First of all, Merry Christmas everyone or Happy Holidays. It took me a while to get this out since I just felt like finishing school and all the homework that came with it, but now I'm done I finally had time to work on this. Secondly, it seems that the KH HD collection is coming out in March in Japan so hopefully we'll get it soon after. Anyway, enjoy the next chapter and have a great holiday.
Chapter 25
Lost and Found
No sooner had they found themselves on track than had they realised the journey back was going to be even more difficult than the journey to. For one, Luna was sure that Cruella would be out looking for them by now and regardless of Sora telling her that he had it 'all handled', she wasn't exactly sure what was to be handled, or how it was going to be handled for that matter. There was no possible way Sora could have planned for a contingency such as this to arise and if he did, his stomach made suggestions otherwise.
That was the next problem. They were tired and hungry with no house or inn in sight. The closest had been a ways off from Hell Hall, and Sora in particular wasn't sure if he was willing to risk that trip in his current state of fatigue. He planned to find shelter, any shelter would be better than none at all. Yet again, that was easier said than accomplished. Sora hoped that by straying of the path of the road, they'd find a suitable place to stay for the night though as they were now, they had yet to find one.
The final problem resided in the amount that was travelling. It would be a lot easier to spot thirty puppies, two dogs, a moogle and two humans than if it were just the five like previously. It also slowed them down and the implications of this were soon shown when the black van and Cruella's car behind it, drove across the road in search for the group of raiders.
Well at least Jasper and Horace are fine. Argh, I can't believe I'm thinking that. Sora thought as he stood and watched the puppies struggle more and more through the equally as effective snow in terms of lack of pace.
"Are you sure you know what you're doing Sora? They're all tired-"
"I'm trying okay? Look, this isn't exactly an easy thing to decide but it's better than staying on the road." Sora fumed as he turned to Luna. Luna understood his frustration, so she need not have said anymore regarding it. All she could do was hope that where they were going would eventually lead to a warm and cosy resting place.
She soon got her wish as Kupopo was one of the first to point out, albeit silently so as not to evoke attention from anyone close, a barn in the middle of what should have been a bright green field, but instead was almost unrecognisable due to the whiteness which blanketed it.
"I don't think anyone has any objections about finding some cover for the night kupo?" Kupopo seemed to take the lead as he left Sora and Luna in the dust heading off for the barn.
"Uh, no, not us," Sora looked to Luna who nodded her head in a cartoonish manner, "Hey, wait up will ya." Together Sora and Luna headed past the Dalmatians to open the barn door. They could hardly contain their excitement for finally they had a place to rest and recover from their exhaustion. The lack of food was a worry although for now they were content with what they had.
Sora jumped straight into a pile of hay in the corner in the back, seeming to want to dive straight into slumber. Luna chuckled as she watched the rest of the puppies come in followed by Pongo and Perdita. Closing the barn door, Luna sat beside the barn door eventually laying down and crawling into the position of a ball.
"Goodnight everyone." She said trying to find a suitable comfort zone to lie down.
"Night Luna." Sora and Kupopo said. Luna doubted they would have fallen asleep that quickly, well, maybe Sora but she wasn't even sure if moogles could sleep in the first place, or even get tired. As she slowly closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep, she neglected to take notice of the moving shadow sinking into the floor from the corner of her eyes.
The first signs of light crawled into the barn and Luna, sensing the rays of warmth parallel from her, slowly opened her eyes and yawned silently. Not surprisingly, she had found it ridiculously hard to get sleep which she assumed was due to the fact that her stomach had been constantly rumbling throughout the night because she hadn't eaten. Still she had picked up on what little of sleep she had been able to manage and she felt it was enough to carry her to the Radcliffe's house. She just didn't feel like moving.
Did I wake up early? Maybe a little more sleep would do… Luna thought figuring it probably would do good to get a bit more rest. She was actually surprised to see that Sora was able to sleep well seeing that he had been complaining the most last night about food. She supposed his need for sleep had been greater though he had barely mentioned it in comparison. Well, she was glad to know at least someone was getting some decent rest.
Luna was about to close her eyes again when she heard two voices coming from outside the barn. Two familiar voices.
