In this chapter, multiple questions from The Vengeful Key will be answered as well as the introduction to several characters you already know. Enjoy and I still don't own anything Disney or Kingdom Hearts.
Several weeks had passed after Nairbix had befriended Natasha, after countless hours of fetching water and cleaning the tower, Nairbix was eager for a new assignment from his master. Thankfully, that was just about to happen for himself and Mickey.
"You summoned us, Master?" Mickey asked as both he and Nairbix stood before Yen Sid at his desk.
"Indeed, today I have an assignment for you, my students. There is a world that has caught my interest, I would like the both of you to do a reconnaissance mission for me. Observe the world for today, take as much time as you need. But I would like for you to bring back at least one creature or plant for me to examine. Return to the tower within the next thirty-six hours."
"Yes, Master." They both replied, Yen Sid then waved his hand and created a corridor of light for his students to travel through. After they had walked through the corridor, Nairbix and Mickey found themselves looking at the new world. It was riddled with tall trees and plants of so many colors and sizes, the calls of so many animals and creatures filled the air and the ears of the two apprentices.
"So, this is the world that the master is interested in, huh?" Nairbix asked rhetorically.
"What should we do first, find an animal to bring back or examine the place?" Mickey asked.
"Hmm, I say we look around for a while then we look for something to bring back for Master Yen Sid."
"Good idea. I wonder what this world is called, anyway."
"Don't know, don't care. Come on, I want to get out of this place as soon as possible."
"I thought you loved worlds like this, Nairbix?" Mickey asked.
"Woodland and forest type worlds, Mickey. I mean, I think this place has its own sense of beauty and all, but I'm not so into jungle terrain." Nairbix replied. For the next several hours, the two students became familiar with the world's plant life and landscape. However, they found no signs of life which was ironic considering that the air was filled with the cries and calls of the native creatures that were supposedly surrounding them.
"I just don't understand it." Mickey thought out loud, "We've been searching for hours and following the noises and we still haven't found any trace of a single animal."
"What is it that we're missing?" Nairbix asked under his breath. Before either of them did anything else, the bushes next to them began to rustle. They each readied their Keyblades and prepared to strike and hopefully capture whatever was coming their way. However, neither of them were prepared for what came next. A large chubby creature wearing a small white buttoned lab coat rolling towards them and knocking them both over the ledge causing them to roll down the hill.
After the three stopped rolling, Nairbix was the first to speak. "What in the name of the great golden mane of the lion was that?!" He groaned as he clutched his head in pain while Mickey and the newcomer whined in pain.
"Oh, I am so being the sorry for that." This came from the one that had caused them to roll down the hill. As said before, he was wearing a white buttoned lab coat. Also, he was in a word, plump. Every part of his body was pudgy, his skin tone was what could be considered "dirty plum purple" and "dirty peach". His most bizarre feature, however, was that he had four eyes!
"Its fine," Nairbix waved off, "Are you okay, though?" He asked.
"Yes, yes, again, so sorry about that. I am Jumba, Jumba Jookeba, evil genius prodigy." Jumba introduced in his cracked high voice.
"Nice to meet you, Jumba. My name is Nairbix VanSull."
"And I'm Mickey, the Sorcerer's Apprentice. If you don't mind me asking, Jumba, what are you doing here?"
"There is a creature in this jungle that Jumba is searching for. I want to extract a sample of its DNA for my experimentation." Jumba replied with a wicked chuckle.
"Experimentation?" The two apprentices asked.
"Oh, yes. I preform evil genetic experimentation by crossing multiple sources of DNA in order to create a completely new creature, haha!" Jumba laughed evilly. Nairbix and Mickey looked at each other with the same thought in mind and gave each other a quick nod and looked back at Jumba.
"You know, Jumba," Nairbix began slyly, "We're actually looking for an animal from this place too. So…why don't we work together to find it? We need to bring something back to our master, and you need a sample of it; so why not?"
For a moment, Jumba thought this idea over. He then made his decision, "Very well then, this may work in order to catch the creature."
