Chapter 9: Ambush!
The Elemental Force rests comfortably in the guest rooms until sunrise. Romeo lies on his back with his legs sprawled, snoring. His peaceful bliss is ruined when magical brooms barge in the boys' room! He springs up and in attack mode. He leaps forward and gnaws them to pieces. Jade is the second to awake, then Lizzy, then Matt trapped in blankets, and lastly Blue.
"Down, boy!" Matt tries to get to heel but would not listen.
"SIT!" Dorian awoke shouting a single word . Romeo trembles when he heard the command resonate in the room. He then sits, chewing a piece of wood.
"Drop it," Dorian yawns. Romeo did drop the broken piece.
"I need to learn how to do that," Matt comments Dorian's commands while waking.
"If you had a dog that doesn't know when to shut up in the morning," Dorian sits up. "It's practice to yell from bed."
"RISE AND SHINE, FELLAS!" Goofy chuckles. "Donald's whipping up a special breakfast before you head out on your–"
Goofy inadvertently steps on a rolling piece of the broom. "WOAH! WAH-OOH!" He falls back into the pile of broken brooms Romeo chewed up!
Jade looks the mess and looks at Romeo. The dog flips his ears back in response to Jade's glare. "You're bad," Jade says.
"Sorry about that, Goofy," Dorian apologizes. "He doesn't like–"
He stops at mid-sentence to see Goofy helped by the brooms. "Aw shucks," Goofy says after the brooms pick him up. "I'm not worrying about it, these brooms are enchanted! So whenever they break, they split off and multiply! Like bacteria."
"Well," Lizzy says. "That's a relief!"
"Daisy already woken the gals," Goofy says. "They're probably waiting for ya'll in the Dining Hall."
Romeo scrambles past Goofy, running toward the scent of food!
"He doesn't even know where it is!" Blue says when peeking out. He notices something wrong when Romeo stopped running and slides on the floor. He perks his ears left and then looks left. He lets out a solemn howl and barrels through the colonnade!
Jade also picks up the sound Romeo heard and followed suite. "Something's here," he says after he sniffs hard.
"Who's here?" Goofy asks.
"I don't know," Jade says. "But the stench is overpowering some poorly made café da - manhã."
He steps out into the hall and his foot is caught! "Ué! My foot!" Jade looks down and sees his foot stuck in a pool of darkness!
"He's a Heartless!" Goofy hollers but saw the jewel glimmer softly purple.
"Jade's no Heartless," Matt says pointing at Jade's jewel. "He just discovered how to use the jewel." Jade relaxes away his tension and hastily pulls up his foot from the pool.
"Where's the doggy?" Jade asks every one. Sidney's scream rang in the men's ears!
Jade thinks for a minute and says, "I'm going ahead!"
"Jade, wait–" Lizzy tries to stop his brother but Jade opens up a pool of darkness, jumps up and then dives in! The pool minimizes and scuttles away from Lizzy and the rest! Frustrated, they follow Jade's small pool until running past the hedges in the Royal Garden. One Super Shadow firmly grasps Sidney and several Soldiers and Shadows encircled their boss.
"More Heartless?" Matt asks. Goofy squints his eye at the Super Shadow.
"Funny," he suggests. "I thought purebloods don't have emblems."
"There's a difference?" asks Blue.
"Purebloods," Goofy points out. "Natural Heartless born from the darkness in people's hearts. Where as Emblems are made from a machine that captures hearts, and put them in darkness.
"A machine?" Lizzy asks. "Capable of doing that? That's twisted!" he retorted, "However imaginative."
Romeo attempts to free her, but the creature slaps him out of its way and it leaps behind two rows of Soldiers and Shadows.
"HEY, BULKY!" Dorian runs up and it finally happens. The same Keyblade he had in his dreams is now in his right hand.
Blue and Goofy get a glimpse of the autumn-gold blade. "King Mickey was right," Goofy says. "That's one."