"No! Not now." Luna whispered summoning her Keyblade and flattening her back against the wall to the side of the barn door. She feared if she called to Sora, the two, whose voices were nearing ever closer, would hear and perhaps change their plan. Her best hope was that, they had no idea that they were there. The other puppies were hidden throughout the stacks of hay at the back so she could probably get the jump on the two before they noticed Sora, Kupopo and the Dalmatians.
"'Ere puppies. Come on." Jasper opened the door and peered inside. Luna supposed if there was any chance to do this, it would have to be now.
"Sora, wake up!" Luna yelled before springing from her cover and knocking Jasper away with Dream Seeker.
"But mommy, I don't wanna go to school today." Sora muttered with his eyes still closed.
"Seriously Sora, you have got to be kidding me." Luna didn't have time to laugh however for Horace had stormed into the barn. He tried to attack with a crowbar in his hand but Luna jumped back just barely dodging and pulled off a ground combo, sending him crashing into the barn door. The source of the noise seemed to wake up Pongo and Perdita, who barked for the puppies.
"At least they aren't lazy." Luna told Sora as she closed in on his waking form. Sora stretched and lifted himself up.
"What's the problem Luna?"
Hmm, does he even realise what he just said? Or is he trying to not bring it up? Luna smiled coyly at this but did nothing further to bring this up. After all, this wasn't the time or place to do so.
"Horace and Jasper have found us. We need to get moving." Luna said. Kupopo jumped out of the hay he was sleeping in and spun around erratically for a few seconds.
"I'm up and ready kupo."
"Good. Let's get moving." Sora took charge once more now seeming to be brimming with more energy than ever, quite a feat considering he hadn't eaten in a day.
The group continued out of the barn, running quickly past the pained Horace and Jasper who could hardly stand let alone chase after the group. Sora chose to head east from their current location, once again in hopes of finding a vehicle which would take them to safety. He didn't have to look for long either.
It had been about fifteen minutes of half walking and half running before they came across the small village of Dinsford which seemed like a run-of-the-mill kind place pretty disconnected to the outside world. It was interesting, Sora found, that even the worlds were so disconnected; the places inside the world seemed to be of the same status. Though like the rest of the world, the residents of this village still seemed to be tucked into their cosy beds or at least starting to get up.
A bark was heard from the distance and a dog soon came running up to Pongo and Perdita. After the dog had finished talking Pongo and Perdita looked at each other happily and barked back.
"Uh, translation?" Sora asked.
"They're saying they've found a vehicle that's going past the Radcliffe house, whatever that is Kupo." Kupopo told them.
"Right…" Sora paused for a moment before suddenly turning on his heels in shock along with Luna, "Wait, you can understand them?!"
"I speak dog kupo. Comes in handy when you've lived in a park for most of your life. What, can't humans understand them?" Kupopo snickered. Sora resisted the urge to smack the moogle across his head and instead placed his hands behind his head.
"And you never told us this… why?" Sora asked.
"Never mind that. If you can speak dog Kupopo, get in the conversation." Luna pushed the moogle over to the dogs where he started to converse with Pongo and the other dog.
"It doesn't look like he's talking dog. I can still understand him." Sora said.
"Hmm, say Sora. Why can Goofy talk but not these dogs?" Luna asked. This questioned seemed to catch Sora and his breath. He had never really thought about it before. It was the same with Pluto and Goofy. Though once you asked that question, you may as well have asked why Goofy could stand and dogs like Pluto couldn't.
"No idea." He answered having a broad grin on his face. Luna had absolutely no idea why he was smiling and kept looking to and fro from Sora and the dogs, not sure if she was missing something.
Kupopo eventually came back to them, "We need to hurry up kupo. The van is leaving in a few minutes. A trip back to the house will probably be two hours from here at most."
"Sounds good. I'm still not happy you kept that little ability from us though." Sora told him in passive anger. Who would ever choose to leave out such a detail anyway?
The group walked through what was a rundown vacant building. Cobwebs covered the ceiling and shards of shattered glass from the broken window above were lying across the floor. It seemed that the house had been the victim of a fire as walls and furniture seemed to be scorched and tarnished.
"Here we are," Luna peered through the window across the street to see the van with its engine already started, "we need to hurry."
"As I said kupo." Kupopo sighed seeming pretty annoyed that Luna had just repeated his own words as if she hadn't heard his in the first place.