"Yeah, and at the very least we can help you out if we can't catch the creature for ourselves. If that happens then we can always look for something else." Mickey provided, but Jumba grew a confused look on his face after he heard this.
"You two don't know, do you?" He asked.
"Know what?" Nairbix asked.
"The creature that Jumba is searching for is the only living being that lives in this world. If you two are not to be capturing the beast, then you will have nothing at all." Jumba replied.
This proved to make things difficult for Nairbix and Mickey. One single creature was capable of making multiple calls and sounds that sounded completely different from the rest, and they were no closer to finding it now than they were when they first arrived.
"Well, that's just great." Nairbix said with sarcasm.
"Jumba, you seem to know quite a bit about this thing, what can you tell us about it?" Mickey asked their chubby new friend.
"It is a very elusive creature. If not for an evil genius prodigy mind like my own, Jumba might have never come across it." He then pulled out multiple sheets of paper from his lab coat, each one filled with information regarding their target.
"You can do the throwing out idea of following footprints, this beast doesn't leave any."
"So what then, it's airborne or aquatic?" Nairbix asked, but Jumba shook his head.
"No, it's a land creature. But it has the body of a giant white slug, however it leaves no traces of slime." He replied.
"How are we going to track it then?" Mickey asked.
"Allow Jumba to ask this question first. Have the two of you been following the calls it makes as they be growing louder?"
"Yeah."
"That's right."
"Ironically, you would be wanting to be doing the opposite." Jumba explained surprising the two.
"Huh?!" They both asked.
"It's makes soft sounds that grow louder through echoing throughout the jungle. The softer the sound of a noise it makes, the closer we are to it. Because of this, Jumba has dubbed it The Soft Throat."
"So aside from it having the body of a giant white slug, what other features does The Soft Throat have that we should know about?" Nairbix asked, this is where Jumba gave a negative sigh.
"Unfortunately, it has a total of seven eyes. Two of which, are located on its face, but the remaining five are eyestalks located from the back of its head to its back. Given its body and size, The Soft Throat cannot turn around to avoid us." Jumba said.
"But that's good, right?" Mickey asked.
"Not exactly. Once it spots us, it will bulk itself up as a means to harden its skin and toughen its body. Jumba found this out the hard way when I did the first attempt at taking a blood sample." Jumba admitted to his shame.
"So basically, this thing has no blind spot and we can't puncture it without killing it." Nairbix said with a huff, but then an idea popped into his mind. "Wait, Jumba you said that only its body will bulk up and harden, right?"
"Yes, I did."
"And you can extract DNA from any part of its body, can't you?"
"Of course."
"What are you getting at, Nairbix?" Mickey asked.
"Why don't we try and take one of its eyes?" He asked slightly demented.
"An eye?!" Mickey squeaked.
"Why not? Jumba can get his sample and while it's distracted by the pain, we can capture it. It's a win-win situation."
"And, I happen to be having a device that can shrink it down, so it really is a win-win situation." Jumba agreed. Seeing as he was outnumbered, Mickey agreed as well. "Excellent, now then, I have these to give you two." Jumba said as he held out his meaty hands, in each one there was on earpiece to help communicate with each other.
"Thanks, Jumba, you're the best." Mickey said to the evil genius prodigy.
"I am?" He asked.
"Yep, you may consider yourself evil, but with what you've done, you're awesome!" Nairbix exclaimed.
"You think so?" Jumba asked again.
"Of course, we're friends, aren't we?" Nairbix asked as he gave Jumba a big toothy grin. After coming over his shock from seeing the two apprentices being so nice to him, Jumba happily nodded.
Later that day, after formulating a plan to confront The Soft Throat and following the soft sounds of its calls. Nairbix and Mickey waited for it to cross their path as they were up in the trees while Jumba was waiting to intercept it with his shrink ray.
