>>"Haven't you found her yet?"

>>"It's so hard to find good help, isn't it?"

>>"And you would be?"

>>"Ralls. Lady Ralls, of Tyrant Peak. This is my associate, Lord... Pink. Of Orkney."

Also known as Lord Red, of MAXINE WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!

>>"Yes. I believe I've heard of you. Now; tell me why I should not make your names infamous over all the land, as the fools who came into my castle uninvited."

Gawain was about to open his mouth to answer; the sword still hung from his hand, although it too, just like his clothes, was a disgusting pinkish color, and looked like a Barbie accessory.
But Maxine was obviously in her element here.

>>"Because, your Majesty, I bring you two gifts. For the first: I can tell you precisely where the princess Aurora will be this evening."

Gawain blinked. Did she... no she didn't...

>> "And the second?"

>>"Myself, as your humble apprentice."

Blink. Blink.

"Maxine?" he said in a low voice, but even though the whole scene was messed up, a smirk was tugging on the corner of his lips, and there was a glint in his eyes. Was Lord Pink amused now?...

"Did you just offer to rat Sleeping Beauty out?..."

The Lady Ralls gave a most dashing smile; a suitable match for the Lord Pink's smirk.

"On a silver platter, Lord Pink," she whispered back.

The queen appraised them both for a long moment. "The location?" She asked.

Nu-uh. Bargains first. "The apprenticeship?" Maxine returned.

"...Very well. If by your words, I have Sleeping Beauty's death."

"You shall have her whereabouts: her death I leave in your capable hands, teacher." She was getting good at these diabolical curtseys. Maybe she should wear more dresses out in the real world, too. "You'll find Sleeping Beauty in the—"

Scene change. "*$%^. You have got to be kidding me!" The redhead growled, straightening up in the cheerful sunlight. All around them, sickeningly cute birds fluttered in a woodland grove. "I was so close!"

>>"On a silver platter, Lord Pink,"

Oh yes. Whatever drugs they were on, Maxine was hooked for life.

>>"The location?"
>>"The apprenticeship?"
>>"...Very well. If by your words, I have Sleeping Beauty's death."
>>"You shall have her whereabouts: her death I leave in your capable hands, teacher. You'll find Sleeping Beauty in the—"

The scene changed. Gawain shuddered and looked down at himself hopefully... but he was still pink. Now he knew exactly why he wanted Maxine to learn magic.

>>"$%^. You have got to be kidding me! I was so close!"

"Did you just swear in a Disney movie?" he grinned at her "That's gotta be a first..."

Not to mention the first one where the princess gets killed in the end.

"So, I can't help but notice we are in one of your favorite movies" he added with a smirk "Got somethin' to say about that?..."

Also. Disney critters. Much more creepy in... up close?

"Maxine?" he whispered as the delicate Barbie-doll like creature wandered through the woods "I think we just went from comic relief to minor villains."

"*&$@ yes, I did," she said, this time with more of a grin. "How many of these do you think I have to drop before they boot us up to a PG-13 rating? @#$%ing %$#^ers #$%^--" She sang jokingly.

"&^%@ers @#$%!" A little blue bird echoed in perfect harmony from a branch above their heads, its breast proudly puffed.

2D animation didn't quite cover the full extent of her expression, just then. "...Okay, so maybe G is a good place to be." PG, at the highest. Because... it was one thing for Maxine to do it. If the woodland creatures all pitched in, in true Disney style... that would about break her childhood.

>> "So, I can't help but notice we are in one of your favorite movies. Got somethin' to say about that?..."

"Yes, actually, I do," she said, with a little twirl of her skirts. "This is fantastic. We've got to find the person who did this, and—and..."

The first time, it had happened with her show.

Now, it was her favorite movie.

The redhead stopped twirling with a sudden blink. "Gawain," she said slowly, "you don't... think this is my power growth, do you?" She hadn't started sensing televisions—didn't she always start with the sensing, first? But then, usually she animated the object; it didn't animate her.

If this was... if she could...

Oh god. They were doing a Western next; anything with Clint Eastwood. After that, Titanic—not the end, of course, but there were certainly a few scenes before that where they could... well. Heh. Then... Nemo! Would they be little fish? Adorable! After that—

>> "I think we just went from comic relief to minor villains."

The redhead narrowed her eyes, and did her best job at edging behind a tree that couldn't possibly hide her poofy dress. The gears in her mind visibly turned; one movie at a time.

"Good idea," she whispered. "Do you want to take the prince, or the princess?"