"Right, so the puppies go first, then Pongo and Perdita, then Kupopo and finally we'll go after you." Sora told them. It seemed like a reasonable suggestion considering the main reason they had come was to take back the puppies in the first place.
"I'd have Perdita go on ahead with them actually, just in case something bad happens and we can't follow them, at least they have their mother." Luna advised and Sora nodded seeing the sense in her reasoning. Even if he had objected, it would have been null and void because as soon as they heard the horn of a car behind them, they knew they had to hurry.
Sora looked out of the house to see just barely Cruella De Vil driving past slowly in her automobile and Horace and Jasper driving behind her.
"Time for some sabotage," Sora whispered to Luna. He soon turned back to Kupopo, "Make sure they all get on to the van safely."
"You've got it!" Kupopo seemed pumped up and flew around in circles. Perdita jumped out of the window and moved quickly to van. The puppies then jumped out one at a time and hurried to their mother before jumping into the back of the van.
Sora was the first hurry outside and aimed a fire at the back of Horace and Jasper's van. The van swerved left and right before eventually crashing into Cruella's car.
"What are you bumbling fools doing. I could drive better than you." Cruella yelled for the driver's seat turning behind her. Soon she caught sight of Sora and clicked her fingers and a bunch of Deserters appeared. Sora had never seen this type of Heartless before either but they seemed similar enough to the Soldier Heartless except for the fact that these had a green coat of painting on them.
"And this is where I come in." Luna whispered to herself jumping in and taking out on of the Deserter Heartless which was running around near the entrance. What she or Sora did count on, is the different behaviour pattern of these Heartless. It seemed that whenever one of their kind was attacked, the others would group together to perform a counterattack, that being a series of kicks. And so Luna was taken by surprise and knocked into the wall.
"Luna! You okay?" Sora asked though he already knew what the answer would be. It seemed to take another flurry of kicks, this time with Sora, to come to the realization that they would counterattack if one of them was taken out. Still, there were only four of them left so at least, the pain would be less each time.
Argh, what a horrible way to look at it. Sora laughed inside before jumping to Luna and helping her up. The Deserters seemed to pretty much ignore the two anyway and instead took to running around so as long as Sora and Luna kept their distance they would be safe.
"My shoulder," Luna winced as she rolled her arms in circles, "It'll be fine. Let's just deal with these things."
Cruella drove slowly turning into the road where the Dalmatians while Horace and Jasper, who were afraid to be anywhere near the Heartless, followed behind in their just as busted up vehicle. Sora and Luna took to using long range attacks, Sora using strike raid and Luna using blizzard and thunder, stunning them and taking them out the rest of the Deserters quickly.
Sora and Luna ran back into the burnt building to see that only a few more puppies were left to get across the street. They seriously doubted Cruella wouldn't have noticed, if not by now then she would eventually.
"Quickly, get the rest across, we'll distract them." Luna ordered. The window seemed like it would make an excellent sniping spot from where Sora and Luna could annoy the trio of villains.
Soon enough, the last puppy left was of course, Rolly, who had trouble even getting out of the window in the first place, however fortunately Pongo was there to help the puppy up together the two crossed out across the street.
"And there's Cruella." Sora as her car came closer towards the van. It seemed that she hadn't spotted Pongo and Rolly yet for they had been keeping low to avoid detection but that could easily change at any moment.
"Allow me to handle this kupo." Kupopo buzzed out of the window and flew straight to Cruella, attaching himself to her face.
"Ah! I can't see! Get this confounded thing off me!" Cruella screamed letting go of the steering wheel to try and throw whatever it was that was on her face off. Jasper and Horace who weren't looking nor wondering why Cruella had suddenly slowed, crashed into her car knocking Cruella forwards and throwing Kupopo off into the road. Sora and Luna jumped out of the window and ran towards the moogle. On their way to him, they saw the van start to depart and while they were glad Pongo had managed to get Rolly and himself into the moving vehicle, Sora and Luna really had to move if they were to catch up.
"Gotcha! Great job Kupopo." Sora praised grabbing the moogle from the snowy ground and racing past Cruella, Horace and Jasper. Sora jumped onto the van and made way for Luna to do so too before he released Kupopo and let him rest.