Sure enough, after patiently waiting, The Soft Throat came their way as it bulldozed the trees and plants in its path. It looked exactly like Jumba said, it had the body of a massive white slug with five long eyestalks on its back. However, they also spotted other physical features that Jumba either forgot to mention or did not know about. For starters, the beast's back flesh seemed to glow and change different colors, also, The Soft Throat's mouth was enormous, it looked as though it could swallow someone's home.
"Jumba," Nairbix said as he spoke through the earpiece, "You may have forgotten to tell us about the size of The Soft Throat's mouth!"
"…I did?" Jumba asked as though he thought he had. Mickey and Nairbix just smacked their foreheads after they heard this. After realizing that this would be slightly more difficult than they thought, Nairbix and Mickey readied themselves to attack with their Keyblades in their hands.
As The Soft Throat slunk its way over to them, the apprentices leapt down to land on its back fully prepared to leave with an eye. Once they made contact with the slug's back, the eyestalks sharply glared at the two of them, and they did not seem pleased.
"What should we do know, Nairbix?" Mickey asked with his voice trembling, however, Nairbix did not seem fazed by the harsh glares. Without saying a word, he grabbed one of the nearest eyestalks and ripped it from The Soft Throat's back causing it to screech and squirm. He then reached into the stalk's socket and ripped out the eye.
"That." He replied bluntly. "Okay, Jumba, we've got an eye and The Soft Throat's heading your way, be ready with the shrink ray, please." He said to the earpiece, but there was no reply. "Jumba? Jumba, do you copy?"
"I be copying." Jumba replied but not from the earpiece. Instead, he was jogging at the side of the throat with an open jar in his arms. "Just drop it, Jumba will catch it."
"But you're supposed to be with the shrink ray!" Mickey exclaimed.
"I have set it to activate once the throat trips the rigging. Give me the eye and jump off before you are becoming the small and tiny!" Nairbix looked to Mickey who reluctantly nodded, he then tossed Jumba the eye which landed in the jar. Jumba then closed the jar and dove into the bushes, and before Mickey and Nairbix could get off of The Soft Throat, something strange happened.
Each of the remaining eyestalks retracted into the back of the throat leaving behind black holes for each one. All of a sudden, The Soft Throat stopped moving. It then began to tremble and growl, every part of the throat's body began to bubble and bulge. Only one thought occurred to the two young Keyblade wielders. Transformation.
They then jumped off of the creature's back and landed safely on the ground, with an agonizing cry of pain, The Soft Throat began to transform.
While the throat began to float in the air, flesh and skin began to emerge from the holes left from where the eyestalks were as the original body began to turn inside out. Once The Soft Throat finished its transformation, Mickey and Nairbix gazed in fear upon its new body. It was now a giant, white, muscular sabretooth tiger with long black horns, black dragon-like hands, and a black underbelly. It somehow became even larger than when it was in its slug form, and somehow, the air grew colder from the beast's presence.
"I think I like its first form a bit more than this one." Mickey said bluntly as Nairbix nodded his head fearfully. Not a moment later, the throat raised its massive hand and attempted to swat away the two apprentices, however, it missed thanks to the duo's speed and agility.
"What do we do now, Mickey?" Nairbix asked once they were in the trees.
"Our best bet is to defeat it. I think the master might not get to study this thing, after all."
"Well, if we don't make it off of this world alive, then he can make his next apprentices go after it." Nairbix replied bluntly before The Soft Throat tore down the trees with its tail.
As this was going on, both students had only one thought in mind. "Where is Jumba?!"
To answer that, Jumba was running through the jungle with the jar containing the eyestalk in his pudgy arms. He then came across a clearing that had a space ship in the center, at the base of the ship, was an abnormally large white gerbil wearing a red cape held by a large golden H.
"Well, it's about time you showed your pudgily pudgy face here. I've been waiting all day for you to return!" The gerbil shouted in a cracked snooty voice while Jumba tried to catch his breath.
"When you actually decide to be putting in effort on job, Hamsterviel, then you may commence with the mocking of me, you pathetic gerbil!" Jumba retorted hotly.
