grinned lopsidedly as Jeff chuckled.

"If you're looking for Playboy Land, it's right there." a sultry voice whispered in Pedro's ear, as cold steel was pressed to his head. Pedro shifted his eyes sideways, catching a glimpse of 6th's chest...and the large gun she held to his head.

6th grinned. Her head hurt. And she was madder than a swarm of hornets. She had untied herself easily. The two boys were careless with knots. And she never went anywhere without one of her silver cards. Standard spy issue buisness cards, the kind that transformed into one of the largest light weight weapons available.

"You boys made a terrible mistake. Let's see that it's not your last." 6th purred. "You've blown my cover for sure. And you've stuck my friend with the mess. We could have gotten out of there with ten bags of gold AT LEAST! Boy, I tell you, there's nothing I hate worse than getting screwed over by amateurs! You two CHILDREN had better take me back this instant, or this cockpit's going to get messy."

"But you're just a slave!" Pedro cried, trying to pull away from the gun to his head. 6th grabbed his collar in her fist, pulling him back.

"Correction. I am not a slave. What I AM is a very angry under cover secret agent who's been shorted out of one friend and at least ten bags of gold! I could have made quite a haul if not for you two. And what of Ragnar? He's back there with several dozen angry men. What's he going to do? He'll be worried about me. If he makes it out of there he'll come looking for me...and for you two..." she grinned a toothy smile as the two young men gulped. In their excitement, they had forgotten who they were stealing from. Mama was bad enough...but the Viking was rumored to be not only one of the most dangerous men alive, but one of the most blood thirsty and vengful.

"How fast can you fly this thing?" 6th growled, stepping back from Pedro to stand in the aisle between the two of them. She kept the gun up, where she could easily shift the sight to either one of her would-be kidnappers.

He flew back towards Disney Land as fast as he could. What a mistake he'd made! Of all the stupid things they could have done, trying to kidnap a secret agent under cover...and to steal her from Ragnar, scourge of the seas!

Ragnar was beginning to get worried. 6th had gone to the kitchen at least 15 minutes ago, and had not returned at all, much less with dessert.

And the smugglers were getting restless and angry. Mama tapped her fingers on the table, smoking her cigar in great puffs. Her irritability showed clearly on her face.

Ragnar ran one finger under his collar, trying not to show how nervous he was. 6th wouldn't have skipped out on him would she? He didn't know how nervous she was, when the bidding on her had started, he guessed that she couldn't have been pleased. But he had had a plan, one that would have gotten them out of there in one piece, and with a lot of gold to boot.

"No sir!" the cook cried, whipping his hat off, twisting it nervously in his hands. "She was took, sir! By those two new boys you took on, Mama! They flew off! And I think they took some of your money too, Mama, ma'am!"

Mama narrowed her eyes. She snapped her fingers and a dozen of the smugglers marched off. The slave was important, she was worth a lot. But NO ONE stole gold from Mama!

Ragnar stepped forward as well. "Mama, I'll go with them. Seems like two boys need a lesson in taking without asking first..." he started towards the door, trying not to let his worry over 6th to show.

"I think she's worth a lot more than money to you, viking." Mama said. There were chuckles in the background from the remaining smugglers, as they shut the door and stood in front of it. Ragnar looked over his shoulder at them, then back to Mama, who was studying her smoking cigar. She rolled it back and forth in the skull she used as an ashtray, knocking off ashes.

"Little to the left, Sweetie!" she shouted down into the hold. Smiling, she watched the turrets on the outside of the LongSub adjust as Sweetiepie worked the controls. She wasn't able to get the gun sights to lock in from the periscope, so she had taken a pair of oculars to the surface.

"Hold on a second Sweetie!" she yelled, ignoring the Parrot's squalkings of "Make up your mind!" She watched the helicopter bank, turn, and come back to hover overhead.

"Never mind that!" 6th shouted back, cupping one hand around her mouth, while keeping the gun trained back into the cabin with her other hand. "We have some gold to rescue. And a Viking as well!" she pointed to the pirate ship ahead of the LongSub. "Do you think you can force that ship into the cove around the bend in the coast? I want to create a little diversion..."

"YES... YOU... DID." Rae growls. *Oh, not you again. I thought I left you behind in that other world.* *Seemed you needed me now, love. Are you still the most powerful sorceress in the world?* "Only one way to find out." Rae mutters, reaching into her vest and pulling out a dagger.

"However, if you don't hold still for this, I have a lovely selection of other weapons that, I'm sure, will be just as effective at breaking this link as magic. Understand?"

"Let me explain something that I don't think you quite understand, id-bag. MY WAY would, ideally, be the one that uses a pulse-rifle. THIS way is a compromise. It's not going to be fun, but you'll at least live to tell the tale. Blood, please." Rae smiles and goes into her spell.

In the Dark Forest of Disney Villians, her powers are much greater than on the ship, and as the spell progresses, the whole forest begins to glow an unearthly red. Indeed, it continues to glow that color even after Rae has completed the spell.

*Alone again, naturally.* The dark part of her psyche mutters. "Lovely. You can go now." *See you around, my dear.* "Yes. Good-bye." Rae turns and walks away from the ship. She stops a passing villian. "Excuse me, your highness. What's fun on the island?"