"Boy am I dizzy kupo." Kupopo twirled around seeing stars above his head causing Sora and Luna to laugh.
As the van left Cruella behind with the puppies inside, she seethed with fury. The darkness beginning to pulsate once more across her body. Maleficent, the evil fairy, had told her that if she allowed the darkness to take hold of her heart, she would be subjected to downfall however at this point she didn't care. Was she, Cruella De Vil, to let a bunch of fools blindside her and knock her off what was to be her rising pedestal? If she had the power of darkness at her side, no one would dare trouble her again. She laughed maniacally, a laughter that roared across the village in such a way that if there were still those who hadn't woken up before, they would have now. Her darkness attracted the Heartless, though she paid no mind to them, she only let them embrace her and devour her, and Jasper and Horace could only stare on in fright.
"Looks like we're home free." Sora relaxed in his spot and grinned. The van had now driven off into the main road and passed by what would have been a beautiful green countryside had Sora and Luna arrived in the summer.
"I wouldn't be too sure about." Luna halted Sora's moment of triumph looking out of the van. A car about half the size of the van was racing towards them, and from the looks of it, it wasn't just any car either.
"I think we have a problem. A big problem and it is heading right towards us." Luna readied her Keyblade and shot a fire at the Heartless Car, but it evaded and instead shot rockets at the van.
"Huh? Whoa!" Sora sprang into action knocked the rockets away from the van. They exploded a ways off but Sora and Luna had no time to admire the explosion for the car (or Phantom Engine) was soon back on the offensive.
"It's going to ram us!" Luna warned as the Phantom Engine Heartless increased in its speed.
"Oh no you don't." Sora said and quickly blitzed into the car, knocking it backwards and slowing it down. It felt rather awkward to fight in a van with so little space but there wasn't much other choice.
The Phantom Engine zoomed forward to catch up with the van and opened its mouth. A cannon came out of its mouth and targeted the van.
"This can't be good." Sora groaned. A cannonball was ejected and shot but missed due to a sudden increase in speed from the van. It had seemed that the driver had realised that he was being attacked by the Heartless (if he even knew it was one) and had decided to increase in speed.
It seemed however that the car would do whatever it took to thrash and knock Sora and Luna out of the van. Another vehicle soon emerged from behind the Phantom Engine; it was Horace and Jasper's van which looked an absolute compared to when they had last seen it.
"There's those two, so where's Cruella?" Luna asked.
Sora made to squint closely at the Heartless car in question, "Maybe, that's Cruella's car. A Heartless might have gotten her. She did seem to have a lot of darkness in her heart. It's like with the Queen of Hearts except this time; you're seeing what happens when a person goes really far."
Luna looked on in surprised sympathy, "You think she can come back?"
"I wouldn't count on it. Once you go that far it's hard to come back." Sora answered as the car fired off another cannonball.
"So welcoming, isn't she?" Sora grinned playing baseball and knocking the cannonball of into the snowy field.
The next few seconds, the car fired off several rounds of cannon fire but Sora and Luna worked their hardest to repel each one.
"Excuse me for a minute Luna." Sora said soon jumping out of the van, on to the Phantom Engine and then high jumped onto Jasper and Horace's van.
"Are you crazy?!" Luna asked astonished before retaining her composure and trying to slow the Heartless down by throwing strike raids at it.
"Good work Luna! Keep doing that." Sora shouted to her from atop the roof of the van.
"Jasper, I honestly think we should get outta here before-"
"Oh calm it Horace. You saw what she did back there. What if she does it again?" Jasper argued swerving to knock Sora off the van.
Sora fell on to the side of the van but grabbed the ledge and continued to hold on as much as possible, he could feel himself slipping however. Luna's strike raids seemed to be doing effectively well until the car got back to a certain distance, where she found she always missed by aiming at a lower trajectory than needed.
"Urgh, not now Luna." She mentally hit herself as her frustration increased.
"Luna, calm down and focus. Now hit the darn thing!" Sora shouted near the end as the three cars approached a cliff-hugging road spiralling downwards.
"Ignoring your shouting, I'm trying to do that." Luna muttered before closing her eyes and taking a deep breath before opening her eyes. She threw Dream Seeker three times, each hitting the car successfully and the last being enough to flip it and knock it back to where Sora was.