"Just look at it!" Blue says.
Dorian grips the electric blue handle and points the blade at the Super Shadow. "Eat my sister," he shouts. "And you'll wish you never dealt with me!"
The monster's smile turned to a frown and leaps away from the group up to the roof of the castle.
"Dude! It just jumped up there," Matt says. "How're we gonna to get it?"
"I got it," Dorian kneels down as the Keyblade and Elemental Jewel glow simultaneously. "Senshi Field!" The patch of grass Dorian stands on warps and ripples! "Take care of these bastards here," Dorian says. A column of dirt shoots up and catapults him up to the roof to meet with the Super Shadow holding his sister hostage!
The Heartless' heads turn to the group and spring at their targets. Matt counts five Soldiers. His fists pulsate electricity. "More to it than just light?" He asks before the Soldiers came close. "Electro Nail!" He punches the ground and discharges the electric pulse diagonally and paralyzes them by pinning them to the ground as he pile drove them into a grayish-violet mist.
Jade deals with three. "They maybe cunning," he says. "But… Rainforest Kenpo: Three Thorns!" As they spin around Jade, he performs a handstand. He outstretches his legs and tail and twists around the Heartless until they stop in their tracks and are sliced!
"Here we go!" Goofy spins his shield and jumps on as if he's riding it! "Turbo Dash!" He scoops up Blue by his feet and they spin around, knocking down any Heartless remaining!
"Ground's all clear," Goofy says. "Wonder how Dorian's doing?"
All the while, Dorian clangs his Keyblade against the Super Shadow's smaller hand. Sidney felt nauseated with the constant bobbing back and forth. Dorian charges forth. The Super Shadow kicks at Dorian. Dorian ducks from the kick, slides behind the monster and cuts the Super Shadow's arm. The arm did fall, but not completely!
"EW!" Sidney cries. "ZOMBIE HAND! GET ME OUT OF HERE!"
The Heartless swings its nearly severed arm at Dorian, knocking him back a few feet!
He got back on his feet and says, "Okay! You asked for it!" Dorian wasn't planning to use his Garnet Flash, but rather something else. "Speed Gear!" His jewel shines again and he disappears! The Super Shadow looks left and right for Dorian until Sidney clears her throat and points behind him. Dorian is there, but unbeknownst to the Heartless, it was cut in two! "Hey," he says to the monster. "I didn't know I could do that, either!"
Before the Heartless evaporates in the violet mist, its mangled arm dangles Sidney at the edge of the roof. The fingers loosen, freeing Sidney to her doom! Dorian runs to her but is too late to reach her hands. She looks at him as if she had an idea what to do.
The ground team looks to catch her but her shoes lit on fire! "Red Spiral!"
"Sidney," Matt was in awe. "I think you're… flying!
"Is that scientifically possible?" Lizzy asks.
"This is SO cool!" Sidney says. Underneath her feet are two tiny spirals of fire that help Sidney gently float down like a leaf.
"GOOD STUFF," Dorian shouts while scaling the castle down. His hilt slows his velocity from falling at a rapid rate. When he lands he asks, "What happened to the others?"
"The others?" Sidney panics. "C'mon! We have to head back!" The group runs through the hall to the kitchen!
"So these things just showed up out of nowhere?" Goofy asks.
Jade snorts and says, "Wait till we show the ducky what we have!"
"What I have," says Dorian.
"Isn't that what I just said?" Jade asks.
"I really don't know what this Keyblade is," Dorian says. "Or what it can do."
Goofy huffs and says, "One of my friends has a Keyblade. They kind of look the same, but yours has a lot more hues to it."
When they reach the end they found Ashleigh, Nadine, and Donald protecting Daisy and Beige!
Donald raises his staff. "Thunder!" He waves it around and fires lightning at the Soldiers!
"Cool Air Dome!" Ashleigh waves her hands in a slamming motion and freezes every cell in the Shadows!