"HAMSTER! I am a hamster!" Hamsterviel shouted in anger. As he was gathering their supplies, he began to speak to Jumba with a more level head. "By the way, what took you so long? You're usually faster when it comes to collecting DNA samples, Jumba."
Jumba paused for a moment as guilt took in. "I did the meeting of other peoples and made friends, nothing else." He dismissed as he heard the sound of the battle in the distance.
Hamsterviel was able to put the pieces together fairly quickly and realized why his partner wasn't acting like himself.
"You mean, the ones fighting The Soft Throat?!" He shouted.
"Yes." Jumba answered knowing where this was going. Sure enough, Hamsterviel began to kick Jumba's leg in a fit of anger; even though it didn't hurt in the slightest.
"You incompetent, dundering dunderhead! You are not to interact with anyone, local or otherwise!" The gerbil claiming to be a hamster ranted.
"If it hadn't been for them, I would never have gotten us the throat's eyestalk." Jumba defended.
"Do you honestly think that I care, you foolish foolhardy fool?! The answer, NO!" But Jumba wasn't listening, he was more focused on the sounds of battle in the distance and how he up and left his new friends. After finally coming to a decision, Jumba rummaged through one of the crates and pulled out a child size yellow and red blaster with a determined look on his face.
"And where do you think you are going, you oafish oaf?" Hamsterviel asked as he gave his partner his signature glare.
"I am off to be helping friends." Jumba replied with gusto, "You can come along to provide help, my genetically confused rodent frenemy." He offered, but he was give the stubborn reply, "Pft!" before returning to the jungle.
As the previous event passed, both Nairbix and Mickey were struggling to keep the throat from mutilating them. Due to the beast's massive form, all of the surrounding trees were leveled to the ground providing no cover for the two apprentices, this however did nothing to stop them from fighting though.
"Friends!" Jumba shouted as he waved his flabby arm at them.
"Jumba!" Mickey cheered merrily.
"Look out!" Nairbix shouted as the throat readied its claw to strike the evil genius prodigy, however, the living manifestation was able to shove his friends out of the way just in time. But The Soft Throat wasn't finished with them just yet, not by a long shot.
With a deep breath, the beast unleashed a blast concentrated ice rendering the landscape a frozen wasteland, thankfully, the trio of friends avoided the blast. The Soft Throat proved to be a formidable foe for the trio due to that hardly any of their attacks seemed to effect it let alone injure it. Where it couldn't attack with its body, it attacked with its powers over ice, if not for his reflexes, Nairbix would've been frozen by the blast that created a glacier behind him.
"Nairbix, get ready!" Mickey shouted as Jumba fired his blaster at the throat. Nairbix quickly caught on and readied himself for what he and Mickey were about to do.
"Light/darkness, give me power!" They both shouted as a sphere of transparent darkness surrounded Nairbix and one of light surrounded Mickey as they floated in the air and held hands. They then pointed their Keyblades out in front of them and emitted showers of both light and darkness as they spun in the air. Thankfully, this seemed to cause a great deal of damage to The Soft Throat. But the fight wasn't over just yet.
While the throat was still in a daze, Jumba and Nairbix readied their own attack. Jumba managed to pull out another blaster as Nairbix stood next to him, like a bowling ball, Nairbix rolled Jumba as he began to fire his weapons wildly. The attack became even more effective once Nairbix managed to bounce Jumba up into the air with the help of Mickey knocking him around as though he were a ball. With their opponent weakened, Jumba set both of his blasters on high while Nairbix and Mickey coated their Keyblades in both light and darkness that once they made contact, The Soft Throat would be at the end of a devastating blast.
Sure enough, once they all unleashed their attacks, the outcome was correct. After the cloud of snow settled, everything seemed as though there was nothing to worry about and that victory was theirs, but those thoughts were quickly dashed as The Soft Throat with incredible speed pounced Nairbix.
