Chapter 14
(Another Car Chase)
Sora wasn't quite sure how they'd gotten into this situation, but here they were - faced by five Weasels armed with human-made guns who were currently discussing their fate.
The one-sided conversation had started with a black paddy wagon, marked 'Toon Patrol' on the side, swerving from across the street over to where Sora and his group were walking on the sidewalk. The wagon had nearly hit four human pedestrians before screeching to a halt. Five weasels had then tumbled out of the car, the one in pink shouting, "Grab some sky, wise guy!"
Blinking, Sora had lifted his hands and started to ask, "Uh, have you seen-"
He shared a bewildered look with Laguna as the weasel in pink jumped forward, "I ain't said you could talk!" it snapped, shoving the gun against Sora's nose.
One of the other weasels, a greasy looking one, said, "So what're we gonna do with em?"
"The Boss said he wanted the Rabbit, but this one was with em," the weasel in pink snarled, "We'll take em to the Boss... for questionin'."
"Nah, let's Dip em!" shouted the smoker weasel eagerly.
Sora shifted, "I'm not the one you're looking for!" he blurted, finally dropping his hands. This confused the weasels, for they stared at him, so he continued, "The one you're looking for is my Imposter. I'm trying to find him too..."
The weasel in pink jabbed the gun against Sora's nose again, "Shaddap! You think we're that stupid?" The weasel with the propeller beanie began laughing.
Spinning around, the weasel in pink bashed the butt of his gun against the laughing weasel's head, "Shaddap Stupid! You know what happens when you laugh too much!"
Stuffing his fists in his mouth, Stupid snorted a few times, leaving the weasel in pink to turn back to Sora, only to find empty outlines where they should have been. Spinning around, he pointed, "After em!"
Gasping for air and pumping his legs harder, Sora ran, Laguna and Khimari right along beside him.
"Ah- Sora, question!" Laguna shouted after briefly glancing back over his shoulder. Behind them, gunshots went off and the sound of screeching tires echoed off the buildings. "How're we going to outrun a car?"
Obligated to look back, Sora yelped and tried to put on more speed, only to trip head-first over a curb, land on his face and skid a few feet. "Ouch!" he whined as he sat up, Khimari and Laguna pulled to a stop beside him and turned, settling into fighting stances.
Tires squealing, another car swerved over and a dark haired woman shoved open the passenger door, "Sora! Get in!" she shouted, then looked back towards the Toon Patrol car barreling down on them, wildly swerving between cars. Leaping to his feet, Sora dived in, Laguna and Khimari piling in afterwards as the woman stomped the gas even before Laguna had pulled the door closed.
"Woo!" Sora sighed, "Thanks, lady!" he said as he looked back at the Toon Patrol, "Were those the Weasels we were warned about?"
"Probably," Laguna said, "Question is... who's this lovely lady?" he turned around, leaning forward to leer at the woman, making flowers bloom around him as he smiled at her.
"Oh, stop that!" she reached over and shoved Laguna back into the back seat, "I'm already in enough trouble as it is! Sora, what're you doing out here? I thought you were with Eddie and Roger!"
Pushing past Laguna, Sora climbed into the front seat and dropped down, "That's Aros with them," Sora stated, "Aros is my imposter and I'm trying to find him. I'm the real Sora, nice to meet you," he smiled and she spared a second to glance over at him, blinking.
Immediately, the woman turned back to concentrating on driving, but did admit, "Huh. From afar, you two do look exactly the same."
"Yeah, Aros is shorter than me though," Sora admitted.
"I'm Deloris," the woman introduced, "I guess the weasels mistook you for Aros too."
Nodding, Sora glanced back, finding Laguna and Khimari scrunched in the back seat. Khimari stoic as ever, even if he was hunched down and curled up in what had to be a very uncomfortable position. Laguna was staring out the back window. "Anyway," Sora said, "Do you know where Aros went?"
"To the Maroon movie lot, with Eddie," Deloris replied, "They were trying to find out who killed Acme... Why is Aros claiming he's you?"
Shrugging, Sora could only answer, "Uh, orders? Jealousy? Confusion? I don't know. That's why I need to find him- so I can find out. If he's just confused, well, we could straighten things out between us, but if he's working for Maleficent or the Organization..."
Deloris shook her head, "I don't believe that," she insisted, "He's a nice boy."
Sora pursed his lips as he thought on that, then smiled, "If you think so. My other friends who've met him thought he was nice too, so I'll see how we can work things out."
Nodding this time, Deloris took another turn, concentrating on losing the Toon Patrol, which was getting caught in the accidents Deloris's driving was causing.
