THREE:
BATTLE ON THE BEACH
The woman was ruining his vacation, Gantu knew, but there was nothing he could do about it. She had bewitched him.
Grumbling as the realization hit him, Gantu leaned back in the captain's chair and stared out the front view window of the ship, his face contorting into a spiteful expression.
"Why so sour, Gantu?" Maleficent asked. Gantu jumped. Grimacing, he turned around in his chair to glare at the witch, who stood behind him, smiling.
"Isn't it obvious, woman?" Gantu roared, slamming his fists down hard on the dash board which the steering wheel was built into, unnerved. "You've interrupted my vacation, you ordered me to fly you to Turo, and now you're ordering me to fly you back to Hawaii! Have you even made up your mind about her?"
Maleficent knew perfectly well who he was talking about. "Why, yes," the woman said. Gantu rose to switch off the autopilot; earth was coming into view now and he preferred to land on his own. "I plan to dump her into the ocean and turn her into a Heartless."
Gantu shook his head as he wheeled the gleaming ship of ebony colors into a dive that tipped the ship's nose down towards earth. Why did he always get the crazy ones?
As the ship dropped low under the heavy morning fog and suspended itself over the ocean, Jumba and Pleakly finally came out of their slumber.
"What's all that noise?" Pleakly whined, blinking his one eye rapidly and yawning continually. Beneath him, Jumba rose, causing Pleakly to yelp and tumble from the scientist's stomach.
"Looks like…" Jumba muttered, trying to adjust his eyes in order to see what this Friday morning had in store for them. "…Why, that looks like a ship! Someone just fell from it and-"
"A shark!" Pleakly screamed as the body Jumba saw was suddenly blasted by a ray of green light from the ship, which rocked as the body, now a Sharkbit Heartless, crashed into the ocean and sprayed tons of salt water across the ship.
"It's coming for the beach!" Jumba yelled. He began to run as the ship, after it had stilled itself, hurtled toward the beach at full speed. Pleakly was right behind him.
"Looks like there's something going on at the beach." David blew a lock of dark hair out of his eyes. Surf board in hand, he walked along side Nani, who stared ahead of them at the beach, her mouth wide open
People were running in different directions. Some were screaming while fleeing away from the beach while others, chattering amongst themselves in excited tones, wore amazed expressions on their faces as they headed for the jungle.
"Ya don't think it could be Heartless, do you, Sora?" Goofy lumbered behind Sora in his swimming trunks.
"I hope not, but…it's a good possibility." Sora stared at all of the disruption and trying to keep his fears from his face. He could sense Maleficent…
"Let's ask around," Donald suggested. He waddled up to any random person who happened to walk by, asking them the same question over and over. "Excuse me, but what's up with this crazy joint?"
No one took a talking duck seriously, however, and many times Donald was left as clueless as he was when they came here. Though a few people did take time to answer the duck's question, and what some of them said made Sora's face turn pale.
"A ship…and a big alien with a spooky lady?" he asked Donald again, just to make sure he understood the duck right; sometimes he couldn't, especially whenever Donald was in one of his trademark temper tantrums.
"That's what they all say," Donald muttered, kicking sand around with his webbed feet. "But I say that there all a bunch of big palookas!"
"Heyuck, you think everyone's a big palooka!" Goofy remarked. Steam began to pour out of Donald's eyes and beak as his face boiled red.
"Whaaaaack!" the duck squalled. Lilo, walking up behind him, grabbed the duck by the tail, preventing him from flogging Goofy.
"We need to stick together, guys," she said. Stitch, who rode on the girl's shoulder, nodded his head in agreement.
Several minutes later the commotion died down, and Sora's party headed down to the
beach, deciding to check the jungle out later. They had, after all, came here to have a good time, and Sora wasn't about to let a few Heartless spoil it for them.
"Say, can I try that board out with ya, David?" Goofy asked. David smiled.
"Sure." He and Goofy hit the waves. Meanwhile, Sora, Donald, Lilo and Nani where reclining under giant umbrellas that Nani had brought from the house, watching Stitch as he put on an Elvis concert.
"Rock 'em out, Stitch!" Lilo shouted. Sora smirked. He felt happy for the first time in a long time and he wished that this feeling would last forever but he knew it couldn't.
"What's wrong, Sora?" Nani asked, placing an arm around Sora's shoulders. "You're looking a bit down for someone who's chilling out with his friends and eating ice cream."
Sora tried to smile at her but couldn't. "Something doesn't feel right…everything feels wrong but somehow I feel happy and I don't like it."
"Come on, Sora, let's go swim!" Lilo grabbed Sora by the arm. She pulled him away from Nani. "Can we, sis?"
"Sure, but don't blame me if you start cramping from all that ice cream you ate." Nani shook her head as Lilo dragged Sora to the shore.
"Poor Sora," Donald muttered. Nani looked over at the duck, who was licking his ice cream ravenously.
No, poor me, she thought, closing her eyes.
Sora loved the feel of sand between his toes. As he raced Lilo to the water he couldn't help but miss Destiny Islands, his childhood home. It had been full of sand and water just like this…
"Come on, slow poke!" Lilo shouted. Sora realized with amusement that she had beaten him to the water.
"Hey, you could've waited!" Sora waded into the water after Lilo.
