Kingdom Hearts III: Essence of the Heart
Chapter 19: Annoying Heartless
"Uh-oh," Shrek said. Hardly five minutes after leaving the field of sunflowers, Heartless were already attacking. Dire Plants and Fire Plants sprouted around them, teamed with Soldiers and Dark Balls.
"At least it's just small fries," Riku smirked.
"Yeah, just pull some weeds Shrek," Donkey encouraged.
"You're fighting too, just like at the castle," Shrek replied. Donkey's ears went down in fear.
"AH!" the donkey shouted as a Soldier surprised him from behind. In surprise, he kicked his back legs, shockingly defeating the heartless. "Oh yeah! Who's the donkey?" he gloated.
Sora threw his Keyblade several times with his Strike Raid, destroying numerous Heartless. Shrek grabbed a Dire Plant in each hand and uprooted them, killing them. He found them much harder to pull out then most plants, but it wasn't too hard. Riku threw a Dark Barrier around himself, protecting him from a Fire Plant's fire ball. He proceeded to destroy the plant-like Heartless with a Dark Blizzaga. Shrek gripped a Dark Ball and smashed it into the ground. The injured creature of darkness warped away, reappearing behind the ogre, where it was destroyed by a blast of wind from Kairi. Donald used Graviga, flattening the Heartless. Will stabbed his sword into the ground where they crept, destroying them. Mickey and Riku both shot a beam of light from their keyblade, taking down a Dark Ball and Soldier. Goofy's Knight Shield cut several Dire and Fire Plants down as it flew through the air. Shrek then grabbed a Soldier by its leg and swung it around, slamming it into others. Donkey flipped into the air and kicked a Dark Ball into the face of a Fire Plant with both of his back hooves (1), defeating them both. All of the Heartless were soon gone, relieving the group.
"Why would Farquaad send those things after us when we're doing what he wants?" Shrek inquired, slightly exhausted.
"He's not, they were here for us," Mickey answered.
"So, he already knows we're here, huh?" Sora commented.
"The heck with it, let's just go," Shrek decided. "I want my swamp back." He continued walking on in their journey. The others followed.
"So," Donkey started talking again, "were ya'll really fightin' with giant keys?"
Meanwhile, Lord Farquaad was staring at an image of a red-haired woman in his recently acquired Magic Mirror. The woman in the picture looked very bored, looking out the window of a stone tower.
"Ah, yes," the miniature ruler said to himself, sipping from a glass. "Princess Fiona…" he placed his beverage down and put on a more serious face. "Mirror!" The princess's image faded away into white smoke, which reformed into a pale, mask-like face.
"Yes, my lord?" the Magic Mirror sighed, clearly disliking the man of whom he had to work for.
"Show me what's left of the Keyblade Master and his companions," Farquaad commanded. With a bored sigh, the face in the mirror dispersed into smoke once more and formed into a sort of live video of Sora and his fellow protagonists. "Well it appears they survived," the man hissed. He then saw Shrek and Donkey. "And with good purpose," he smirked. "I'll just handle them after they help the ogre in retrieving the princess." Farquaad pondered his thoughts for a second. "…but, then again, I could always get more rescuers."
Sora, Shrek, and the others now neared a large mountain.
"That must be the volcano," Shrek pointed out. "Maybe this'll be easier than I thought." As they got closer to the volcano, they could make out a number of small black dots.
"What are they?" Donald asked. When they got closer they saw them clearly. They looked like little black fairies with tiny wands of sorts. They reminded Sora of Tinker Bell in Neverland.
"I think they're Heartless," Kairi answered Donald.
"Are you serious?" Donkey asked doubtfully. "You think they're like those big nasty things back there?" He trotted over to the hovering creatures, putting his face right in front of one of them.
"Donkey, no!" Sora warned.
"Oh calm down, these things are actually kinda cute." He turned his face back, looking at it again. "These things are definitely not- AHHH!" he screamed, jumping out of the way of a giant red beam which the small fairy shot from its wand. "HEARTLESS! HEARTLESS!"
Shrek attempted to grab one of the small creatures, but the Sprite Heartless whisked itself away and blasted him away with the same red beam the other had released.
"Shrek!" Riku yelled, hardly noticing another beam about to be shot at him. He managed to raise a Dark Barrier in time to block it. Then he swung his Keyblade at another Heartless, missing as well. In the blink of an eye, Deserters appeared around them, running at high speed. One stopped and kicked Riku back harshly before going back to randomly sprinting. Another two stopped and kicked Donald and Goofy into Sora, who, unfortunately, landed on Kairi, leaving them in a cluttered mess. Will managed to snatch a Sprite out of the air, crushing it brutally in his hand. Riku blasted a few Dark Firaga's out into the mess of Heartless, managing to kill some, as he saw a few hearts float away, free. Sadly, more Deserters materialized, more sadly, in front of him. He was violently kicked back again. Mickey's agility allowed him to hit a few Heartless, but failed in defeating most of them.
"Gather!" Mickey cried, his Magnega spell pulling most of the Heartless toward him as he stood next to Riku. Riku got to his feet and helped Mickey destroy several of the trapped dark beings. As soon as the spell faded, the Heartless scattered, giving the Keyblade wielders full sight and revealing Shrek, thankfully standing and fighting. They could see Will dashing through and attacking a much larger amount of Deserters, his superior speed allowing him to keep up. Sora, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy were apparently much more exhausted than they'd appeared and were still down. Standing over them in protection was, surprisingly, Donkey.
"I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die! I'm gonna die!" he repeated in fear, looking like he'd run any minute, but didn't. Mickey ran over to Donkey.
"Donkey, they'll be okay," Mickey told the talking animal. "Right now, you've gotta fight."
"Um… right," Donkey quivered. He then put on as serious a look as he could, which didn't look too serious. "Right! Let's kick Heartless butt!"
"Donkey!" Mickey called. Donkey came to his side. Mickey mounted him (2) like a horse.
"I am Donkey! Hear me roar!" Donkey charged around at greater speed than he'd normally achieve, Mickey slashing through the enemies with Darkside all the way as the makeshift steed rammed down more of the Heartless.
"Ya'll get ready for this!" Donkey exclaimed. Mickey formed a shield of light formed around the duo. The ass and mouse then sped around even faster and killed the remaining Heartless.
When Mickey dismounted, he saw Donkey faint into the pile of Sora, Kairi, Donald and Goofy, having become exhausted. Riku, Will, and Shrek came up to Mickey.
"Um… Are they going to be alright?" Shrek inquired, showing that he did care about what happened to his non-self-proclaimed friends. Mickey nodded and pointed his Keyblade at their pile of allies.
"Heal!"
Journal Entries
Character's Introduced: Magic Mirror
Limit Break: Sora's Strike Raid
Limit: Mickey and Donkey's Charge!
Heartless Introduced:Pureblood: Dark Ball; Sprite (NEW)
Emblem: Dire Plant; Fire Plant; Deserter
Author's Notes
(1) Based on Donkey's Burro Blast attack in the Shrek 2 video game for PS2
(2) You're pretty sick-minded if you need to read this to understand what I mean
Extra: I just kind of made this as a sort of 'filler chapter' to introduce some of the minor world-specific plot points, as well as a new Heartless and Limit.
Extra 2: Sorry, but this world will have 1 or 2 more chapters. I don't plan to do it with every world though.
Extra 3: Good news and bad news. Good news is I've got a Junior Prom date and a letter from Stanford ;3. Bad news is I have standardized testing, so my updating will be slow due to bided time :(