It was fairly late by the time Deloris shook the Toon Patrol and got them to Maroon's movie lot. Sora frowned slightly as he climbed out of her car once she'd parked and looked around. "Huh..."
"What is it?" Laguna asked as he climbed out, followed by Khimari. Deloris climbed out through her door and headed over to a set of stairs that led up to the second story of the building she'd parked behind. There was a single light on- the only light on in the place, and the window looking into that office was within reach of the top of the stairs.
Lifting a hand, Sora placed it on his heart and said, "She's here... Well, not here exactly, but close." Turning to smile at Laguna, he finished, "I'll finally catch up to her!"
Lifting a fist in Victory, Laguna grinned too, "Yeah!"
"Oh my God!" Deloris gasped and staggered back, turning to look at Sora and the group, "Someone killed Maroon!"
Called back to the current business, Sora bounded up the stairs and leaned over the stucco rail to look through the window of the lit office. A body, shot in the back twice, hung limply from his necktie at a moviola. "I guess he wasn't a Heartless then, just... heartless," Sora shook his head, "Any idea where they would have gone from here?" he asked Deloris. Pale, she could only shake her head no.
Taking her hand, Sora guided her down the steps, "Then let's get in the car and let the police take care of the body in the morning. We've got to find out who really killed Acme and find his will," 'among other things.
"What makes you think I'll just let you leave?"
Coming to a stop, Sora gazed around, then finally looked upwards, spotting a figure in a long white coat standing on the roof, silhouetted by the full moon behind him. A dramatic breeze blew his coat, trailing sleeve, and tail of long hair, but his face remained in shadow. "Who are you?" Sora shouted.
The man laughed. "Someone who finds you amusing," the man replied and lifted a hand, light sparkling off something between his fingers, Sora dodging instinctively as the stranger's arm flicked downwards. A short knife blade lodged into the top of the car behind Sora, and when he looked back at the roof, the man was gone.
Stepping over, Laguna pulled the knife free and turned it, "There's a note tied onto the handle," he observed and carefully untied the string holding it on. Reading out loud, Laguna said, "Come to the factory at midnight for a big surprise. I hope you like my little distraction, too. Love, Gary."
The pavement cracked and vibrated as the sharp point of a claw hit the ground nearby. Gasping, Sora turned to look up at the twenty-foot tall spider-like monster that now loomed over them, halfway crouched on the building Maroon's office was in. Blazoned on its chest was a black heart, crossed out, marking it unmistakably as a Heartless. Turning, Sora yanked open the driver's side door and shoved Deloris in, "Get out of here and come back in ten minutes!" he ordered. With little choice, Deloris started the car and backed out as Sora called his Keyblade.
Leaping ahead, Khimari roared and braced his spear as he launched high into the air, aiming for the Heartless's head. The sound of Khimari's spear connecting with the creature's exoskeleton cracked loudly in the night, followed by the clang of Sora's Keyblade striking the Heartless's underbelly.
"Blizzard!" Laguna shouted, barely missing hitting Khimari as the Rhonso leapt away. The spell struck the place Khimari had hit, making the Heartless reel back, waving its front pair of legs. Leaping out of the way, Sora dodged a downward stab from the Heartless as it landed on the ground again, then sprang in again, ricocheting off the wall of a building to follow up on the weak spot Khimari and Laguna had created.
His strike missed as the Heartless reared back again, catching Sora across the stomach with one of its front legs, sending him flying to crash into a dumpster down the street. Khimari, taking advantage of the monster's distraction, dashed in underneath it once more to stab upwards into the segment joint of one of the stationary back legs.
Letting out a shriek, the monster flailed and lifted the wounded leg off the ground, balancing on the remaining seven. Climbing out of the garbage, Sora shook a banana peel off his head and dashed in again heading for the next leg that was on the ground, having been inspired by Khimari's success. Sliding in under the creature, Sora swung his Keyblade in an overhead bash, then followed that with a swing from the other direction, cracking the exoskeleton fracture by fracture.
"Thunder!" Laguna shouted, flinging another spell at the Heartless's head, actually hitting his target again, possibly only because Khimari was up there stabbing at the creature's skull with his spear.
Shrieking again, the Heartless suddenly leapt upwards, shaking Khimari off. Landing on his feet, the Rhonso was on the move again, catching Sora up with one arm as he went past. The Heartless landed with a resounding crash that made part of Maroon's office building collapse. One of the Heartless's feet landed where Sora had been standing seconds before.