>>"*&$@ yes, I did. How many of these do you think I have to drop before they boot us up to a PG-13 rating? @#$%ing %$#^ers #$%^--"

>>"&^%@ers @#$%!"

>>"...Okay, so maybe G is a good place to be."

Gawain laughed. Even with the looming possibility of being dimensionally impaired for the rest of his life, a swearing Disney creature cracked him up. Easily amused is the correct term, but for now, he couldn't care less.

"****in' awesome" he grinned at the birds.

>>"Yes, actually, I do. This is fantastic. We've got to find the person who did this, and—and... Gawain... you don't... think this is my power growth, do you?"

Gawain blinked.

"Um... nooo?" that did not sound really sure. He cleared his throat "I wouldn't expect it to be. But... well, it's complicated. It could be. I dunno. You seem to be in charge..."

Then again, that was probably Maxine being Maxine. pretentind to hide behind a tree.

>>"Good idea. Do you want to take the prince, or the princess?"

"Neither" he sighed, following her "You know what happens to minor villains, right? They die before the end of the movie."

Horribly and quickly.

"It's the Disney version of being a redshirt."

Or pink.

"No thanks. Let's just see how it plays out..." he muttered, peering through the bushes at a dancing princess and a prince who was stalking her from the opposite direction....

He didn't expect it to be? What did that mean?

"Why couldn't this be my power growth? What, are flying pens and octoclips not cool enough to be up there with some kind of... of... movie walking?" The redhead asked, her animated hands on her Disney-style hips. They'd gotten even more curvy since she put on the dress. "If it's not mine, then just whose do you think it is, Lord Pink?"

Please let it be her growth. Please, please, please. She needed something cooler than flying pens and octoclips. She needed Disney princesses to slay, and minor villains to live happily ever after.

The Pastel Knight had a point, though. Maxine crouched even more furtively; enough that the animators obligingly shaded out a shadow from the tree to hide them both. There was no way Aurora would see them now: a light shadow was as good as an invisibility cloak, in a Disney movie.

The redhead nodded, hunkering down to wait as the woodland creatures turned into the cast of Glee, and Prince found Princess once upon a dream. "We should wait for our chance. Try to get some wands, for starters..."

And the incantation for that dragon-shifting spell. How did it go? Something about 'Hell'—she remembered gasping when she was a kid. It had been the strongest word she'd ever heard in a Disney movie.

That was then. This was now.

Gawain was right: it was major villains they needed to be.

>>"Why couldn't this be my power growth? What, are flying pens and octoclips not cool enough to be up there with some kind of... of... movie walking? If it's not mine, then just whose do you think it is, Lord Pink?"

"Well maybe it's mine." the young knight grunted, without honestly considering the possibility. His powers just went out of whack what, about a year ago? Even mutants don't hit puberty that often.
If Maxine wanted to romp around in Disney movies, she was more than welcome to it.

The shadow did a world of good to the pink.

>>"We should wait for our chance. Try to get some wands, for starters..."

"All right, I'm gonna play along" he muttered, wincing at the song every once in a while "But if we get stuck some twisted alternative Disneyverse for all eternity, I'm blaming you."

That was probably not the way to talk to the future Queen of Evil... but what the heck.

"If we get stuck in some twisted alternative Disneyverse for all eternity," the redhead glanced to her partner-in-shadow with an unworried grin, "you can be my Black Knight."

Every Queen of Evil needed one.

"Listen. I think we're going to get our chance for those wands soon. If I remember this right, the next scene is going to be—"

Back in the little cottage, surrounded by fairies welding said wands. She remembered them looking less threatening, the last time she'd watched this movie.

"That's them!" Said the green fairy, who had not yet finished making the birthday cake. "They're the ones who took my wand!"

"But that one's such a lovely pink," protested another, "can he really be evil?"

"To be fair," Maxine protested, instinctively raising her hands in a don't-shoot-me gesture, "I gave it back."

>>"If we get stuck in some twisted alternative Disneyverse for all eternity, you can be my Black Knight."

"That's Monty Python" the young knight wrinkled his nose "And not very reassuring."

>>"Listen. I think we're going to get our chance for those wands soon. If I remember this right, the next scene is going to be—"

And of course Maxine was right. Villains are always right, until they are not, right in the very end. Usually. Gawain gave up making assuptions in this story a goos twenty minutes earlier.

>>"That's them! They're the ones who took my wand!"

>>"But that one's such a lovely pink, can he really be evil?"

Wands were pointed. Dark eyes narrowed.

"Lady... you have no idea."