"Rose Harness," Nadine made vines grow from the tiled floors and entangled the frozen Shadows. She crushes them into pieces! She turns her head to find Sidney safe.
"Sorry we took so long," Sidney says.
"You okay?" Ashleigh asks.
"You really should ask the Heartless that took me," Sidney points at Dorian with his Keyblade.
"WHAT?" Donald jumps at first. But he inspects carefully. "It looks like Sora's," he comments. "But it looks painted over."
"Who's Sora?" Dorian asks.
"Are you calling this a fake?" Jade asks. "Dorian had light in his hand and it just poofs out of thin air!"
"Donald," Daisy says. "Don't you think you're being unfair to him? It even has a keychain."
Donald sighs. "Is the Gummi Ship ready?"
"What do you mean?" Matt asks. "We can't just take yours."
"Course you can't theirs," Chip scuttles up from the hangar. "But you should see what I and Dale got for you!"
The Elemental Force, Donald, Daisy, and Goofy accompany Chip to the Ship Hangar downstairs. Dale put the last piece on the massive Gummi Ship!
"And," he says and then places it. "Voila!" Dale says and then yawns. "This beauty is fueled up and ready to fly!"
"Gawrsh!" Goofy remarks. "This was their project while Donald and I were gone?"
"For a year!" Daisy says.
"A YEAR?" Donald says. He looks at the large pile of crumpled blueprints in the trash bin. "No wonder!"
The chipmunks fell asleep on Pluto's back.
"So," Dorian says. "While saving our world first, we may as well get some clues about finding your King and Queen. Where can we start?"
"Maybe Radiant Garden would be a good spot," Goofy suggests. "My son and PJ built the tracking device over there. That world's radar technology can detect bogies faster than ours can."
Daisy chimes in and says, "I just received a message from Cecil. He's also helping us track down Negaduck, Mortimer, and the Phantom Blot."
"That's good," Dorian says. "The sooner, the quicker we can deal with Tartarus! All right! WHO WANTS TO SET SAIL?"
…
DING! DING! DING-DING-DING!
"You may as well quit before it breaks, your highness," said a raspy, dark voice. "Banging the bars won't do you any good."
"You're still not gonna get any answers from us," said the King. He continued to swing at the bars until…
CRICK!
"Aw, shucks!" the King lowers his Keyblade.
"Mickey," says the Queen. "It's cracked!"
"Bla-Ha-Ha," goes a smooth, oily chortle. "My cages are ingenious, aren't they? Every last bit is imbued with darkness. Every time you strike with light, it absorbs."
"Not as useless as this guy's designs," says the dark rasp voice.
"What're you talking about?" asks a nasally voice. "That Super Shadow is a success!"
"You mean was," says the raspy voice. "Instead of fiddling around with Heartless designs, how about doing some REAL work?"
"We've already covered that part," says the oily voice.
"What have been up to, 'Slick?" asks the nasally voice.
"Just research," a hand reaches a monitor and turns it on. They find a recording of Dorian activating his jewel's power at Disney Castle.
The King gasps.
"So, you know him? Eh, your highness?" Says the short figure. His beak is much broader than Donald's. The duck is clad in a black mask, large red fedora and a yellow double-breasted suit jacket. "For once, I've hit a pair of aces."
"You just wait till the new Keyblade wielder comes through," the Queen says radiantly.
"Really?" says the smooth, oily voice belonging to a tall man clad in a dark cloth with two eyeholes. "What makes you think he would stand a chance against us? Maybe your old coot for a Master has finally lost his wits!"
"You take that back!" the King yells.
"You really believe in that old man?" Questions a voice belonging to a tall rat clad in gray armor wielding a lance to match his height.
"If there is another Keyblade wielder," says the duck.
He throws his arms out to reveal: a black steel saber in his right hand and a dark silver Keyblade in the left!
"I'll show him who the real badass villain is! Not Xehanhort! ME!"