Releasing Sora, Khimari turned and dashed off, leaping up to the roof of the building next door to Maroon's office, taking the distance in two bounds. "Blizzard!" Laguna cast again from wherever he'd taken up a post, this time, his attack was off and struck a power pole, sending blue sparks into the air as the line broke and fell to the ground, hitting the garbage bin and setting the trash on fire. Diving into action again, Sora ran in, slashing at a new leg, since the leg he'd been working on was now braced up on the building Khimari had leapt onto. Bashing at his target, Sora finally heard a resounding crack from two sources and the Heartless shrieked, leaping up with three of its eight legs destroyed.
Crashing to the ground again, the Heartless just missed catching Sora beneath it. Maroon's office building collapsed further, unable to take the strain as the Heartless moved to perch on top of it, using its front two legs to stab at the pests that were attacking it. With little time to do more, Sora dodged and rolled as the Heartless left large broken holes in the pavement behind the young man's retreat. Shrieking, the Heartless tried attacking with its other leg, chasing Sora the other direction.
"Thunder!" Laguna tried again, this time, hitting the Heartless spider's head- again, probably because Khimari was up there, stabbing at it.
Shaking Khimari off, the Heartless turned its body and spat webbing after the flying Rhonso, catching Khimari against a wall in a wad of sticky mess. "Khimari!" Sora shouted, aghast that his most useful ally was now out of the battle.
Running forward, Sora dashed up the collapsing side of Maroon's office, dodging the Heartless's front legs, and leapt upwards to attack the creature's head, making the crack in its exoskeleton wider. Flinging a leg up, the spider caught Sora across the chest and slung him to the other side of the street. The following wad of webbing missed, though, and Sora rolled away.
"Blizzard!" the strike hit the building under the spider, hard enough to shift the collapsing rubble and the Heartless was forced to abandon its perch, coming back down into the street again.
On his feet again, Sora came running in, slashing at the Heartless's legs. One hit- then two, and the crack of exoskeleton and following shriek announced the defeat of yet another leg. The Heartless was down to four, leaving it wobbling since it was using its front two to attack. It only had one left on the right side to support it and two on the left. Catching Sora with a sweep from its front leg, the spider hurled him down the street.
Landing hard, he kept rolling, narrowly avoiding being cemented to the asphalt by the webbing. He wasn't clear yet, however, as another shot of webbing came sailing towards him, and Sora rolled to dodge that, then changed his course to run towards his enemy, diving beneath the attacks.
With a roar, the Rhonso finally tore free of the wall and landed hard on the ground below. Getting to his feet, Khimari shook off pain and came in hard, slamming his spear into the remaining leg on the right side.
Flailing and shrieking, the spider collapsed, the remaining legs all becoming weapons. "Blizzard!" Laguna shouted, hitting one of the legs as it came in to protect the Heartless's vulnerable head. The leg snapped and curled up like the other useless appendages, leaving four.
Dodging the creature's flailing, Sora leapt onto the spider's abdomen and dashed up along its thorax towards the head. Desperately, the Heartless tried to get its remaining legs under it to roll, but Khimari was below, stabbing with his spear and preventing the Heartless from getting purchase on the asphalt.
Lifting his sword high, Sora swung it downwards in as hard a hit as he could, turning the prongs of his Keyblade downwards to hook into the crack of the Heartless's exoskeleton. With a resounding snap and shriek, the Spider flailed in its death throes, dislodging Sora.
Falling to the ground, the young man rolled away and fetched up against the side of a building, watching as the remaining legs curled inwards and the spider's form began drifting away into black smoke. Stepping out once the spider was completely gone, Sora stepped over to join a limping Khimari. Stopping, Sora frowned as he looked down and crouched to pick up a slip of paper. "Delete N after C," he read out loud. "Is this from Gary too?" he mused.
A flash of light caught his attention, and Sora stuffed the paper into his side-pouch for safe keeping as he turned towards the wreckage of Maroon's office building. Light flared even more brightly as the Keyhole to the path of Darkness appeared. Knowing his job, Sora turned and flipped his Keyblade, pointing the end towards the Keyhole. A flash of light later, and the lock snapped closed. "One job down, now to find the Keyhole to Light so we can get out of here..."
The sound of screeching tires interrupted his thoughts and Sora turned to look as Deloris came rolling up. Putting her head out the window she called, "Hurry! The cops are coming! If they catch us here, they'll think we did this!"
Nodding, Sora turned and took Khimari's arm, helping him to the car and in. Laguna dived in beside the Rhonso in the back seat, and Sora again took the front. "Let's head to the factory. We've got fifteen minutes till midnight!"
Deloris threw the car into reverse and spun them around, squealing her tires to get out of the movie lot before the police arrived.
AN: If any paragraphs or sentences look odd, please tell me and they will be fixed ASAP.
Next Chapter: In a land where Laughs are King and Chaos and Confusion are his twin sons, no wonder it's hard to get anything constructive done!