They were wands, not guns, but the basic idea was the same: get close enough and the nannies are going to be hexing each other. And without the wands, they were just mean old ladies, screeching definitely not PG-13 swearwords at him, and making comical overly loud sound effects on impact when they got punched. Between X-men training and fairy dust, the fight was over in under a minute.

Turns out, punching Disney characters can be quite satisfying. They had that coming for a very long time.

...Maxine was in love.

"Did you just punch three fairy godmothers?" The redhead asked, hands clasped over her heart. "For me?"

Three wands were plucked out of the pastel pile-up in short order. Make that two; after a moment's thought, she put the blue fairy's wand back into her unconscious hand. A sign of respect, for that filthy mouth the matronly woman had been hiding all these years.

"If we take away all their magic—" Maxine explained to her Pink Knight. Pink? "...Hold that thought—Black. Silver.—There we go." Now they matched. Much better. As she was saying: "If we take away all their magic, they won't be able to put up a fight at the end; we'll need that distraction. If we want to be major villains, we'll have to take down—"

Wait. The scene after all the singing? Maxine knew this one. She shut herself up, and turned to the window just in time to watch a certain black crow fly back to its mistress.

"Shoot. I guess she's on to us. Heh."

Somehow, the redhead seemed positively delighted by the prospect. Fighting Maleficient?

*&$% yeah.

"Blondey will be back soon. Help me hide the bodies?" Maxine asked, with all due eyelash fluttering.

>>"Did you just punch three fairy godmothers? For me?"

"Well, technically..."

He did it for the wands. Also, technically, he only punched one. The other two were more knees and elbows. But, looking at Maxine with her little best-day-in-the-life-of-Wednesday-Adams smile, he shrugged and smirked. "Yeah, sure."

>>"If we take away all their magic...Hold that thought... There we go."

"I knew I got you the wands for a reason" the Black-and-Silver Knight grinned. Much better.

>>"If we take away all their magic, they won't be able to put up a fight at the end; we'll need that distraction. If we want to be major villains, we'll have to take down—"

The bird flew away. Gawain frowned.

"I coulda taken it if I had a bow."
Maxine did not look too disappointed though.

>>"Shoot. I guess she's on to us. Heh. Blondey will be back soon. Help me hide the bodies?"

"You have two wands. Use them." he chuckled, peering out the window. Sure enough, the annyoing singing was getting closer.

"I know this part" he said as the fairy godmothers were being gagged and stashed in a closet "She comes home, tells them about the prince, except she has no clue he is a prince because she is too dumb to ask, and they tell her she is a princess and needs to go home tonight. She freaks out."

Turning back to Maxine, he arched an eyebrow. "So, what's next in your screenplay, mistress? Gag her, bag her, deliver her to the evil queen? Or are we gonna bargain with someone?"

"Have you no subtly?" Maxine said, with a twin twirl of wands that tucked them both neatly up her sleeves and out of sight. Just as she suspected: Disney movies had hammerspace. "Why carry a pig to slaughter, when you can let it frolic in front of you on a silken rope?"

The redhead tapped a finger against her chin. "She'll come back to the house in this scene, and the fairy godmothers will convince her to go to the castle, despite her strong and abiding love for Prince Met-Him-Five-Minutes-Ago. The scenes seem to be playing at the usual times, no matter what we do..." Witness, and alas, her cut-off audition for Maleficent's Apprentice. "...but that should work out just fine for our plans."

She smiled a wicked smile well worthy of a close up, and flicked one of the wands back out. "Turn around, Gawain. Fairy wings." And to her own back: "Fairy wings. Less evil fairy wings. Less... Less... there we go."

The bat wings had been cute, but a little much; likewise, the raven's. Black and silver swallowtail wings she could deal with.

One more thing: she raised her wand to the ceiling with a flourish. "Banner."

It's a trap!

"...Cute. You know, I think this wand is good at heart." How sweet. Also, pushing it. "Less evil banner!"

Congratulations!

It was still awfully black, but she didn't mind that. And just in time: a blonde head was strolling down the path, still humming her little song.

Maxine fairly frolicked to the doorway to meet her.

"My goodness! Can it be? Is it true? Aurora, it's you!"

The princess looked properly taken aback. She was still awfully polite about it, though. "Pardon me, ma'am, do I know you?"

"My dear, I know you." Insert smile. "And a little birdie told me we have a wedding to plan."

"What--? But.... who are you?"

"Why, I'm your fairy godmother, of course. And this is my assistant, the Fairy of Orkney."