"Stitch couldn't wait!" Lilo said. Sora jumped as the little alien poked his head out of the water, blinking up at Sora mischievously. Apparently, he had ditched the Elvis gig.
"Sora needs to get hairs wet." Stitch splashed water all over Sora, who laughed and splashed Stitch right back. "It's too spiky."
It wasn't long before Lilo was wrapped up in their little skirmish, and the three played long and hard together, never noticing that the Sharkbit Heartless had started to swim beneath them.
"Are you trying to get us killed?" Maleficent hissed. Gantu, who hunkered down next to her behind a bush, snorted.
"I was in a hurry to get here." He inched his head slowly over the bush to see if the signal had appeared yet.
They had been hiding here for hours, ever since their ship had crashed and the beach goers had been after them. During the time that had passed, Maleficent had gone over her plan with Gantu, plainly stating that they were not supposed to attack the Chosen One until the signal appeared, and the signal was the rise of the Sharkbit Heartless.
"Our patience has been rewarded," Maleficent whispered, and Gantu saw that she was right.
The Sharkbit had made its first move.
Sora hadn't noticed the Heartless until it was already on top of him and Lilo, and by then it was too late to do anything.
When the Heartless had separated him and Lilo as it rose up out of the water to tumble down between him, Lilo, and Stitch, Lilo was washed up on shore while he and Stitch were washed far out into the ocean.
Knowing that the little alien wasn't exactly water resistant, Sora called him back to the Keyblade, praying King Mickey would keep them safe.
It took several minutes for David and Goofy to realize what had happened, but when they did the two plunged into the fray without thinking. David had went after Lilo while Goofy joined Sora in his fight against the Heartless, which was a titan-sized shark with a black heart etched into its fin, the mark of a Heartless.
On the beach, Donald saw that his friends were in trouble and he charged into the ocean, wizard's staff in hand. Nani could only stay behind and watch helplessly.
Sometime during the chaos David had managed to bring Lilo to her sister. He cradled the limp, but spluttering girl in his arms, shaking uncontrollably.
"Oh, David, thank you," Nani whispered, taking Lilo off his hands. He nodded wordlessly at her and fell to the ground, exhausted.
As the small Ohana sat in terrified silence, Maleficent and Gantu arrived upon the scene.
"Well, we meet again."
Nani spun around at the sound of the voice, which seemed eerily familiar. When she saw who it belonged to, she growled, "Gantu. I thought we settled things with you."
"Not quite," the monstrous alien chuckled. He pulled out a blaster.
With a yell, Sora swung the Keyblade against the Sharkbit's head relentlessly, sweat pouring heavily down his brow. As he fought, Sora could here the battle cries of his friends as they rang out across the ocean.
"Thundaga!" That was Donald, using the element spell that was most effective against this water type Heartless.
"Goofy Bash!" And that was Goofy, throwing his shield against the Heartless's hide and just being Goofy.
For hours, it seemed, the battle flowed this way. When it all finally ended, when Sora dealt the final blow, which brought a stolen heart out of the Heartless and into the air, making the Heartless vanish, Sora felt like crying but kept the tears at bay.
There was another battle waiting for them at the beach, a battle which Master Yen Sid had suddenly become a part of.
"You shouldn't be here," Maleficent groaned whenever the Master Wizard appeared before her. "You should be back in your little tower, playing magic tricks with those damn fairies of Princess Aurora's"
Tall and mysterious in his flowing blue robe, Master Yen Sid smiled, and his long, grey beard, which forked at the end, glowed brightly in the sunlight as did his wise, ancient face.
"I have every right to be here as you have." He tipped his pointed hat at Maleficent to let her know that this was the same wizard who had taught King Mickey, that this was the same wizard who was still perhaps, more powerful then she herself would ever be.
Knowing what he was trying to do and not in the least bit charmed, Maleficent slammed her staff into the ground and muttered the first spell.
Master Yen Sid began to fiddle with his fingers.
The magic duel was on.
"What's Master Yen Sid doing here?" Donald cried in surprise whenever he and his friends walked onto the beach.
"Maybe he's been watching out for us." Sora's eyes followed the deadly sparks that were flying between the two sorcerers.
"But I don't think he needs our help," Goofy said. Sora agreed with him, ignoring Donald's cries of protest; the duck worshipped Master Yen Sid.
"Nani needs us now, Donald," Sora settled the matter.
When they reached Nani, she was dodging laser blasts while David staid out of the line of fire to protect Lilo.
"Stop!" Sora stepped in between Nani and Gantu, blocking the alien's shots with the Keyblade, which threw the shots right back at the alien.
Distressed, Gantu tried to dodge the reflected shots but one or two struck him, and he was forced to retreat with a lame foot and a bloody arm.
Having saved Nani from serious harm, Sora collapsed on the ground and allowed Donald to heal him with a slew of Curaga spells, which worked wonders for Sora's new bruises and scars.
"That should do it, Sora," Donald said, when, moments later, all of Sora wounds had been completely healed.
"Thanks Donald." Sora remained seated with the others as they continued to watch the battle between Master Yen Sid and Maleficent.
"I think it's almost over," Goofy said. Seconds after he had spoken, Master Yen Sid had struck Maleficent down.