"Wind." Sora thrust his Keyblade into the air creating a tornado just before the car could land, heaving it up in to the air. Sora kicked his feet off the Van and flung himself into the tornado. Charging his Kingdom Key, he waited until he hovered just above the car before plunging down. The bright glowing Key sunk into the metal of the car and sent it plummeting back to earth, damaging it beyond repair. Sora flipped back onto the black van and climbed up only to soon regret what he had just done. He watched as the heart was sent back into the sky but soon fell of the van when it flipped and fell of the mountain path.
"SORA!" Luna screamed as their van distanced itself from the crash farther and farther. Luna looked backed to the Dalmatians and Kupopo before jumping out of the van and fell to the ground rolling across the road.
She had no time to register the pain in her leg, nor did she care if she had sprained it. Right now, she had to see if Sora was okay. She limped back up the road to the site of the crash; the adrenaline seeming to running right threw her supplying her with the energy she needed to get to him.
"Sora? Are you alright? Please be alright!" Luna yelled as she searched the wreckage for Sora. Nothing.
"Urgh, well wasn't that something huh?"
Luna turned around to see Sora lying down by the edge of the cliff, a grin on his face.
"Sora!" Luna grinned in delight as she went over to hug him. She only got so far before the pain set in and she fell next to him.
"Don't tell me you jumped out of the moving vehicle Luna. You don't watch movies?" Sora laughed.
"And why are you laughing when I've sprained my ankle exactly? I don't find that quite funny," Luna grunted as she held her leg. Eventually though she laughed with him regardless if she now felt pain in both her shoulder and her leg, she didn't express it though choosing to show the same positive enthusiasm as Sora, "how did you survive anyway?"
"What, you didn't think I would? Thanks a lot Luna. But yeah, I managed to jump after pulling those two idiots." He pointed towards Jasper and Horace who were groaning next to Cruella, who had seemed to revert back to her normal self.
"There's Cruella. So does that mean that…?"
"I'm guessing she wasn't a Heartless after all. Just the Heartless had her trapped," Sora answered Luna before getting up, "Oh no. We need to hurry up or we're going to miss our ride."
"What ride Sora? We've already missed the van- AAH!" Luna screamed as Sora picked her up and glided down the mountain path towards the moving van.
"You can fly?" Luna quizzed as they took the 'shortcut' down the mountain.
"No glide. There's a difference. Now stop moving or I might drop you." Sora said eventually meeting the black van and gliding into it.
"Sora, WATCH OUT!"
A loud crash was heard as Sora and Luna flew into a pile of boxes knocking them apart from each other.
"Oops, sorry heh heh." Sora gave a cheesy grin.
"You're alright. We were worried kupo." Kupopo flashed a smile at the two as the puppies jumped in to lick Sora and Luna. For whatever it was worth, it seemed that the worst was over.
"Are you sure you don't want to stay? You seem hungry and Luna is injured at the moment." Anita had suggested the proposal of Christmas dinner as soon as the Dalmatians, Sora and Luna had found their way to the Radcliffe house. Sora was now searching diligently for the keyhole, it hadn't been found anywhere and the only real clue was that Cruella had said that she would have the Heartless search for a keyhole. If it was back at Hell Hall, then that was a real problem considering Sora had no desire to go back there whatsoever. Meanwhile Luna was resting on the couch, she would be out of action for a while it seemed though Kupopo had supposedly cooked up something that would speed up the rate of healing. Aside from that, the shoulder pains had been easily dealt with using a potion.
"No, we couldn't. There are other worlds out there that need our help and we've stayed here too long. We do appreciate it though." Sora thanked Roger and Anita.
"We can't thank you nearly enough for what you've done. What do you want? Really, you deserve it." Roger told him place his hand on Sora's shoulder.
Sora thought about it for a moment before smiling, "It really isn't a problem. All I… all we," He said referring to him and Luna, "want to see is that you're having a wonderful holiday. So there's our Christmas presents exchanged."
"Well I'll say, you're too generous Sora, thank you and you're always welcome in this house. How about for a nice present, I play you my finished Cruella De Vil piece. Oh by the way, time to admit you were wrong Anita." Roger smirked as he went to his piano.