Girl raised alone in the woods for sixteen years? Ready, willing, and able to fall in love with literally the first man she'd ever seen? Yeah. She'd buy it.

And if she didn't, there was always that sack.

>>"Have you no subtly? Why carry a pig to slaughter, when you can let it frolic in front of you on a silken rope?"

"Sl... oh." Gawain frowned. That might be takin' it to the extreme. But Maxine was on a roll, and she had two wands. Both wands, rather. And this was just a Disney movie after all. Should he be worried?
Damn right.

>>"She'll come back to the house in this scene, and the fairy godmothers will convince her to go to the castle, despite her strong and abiding love for Prince Met-Him-Five-Minutes-Ago. The scenes seem to be playing at the usual times, no matter what we do... but that should work out just fine for our plans."

"Um... sure?" he tried to remember just how exactly this movie went. Not like he had seen it since he was... what, five? But, again. Maxine was on a roll. And she was the evil witch queen dominatrix with a plan.

>>"Turn around, Gawain. Fairy wings..."

... the wrong plan.

"What the f*ck, Maxine?!" the young knight yelled, delivering another devastating blow to the movie rating, flapping the long, iridescent wings furiously. It looked like the wand magic took pity on him; when your choice is butterfly or dragonfly, you go with the latter, even though you are a half-lesbian cross-dresser ad you would not be caught dead with either.

Oh look, the wings moved. Cool.

>>"Banner....Cute. You know, I think this wand is good at heart... Less evil banner!"

He couldn't help but smirk at the attempt of making the suspiciously fairy-less house festive. "You are not good at being good, are you."

Someone else was, however; namely the slutty Barbie commonly known as Sleeping Beauty.

>>"My goodness! Can it be? Is it true? Aurora, it's you!"

>>"Pardon me, ma'am, do I know you?"

>>"My dear, I know you. And a little birdie told me we have a wedding to plan."

>>"What--? But.... who are you?"

>>"Why, I'm your fairy godmother, of course. And this is my assistant, the Fairy of Orkney."

Gawain's face twitched in an overly obvious cartoonish manner, making a little 'ding!' sound to make things worse. Aurora did not notice. Then again, she did just fall in love with a stranger.
Also, the scene was running out.

"Listen up, cupcake. You are a princess, cursed by an evil fairy, not this one, she is cool, but another one, curse expires at midnight, ya're gonna marry a prince you have been promised to since you were born, nice young fella, you just met him half an hour ago, we are here to make sure everything goes just splendid, your aunties had to leave to prepare your castle, but don't worry Ev... Godmother Maxine will take care of you just fine. Don't stare, there's your dress, we'll be back in no time at all and take you home. Chop chop. Try to look presentable."

Turning around with a flourish of the iridescent wings, he looked down at Maxine.

"Next stop: Prince Charming and his castle." he grinned, exending a hand as Aurora faded into the background "My Lady?"

Maxine took the offered hand and, with a smile that was nearly non-nefarious, stepped with him into the next scene.

The prince was talking modernist circles around his father; how cute. Almost as cute as iridescent wings on a young Black Knight. She couldn't help but give them a little tug as they watched. Just like at the start of the movie, no one was paying them any particular mind. No real need to infer, here, either; the Prince could go and get himself captured all he wanted.

Wait. Captured? That meant that in the next scene, they'd be face-to-face with—

"Crap." She whipped out her wand, and pointed it at Prince Charming's back with zero remorse. "Hog tie!"

He face planted the ground, right in front of a certain queen's feet. Maxine curtsied, keeping a good grip on her wand.

"Your majesty; a gift for you. So; we were discussing a certain princess?" She said, somewhat out of breath.

Fairy Queens were known for being more suspicious about good tidings than sixteen year old girls were.

Maxine tugged on the wings. The wings twitched. Gawain wrinkled his nose.
Prince Charming was a douche. Why do girls fall for guys like that? The dragonfly-winged Black Knight felt like punching him. But he never had the time.

>>"Crap. Hog tie!"

"Wh..." as usual, Gawain was a step behind. But Maxine wasn't. The annoying face planted into the floor, and Maleficient looming over them both.

>>"Your majesty; a gift for you. So; we were discussing a certain princess?"

Prince Charming struggled. Gawain put a boot on his back. Gently. Would have looked a lot more badass, if he did not have the freaking wings. He felt a tug again. He glared at Maxine, but her hands were free. He did not dare to look the other way.

"Yes, indeed." said the cool evil voice "So, where would that princess be exactly?"