"Thankyou." Rae teleports herself onto the deck of the long-boat, barely managing to duck as a cannon-ball flies over-head. She runs to the torpedo bay. "Gods, I love this job!" she shouts happily.

Drumheller looked across the cove and saw the pirate ship sailing in, followed by the longship...er...sub. A helicopter flew above, matching speed with the longship.

*What is it with everybody calling me 'boy'* Drum thought to himself. "The ship at the rear isn't the enemy sir, those are my friends."

The Captain pulled a spy glass from his belt and studied the longship. "They do appear to have their cannon aimed at the ship in front of them. OK boy, I'll trust you,

Several ships were already in the cove, and were being engaged by a large force of men with cannons on the shore. As 6th scanned the sea of blue surcoats on the shore, she spotted the unmistakable, bright red robes of Drumheller's in the mix.

6th looked down at the longship, and gave Kara the signal to hold position. Then turning back to the two in the 'copter, she put the gun to the back of Jeff's head.

Drumheller continued to do all that he was ordered, then he noticed the helicopter had left the longship and was flying right over his position. Ducking to avoid the blast of a near by cannon hit, Drum heard a familiar voice.

As Drum climbed into the helicopter, he fell into 6th's arms. Putting the back of his hand to his forehead, he leaned back in her arms and smiled.

"Come on, we got work to do." She said as she returned his smile, and added a wink. "All right Jeff, over to that pirate ship, on the double."

Of course, this being Disney, her spell still didn't work right - there were still elements of her in him and parts of his personality left in her. The nausea, though, seemed to be left with him.

And howling longing - he had spent too much time inside a magnificent (if twisted and rather evil) woman's mind. Artist shudders with the memory - still parts of the sorceress in his mind - parts of his still hidden in hers. He could experience her flying over the ship.

His power at a dangerously low ebb from saving the ship from Rae's sorcery, Artist leans against a tree and drops his guard, no longer able to maintain invisibility or even the simple illusion of his white tuxedo - now revealed again as bleached jeans, a ragged tee shirt and lab coat - hiking boots with white shoe polish.

As he leans, sobbing and exhausted agianst the tree, dark minions of Maleficent seize him and haul him off in chains to serve their nefarious, vain mistress.

Artist stared up at the evil sorceress and quaked inside. He had just experienced first hand what such a woman was capable of and here he was in the clutches of another.

Maleficient came down from her throne to inspect her prize. He didn't look like much. His clothes were ragged and dirty and he needed a shave. But there was something about him... The evil sorceress waved her hand and Artist began to glow.

"Ah, you do posess power." she said. "You have magical talents and, what's this? You have the ability to store tremendous amounts of magical energy."

Maleficient waved her hand and Artist screamed. A terrible wave of agony washed over him. It felt like he was being torn into a million pieces. It felt like jolts of electricity were pouring down his nerves. It felt like his flesh was melting and running off his bones. He passed out.

When he woke up again, he was filled with power! In fact, he had never stored so much power before. His energy levels were dangerously high. He needed to cast some kind of spell right away to release some of this energy before it caused damage to his nervous system. He prepared to cast a spell but something was wrong. He tried to form a magic gesture but his paws wouldn't cooperate.

His paws? Artist looked down at himself. His paws were covered with black and white fur as was the rest of his body all the way back to his tail.

ArtistStudio howled in frustration. He had been changed into a black and white cocker spaniel. And this was not an illusion. This was a physical change. And even if he had been able to do any magic without his hands or his ability of speech he couldn't do any physical magic, only illusions.

"Ah, good." Maleficient said. "Understand this human. You are a human no longer. Now you belong to me. If you behave yourself you will recieve food and water. If you misbehave you will wish you had never been born. I am the only one who can relieve you of any of that magical energy. If I don't syphon some of it off regurlaraly you will die. If you try to escape I will watch you die of the magical overload and laugh. It is a horribly painful death. Take him away."

The snivily minion took the end of Artist's leash and led him out into the courtyard behind the kitchen. There it tied him to a short rope attatched to an old dog house filled with dirty straw. Artist lay down with his nose between his paws. He hadn't the faintest idea how to go about escaping and it would certainly be dangerous to try without a solid plan...

Mouse woke up to an earsplitting roar and what sounded like a helicopter overhead. She was completely in the dark (literally) and feeling around, surmised she was in the hold with the (rest of the... LOL) dogs. She got up to turn on the light and tripped flat over a couple more objects - namely Spyral and Sunny. Tripping over them woke them up too, and after a few choice words and a lot of grumbling (mostly from Spyral) they managed to find the light. The dogs all stared at them with a fixation that only hungry dogs can manage. Soon all the pups were fed and watered.

"Well, something's going down aboveboard, so lets get up there and see what's what, yeah?" Spyral commented, and then tried to open the hold door.

Shaking off her lethargy, Mouse helped him, but the hold door was stuck. Sunny joined in, but soon they stopped, realizing that the door was either spellbound, or REALLY jammed. None of them commented on why they were asleep so long, or what caused it. Their most pressing concern was the sounds of battle coming from up above. Mouse and Spyral started banging on the door and yelling, while Sunny checked out the rest of the hold to try to find another way out.