"Okay, I was wrong. Now wipe that smirk off your face Roger." Anita smiled and looked knowingly at Sora.
"Cruella De Vil, what's happening to her anyway?" Sora asked.
"They've arrested her. Finally found evidence to wipe that smarmy grin of her evil face." Roger seemed to glimmer as he relayed the conversation on the phone that he had had with the police before starting to play on the piano.
"My goodness, this key is always stuck. It's ridiculous." Roger put his pipe in his mouth annoyed as he tried to lift it up with his finger.
Key…hole. Sora said before a sudden pang of realization hit him, literally. Pongo jumped at him and licked him on his face.
"Hey, good to see you too boy. Look after the Radcliffes and the puppies for me will ya?" Sora said as Roger finally lifted the key up, "Sorry Roger, you might need to replace that key of yours." Sora said and walked to the key, and with enough force popped the key out of its place and let it fall to the floor.
Wow, it was crazy enough to work. Sora grinned as he stared at the tiny keyhole in front of him. Sora summoned his Keyblade and raised it into the air. A glow was emitted from his Keyblade before a light came out which divided into to several spark all flowing into the keyhole. A locking sound was heard before the keyhole disappeared.
"I can't believe that worked."
Sora turned around to see Luna limping into the room and smiling. Though he wasn't done yet with the light spectacle. Sora kept his Keyblade pointed in the air and shot a beam of light at the separate keyhole which appeared from the broken key.
"What was that?" Luna asked, Roger and Anita also wondering.
"A new pathway has opened. Remember the gates Yen Sid was talking about?" Sora told her putting away his Keyblade.
"I see, are they going to be all as difficult to find as this one?" Luna asked.
"Maybe, but that's the exciting part isn't it." Sora said and the two chuckled.
"Nope, still not getting it," Roger said before looking at the piano, "well at least I what to save up for now."
Sora helped Luna out of the house and the two turned back.
"Kupo, can I come?" Kupopo asked as he squeezed past Roger and Anita looked rather timid.
"Of course you can? As I said before, the more the merrier." Sora said, it would after all be pretty useful to have a moogle around who was able to cook recipes to help Sora and Luna out on their journey and Sora could see no overall problems coming out of it, only benefits.
"Thanks kupo." Kupopo went back in and grabbed his traveller's bag before coming back out again.
"Well see ya." Sora said and he, Luna and Kupopo waved to the family and Pongo and Perdita who had also come after seeing Kupopo leave to say their goodbyes. Sora turned back with Luna before turning around again.
"Actually, there is something you could do…"
Sora put the last pieces of food and drink in the fridge of the Highwind that Roger and Anita had given to them and then sat down before digging into his dinner also provided by the Radcliffes.
"They were so kind to give us what was in their fridge, we have lots now." Sora's voice was drowned out by his constant chewing and biting.
"Didn't mommy tell you not to eat while you were talking Sora?" Luna asked as she ate her potatoes with the fork and knife Anita had given her.
"Oh shush, shouldn't you be resting now or something? Gotta look after that ankle y'know?" Sora told her.
"Resting on an empty stomach? I don't think so. Besides, I heard what you were saying in your sleep in the morning. You should at least eat with the fork and knife they gave you."
"Who are you? My mom?" Sora asked.
"Well that's what you said I was when you were dreaming in the morning." Luna told him smiling.
Sora flushed a deep pink, "I did not."
"So in your dream, was I reading you bed time stories?" Luna cooed before laughing. Sora just stayed silent before reverting back to eating, probably a lot slower this time. He would really need to consider getting back at her someday.
"And you should probably eat your food, maybe you'll actually grow if you did." Sora retorted. Weak, as he had imagined.
"Like you can talk. The shoes and the hair doesn't count Sora." Luna grinned as Sora spluttered the food in his mouth out.
Ooh, worse than Axel's burns. Sora thought as he placed his head down. Another long night indeed.
Interesting that the 101 Dalmatians world just so happened to be released on Christmas and has a Christmas-y theme to it, huh? (Totally had no idea i was gonna be released on Christmas day)
Since Luna seems to be suffering from ankle issues, we're gonna take a break from Sora's gang and shift it to a different perspective for the next chapter or so, until then, see ya later.