Chapter 16 - Rosco and His Cowardly Escape

With the guards following closely behind them, Arthur had no choice but to escort Merlin to the dungeons. When they reached the cells, he firmly ordered Big Bird and Rainbow Princess to stay outside and guard the dungeon door while he took Merlin to his cell. When they arrived, Arthur sighed and gently nudged Merlin into the prison, locking the door behind him. "I'm sorry, Merlin," he said quickly, quietly. "I didn't want those two idiots to hurt you anymore so I took you to the cells myself. But my father gave an order, I can't go against it."

Merlin, who knew that he really did have magic and would be able to get out of the cell in a heartbeat if Arthur would just get the heck out of there and let him work his magic, smiled grimly. "Thanks. I'll be alright, though."

Arthur rolled his eyes. "You are an idiot, Merlin."

Merlin couldn't help but smirk, glad to see that Arthur was completely back to normal. In fact, it seemed as if iPhones were the last thing on his mind right now. Merlin was still at a loss at how to stop this madness and could use all the help he could get. With the prince on his side, surely they could figure out something – something that preferably didn't reveal Merlin's magic to Arthur just yet. "You really need to get a new mantra," Merlin joked airily, not worried about his impending execution in the slightest. He was actually quite happy now that he knew Arthur hadn't fallen for Morgana's petty trick. "You tell me I'm an idiot at least a dozen times a day."

Arthur growled, "Only because it's true."

Merlin shrugged. "If you say so."

Arthur glared at him. "You, Merlin, are to be executed tomorrow. With guns. Do you know what that means?"

Merlin just shrugged again. "No, actually. I haven't exactly been keeping up to date on all this future stuff. It's not my thing." He grimaced.

Arthur huffed. "How can you be so chipper, Merlin? You're going to die tomorrow."

Merlin smiled warmly at his master and friend. "No," he said calmly. "No, I'm not."

o.O

Arthur slammed the door to the dungeons, leaving Big Bird and Rainbow Princess to do whatever it was they did during this time of the day. He didn't understand how Merlin could be so cheery in the face of certain death, but it was really starting to annoy him. He snorted – perhaps Merlin was acting happy just because he knew it would annoy Arthur.

Or maybe he knew the truth.

Maybe he knew that Arthur's words in the cells were just a precaution for the guard's benefits just in case they were listening. Maybe he knew there was no way on earth that Arthur was going to let his friend die because of a poorly edited picture. Maybe he knew that Arthur was going to make a plan and help the idiot escape whether he had any other assistance or not.

Arthur held back a chuckle at the idea of Merlin, of all people, having magic. It was ludicrous. Merlin with magic. But even if by some crazy, ironic force of nature Merlin actually did have magic, Arthur wasn't sure that he would even be able to go through with the execution regardless. He'd grown used to having Merlin around and if there was one thing he knew about his manservant, it was that he was anything but evil.

He pushed such thoughts out of his mind as he headed for Rosco's camp just outside of the lower town, where he kept his store of future items and lived when he wasn't in the marketplace selling cell phones and computers and magazines and hot dogs and cameras and DVDs and televisions. Even if he had no intention whatsoever of letting his father holes shoot holes in his servant, turning him into a human version of Swiss cheese, he did have to keep up the pretense that he fully supported his father's actions. Uther wanted him to go to Rosco and inquire about getting guns. Arthur would do that, but there was no way that his father would be allowed to touch the weapons. In the state of mind his father was in now, he might very well get trigger happy and start shooting at anything that moved.

He realized that something was wrong as he drew closer to Rosco's abode. The man's ship – a "time machine," he'd called it – that he had arrived in was making strange noises and Rosco was in the process of hastily packing boxes into the great shiny and silver contraption. The tall, red-haired man no longer looked uncontrollably happy and a smidge devious. Instead, panic was on his face as he jumped a mile in the air (not literally, of course, it was more along the lines of two inches) at Arthur's approach. He breathed a sigh of relief seeing who his visitor was and stopped in his packing, eyes darting about nervously all the while.

He dipped his head slightly – no ridiculous, expressive, and frankly embarrassing bow this time – at Arthur's arrival. "Hullo," he said distractedly and looked longingly at his machine. He seemed to be in a bit of a hurry.

Arthur frowned. "What's going on?"

Rosco winced at the prince's bluntness. Arthur had never seen the ecstatic man so, well, un-ecstatic before. He was scared, that much was certain. And from the look of things, he seemed to be in the process of packing up and leaving. Where he planned on going, Arthur didn't know for sure, but he had a sneaking suspicion that Rosco was trying to run away to the future. To his own time, or maybe to terrorize someone else's time. If that was true, though, he hadn't the slightest clue why.

"I-I'm terribly sorry, I got called away on… eh, business – yep, that's it, business. That sounds believable," he mumbled and Arthur rolled his eyes.

"Why are you leaving?" Letting out an explosive breath, Arthur snapped, "You have to fix this! Because of technology, an innocent man has been condemned for the crime of sorcery. My father has ordered me to request some modern weapons – guns – so that he can have a 'modern' execution!"

If it was possible for the wiry man to pale any more, that is what Rosco did. It was then that Arthur noticed that the man's clothes were mildly rumpled and that there was the beginnings of a light bruise on his forehead. "Someone threatened you," Arthur stated. He looked at Rosco, eyebrows raised. "Who?"

"I don't know!" Rosco groused back, eyes wide and scared. "All I know is they took the guns, the weapons, the artillery – everything – and then told me I'd better get back to my own time so that I can't aid Camelot in the event of an attack!"

Arthur was furious. "And you let them take it?"

Rosco gestured wildly to his forehead. "They were going to kill me!"

Arthur crossed his arms over his chest and stared the man down. "I fail," he said in a slow, measured voice, "to see the problem."

Rosco let out a little squeak. "I never wanted any of this!" he moaned dramatically. "I was going to be the best salesman ever!"

Arthur glared. "And how's that working out for you?"

Rosco's lower lip trembled precariously. "It's not fair!" He was in full-blown tantrum mode. "I had everything – everything – going great and then that small army came and roughed me up, took my weapons, and threatened me!" He sniffled. "I want my mommy."

Arthur paled. A small army? Rosco crying for his mommy? That could only mean one thing… Cenred had had some of his men raid Rosco's weapon stores and now the enemy was armed to the teeth with killer, futuristic guns. They would launch an assault on Camelot and their swords and shields would be of no use. They'd be slaughtered. And it was all Rosco's fault!

Consumed by anger, Arthur spun to accuse the man, only to howl in frustration at the sight he was faced with. While Arthur had been distracted by his dark thoughts, Rosco had seized his chance. He had darted into his time machine, jammed the "return trip" button, and zapped off into the time-space continuum.

Rosco was gone and now there was no way of defending Camelot against an army of machine guns – the only form of modern weaponry they had in Camelot were the Nerf guns… and somehow Arthur didn't think they would be of much use against the real deal.

You are not authorized to comment here. Your must be registered and logged in to comment