His body was being crushed against the glacier by the throat's claw. It was viciously snarling in his face with rage as it tightened its grip, Mickey and Jumba tried to call out to their dear friend, but their words fell deaf to his ears as the sound of his own blood drowned them out.
But if by pure determination, Nairbix was able to summon his Keyblade. From the cracks between the monster's fingers, a beam of bright, black, and purple darkness struck The Soft Throat's heart. The next events were even more unbelievable than anything that any of the three friends had seen that day. The black and purple darkness began to engulf the beast like a net as it floated in the air. The Soft Throat roared in protest as the net of darkness began to return to Heartbreaker, as it was nearing the end of its capture, the throat made an attempt to grab for something; but it was all for not as its arm and claws were absorbed into the tip of the Keyblade.
Jumba and Mickey looked at Nairbix with unreadable expressions as Nairbix did the same only at his Keyblade. He then looked at the others and finally said something to them.
"Okay, even I didn't know it could do that." He said bluntly.
After hearing this, they were all silent, but after taking in Nairbix's words, they began to laugh. It was the sort of laughter that could only come out when the truest of friends were together, and sure enough, these three miscreants were the truest of friends. In case this whole ordeal wasn't clear enough, this was the beginning of a friendship that would last for a lifetime. Their brotherhood would begin much later though. Once they had finished laughing, Nairbix and Mickey joined Jumba on his way to his ship.
"So this is your ship, huh?" Nairbix asked once they reached their destination.
"Indeed, this is being the part where we part ways, my friends." Jumba replied. They all exchanged hugs just before Jumba entered his ship, however, they could hear the annoying rants of Hamsterviel as the ship was taking off.
"You ought to learn to be quicker when it comes fighting, you oafish dimwit!" Hamsterviel nagged.
"Jumba can't understand you, I only hear the annoying squeaks of a gerbil." He replied in a sing-song voice.
"HAMSTER! I am a hamster!" He shouted as the ship took off.
Once that was all said and done, the young wielders of the Keyblade returned to The Mysterious Tower to show their master what they had brought back to show.
"Welcome back, my young pupils." Yen Sid greeted inside his study. "I trust that you were successful in your assignment?"
"Yes, Master, we were." Mickey replied proudly.
"Well, then, where is the creature that you have brought?"
"In here." Nairbix answered as he held his Keyblade. Yen Sid then rose from his seat and closely examined his student's weapon.
"Fascinating, so it would seem that your Keyblade has some sort of…containment ability. Nairbix, how long have you possessed this ability?" Yen Sid asked, Nairbix simply shrugged his shoulders before he replied.
"I don't know. It was the first time that I had ever seen this technique, I wouldn't be able to tell you how it works, Master." He admitted.
"Well then, we'll just need to see how it works for ourselves, now won't we?" He asked before making his way outside with his students behind him. Once they were in the larger part of the land surrounding the tower, Nairbix attempted to summon The Soft Throat. Surprisingly, it only took him the one try in order to release it. Both of the apprentices were slightly nervous at seeing the beast that nearly killed them earlier that day, but Yen Sid did not seem fazed by it.
The next thing that the throat did surprised them all, The Soft Throat was bowing in respect to Nairbix! Then, all of a sudden, Nairbix's mind was filled with information regarding his newly discovered technique, one word then escaped his lips after fully knew what this new power could do.
"Fealty."
"What was that?" Mickey asked after hearing his pal mutter the word.
"The name of this technique is called, Fealty. It allows me to capture creatures of a certain kind and contain them inside Heartbreaker. From then on, all that are absorbed become extremely loyal to me and have the highest respect and admiration." After he finished his explanation, the throat gently nuzzled its face against Nairbix's gaining a warm smile from his new master.
"You're a strange little one, Nairbix, and you are full of surprises." Yen Sid said to his student as he was returning The Soft Throat to his Keyblade.
"Thank you." Nairbix replied as he beamed with pride. Yen Sid chuckled and led his students back to the tower in order to receive their well-earned rest.
"Master," Yen Sid thought to himself as they were walking, "I believe I have found your successor."
