Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Presents: Blood on the Sand!

[Proto Man]

When they entered into the Nexus, the pair of primes hadn’t expected to find the place rife with Imperial stormtroopers. A quick glance at the Dataverse news stories revealed that the Empire had increased its patrols of the area in the wake of some recent fights on the top tier of the mighty city. Rather than try and slip around the group to the Camelot gate, the pair headed in the opposite direction, hoping to escape any sort of interrogation.

The pair half-walked, half-jogged away from the wandering groups of troopers and slipped into the gate in the northwest. Instead of the verdant green fields, they’d stepped out into something that seemed pulled straight from North Africa. The ground that crunched beneath their boots was coarse sand, and the buildings that loomed a few dozen yards in front of them were a blend of steel and cloth.

“Where are we?” Mickey muttered as he lifted his eyes to the cloudless sky. “I don’t think I’ve been here before.” A few yards away, a cactus jutted up out of the ground. “Yea, I don’t believe I’ve seen a cactus yet.”

The answer to the mouse’s question popped up on Proto Man’s internal display. “That’s Carrefore up ahead… we’re in the Endless Dunes.” Up ahead, the android spotted a collection of armed storm troopers patrolling through the oasis town. “It’s an Empire establishment, and if I recall, you’re a wanted criminal.”

“Let’s slip out before we attract any attention,” Mickey muttered, but when Proto Man stepped out of the gate and into the Nexus, he spotted an oncoming stormtrooper patrol.

Stepping backwards into the Endless Dunes, Proto Man gestured to the north—a route that would hopefully take them around the town in front of them. “Patrols coming, we need to get out of here now before someone notices you.”

“Got it,” Mickey muttered as he reached back and pulled a hood up over his distinctive ears. The two scurried off in a route that would allow them to avoid Carrefore and the Imperial presence therein.

***

After an hour of silently trudging into the interior of the verse, Mickey and Proto Man stopped their trek. “From here, we can try and head out into one of the neighboring verses.” The android explained as he pulled up geographic and topographic information about the Endless Dunes.

“What are the options?”

Proto Man scowled as the information flashed onto his internal display. “Coruscant or the Ashen Steppes…”

A heavy frown spread across Mickey Mouse’s visage as he processed their options. “Well we don’t really have an option if we want to try and avoid the Empire. Have you been to the Steppes?”

“Yes,” the preteen machine replied. “Unpleasant place with a lot of volcanoes and lava flows.” What Proto Man left out of the story was the sociopath with an arm cannon and the sacrifice of a half-brother he barely knew.

“Wonderful.”

“We’re got something incoming…” Proto Man muttered as a few warnings popped up on his display. “Oh how wonderful, a sandstorm.”

“Gee, this is a great day,” Mickey chuckled halfheartedly as Proto Man untied his scarf and handed it to the mouse. “Thank you,” the king replied as he tied the yellow cloth tightly around his mouth and nose. “How long we got?”

Proto Man never got a chance to respond. Like a massive wave crashing on an unsuspecting beach, a shifting wall of wind and sand came crashing down onto the pair of small primes, swallowing them up as it rolled around the Dunes at the head of an even more massive storm cell.