Chapter 29 Oogie's house of horrors

After returning with Sally and the "memory" the doctor had asked for, Dr. Finklestein tasked us with locating the mayor and the last ingredient "surprise". As promised Strea's head was firmly placed atop her neck and held in place by a ring of stitches. With Strea in tow, our heroes were skulking about the graveyard once more. "These stitches are so itchy." Strea complained while scratching at her neck. "It could be worse. He could've use staples. Little metal barbs that stab into you, it just feels wrong." Yuuki shivered. "That sounds painful." Donald said. "It's just slightly uncomfortable, but staples are easier to remove and they don't tear like stitches do." Yuuki said. "Suddenly I am very thankful for healing magic." Sora said. "That's the spirit." Jack said.

When we found the mayor he was takins stock of the Halloween decorations they planned to use. We asked him where we could find "surprise" and he handed us a box with a crank on the side. "So "surprise" is a Jack in the box." Kirito said. "But I'm not in a box." Jack said. A bead of sweat went down Kirito's head. 'I can't tell if he's being serious or not.' He thought. "Should we wind it up and see what's in it?" Asuna asked. "No, no, no, that would ruin the "surprise". We need to take it back to the doctor as is." Jack said. "You're the boss." Sora replied.

The nine of us brought the "surprise" back to Dr. Finklestein's laboratory and he immediately went to work. The mad scientist placed the forget-me-nots and the jack in the box on the table with the heart and the other ingredients and started up the ominous electrical device once more. The coil, brimming with electricity, zapped the strange organ and the other ingredients vanished. Whether the doctor's experiment was successful or not had yet to be seen. "That should do it." said the doctor. Dr. Finklestein picked up the heart container and was wheeled over to the heartless to begin the transplant. But before he could start, Barrel leaped from under the table and blocking his path. The doctor tumbled out from his chair and dropped the container which bounced in to the hands of lock. With their prize captured, the trio of tricksters ran back to their master's hideout.

"Does this kind of thing happen often?" Yuuki asked. "It's become a recurring event recently." Kirito said. "Imbeciles! Now is not the time for idle banter. You must apprehend those hooligans and retrieve the fruit of my hard work!" Dr. Finklestein commanded. "Roger. So where do we start looking for them?" Sora asked. "Those three work for Oogie Boogie. The only place they would go is to his manner of miscreants. Follow me!" Jack said as he pointed towards the door and marched onward.

Jack Lead us to a large hill with a curl at the top of it. The curl at its apex began to unwind and moved towards a cemetery wall and created a bridge for us to walk or in Asuna's case slither across. When we arrived at Oogie's house we saw Lock, Shock, and Barrel riding in a walking bathtub towards a room at the top of Oogie's enormous estate. The sheer size of it was impressive. But it looked like the whole house was constructed haphazardly with pieces of statues, cages, and other houses. It looked like the slightest breeze would cause the entire structure to collapse, but it stood none the less. We carefully made our way across the board walks and rope bridges and made sure to avoid areas that had suffered wood rot and the rather obvious traps. Eventually, we scaled our way to the top room where the three pranksters were. When we opened the door to their room we saw them toss the heart down a shaft. No doubt to deliver it to their master. The three of them cackled with glee at the completion of their task completely unaware of Jack Skellington's approach. The walking skeleton tapped each of them on the shoulder. When the three of them turned around jack pulled at his jaw and it stretched like clay. He showed of his sharp pointy teeth and released a bone chilling screech. The three of them huddled together in fear of the pin striped suit wearing skeletal monster before them. "You three are in a lot of trouble." Jack stated.

"We're sorry, we won't do it again. It was all Barrel's idea, please don't hurt us!" shock begged. " Quiet! Now, you three are to return to Halloween town and apologize to Dr. Finklestein. And as punishment you are to work as his assistants for a whole year." "A whole year?! That's so boring!" Lock complained. "Jack placed his bony fingers in his mouth again. "Okay, okay, we'll do it!" Barrel said. "Good. Now tell us where to find Oogie Boogie." Jack ordered. "Pull that lever. It'll unlock the entrance to his lair. Look for the green door with his face on it. Please don't tell him we told you, he'll get really mad at us!" Lock said. "Got it. Now get out of here. Chances are this place is going to be a pile of rubble by the time we're done." Kirito said. The trio nodded and ran out the door as fast as their legs would carry them. "Look at 'em go! You scared the living daylights out of them Jack!" Sora said. "Thanks. I'd like to think I scared them straight, but knowing those three they'll be up to their old tricks again someday. Now let's get that heart back." Jack said.

We scaled our way back towards the foundation of Oogie's house and just as they had described found a green door with Oogie's face on it. We opened the door and entered a large circular room. Theinner circle was a pit made to look like w wheel one would find in a casino. And one the outer edge on the opposite side of where we stood was Oogie Boogie, holding the still beating heart the doctor had created. Jack demanded Oogie return the heart at once. "You want it? Come and get it." Oogie shoved the oversized organ down his throat and swallowed it whole. Jack watched in rapt attention as if he was observing an experiment or show. "Now let's see if I can get their attention. Oh, Heartless!" Oogie called. Kirito and the others readied their weapons expecting to fight a horde of heartless. But Oogie only managed to call two gargoyles to his side. "This is it?" Oogie asked. Judging from the results, it seemed that the heart did not in fact have the ability to control the heartless. Kirito guessed that Oogie had intended to call either more heartless or a big strong one like they had fought before. If Oogie could only call those two, then the heart was a total dud. "Nobody disrespects me! Nobody!" Oogie angrily shouted.

The fight started when a Gust of wind forced us into the pit. The two gargoyles Oogie summoned gave chase and attacked us. The heartless stood no chance as they were defeated by Yuuki and Sora. Being the gambling man he is, Oogie's weapon of choice were dice. He tossed fiery dice that exploded when they hit the ground. And red dice that triggered various booby traps. These traps were rotating scythes that moved up and down and rotated in the opposite direction the floor beneath us was moving in. the second trap was several buzz saws that we had to jump and duck to avoid. And the third trap was a firing squad of tin soldiers holding muskets. Lucky for us said firing squad was basically a fixed turret that stayed in one place and could only fire in one direction. Somehow, Sora figured out that hitting the dice and throwing them back at Oogie, prevented the traps from activating. And By extension, caused the five panels at the center of the wheel to glow. When one of the panels was stepped on, fences would rise up and entrap oogie in the section they were raised in. and the section of the wheel we were on rose to meet the high ground Oogie held. Oogie couldn't overcome so many of us and we all tore him to shreds. Bugs began to spill out from his torn seems and he wailed in agony as he was reduced to nothing but an empty burlap sack. The Heart Oogie had swallowed was no longer beating and laid there lifelessly. "So that heart was a failure. Sally was right, the heartless are too dangerous to control." Jack said somberly. "You can tell her that when we get back to Halloween town." Asuna said.

After we exited the Oogie's lair we made our way back to the entrance to the graveyard. We were about to leave the place for good when the ground began to shake and Oogie's house became clouded in smoke. "What's happening?" Yuuki asked. "This is what we call part two." Kirito said. "You've done this before?!" Yuuki exclaimed. When the smoke cleared we saw that Oogie had somehow become one with his house. It looked Oogie had swallowed his house and parts of it we sticking out through the holes in his body. There were dark blobs on dotted throughout the entire structure. According to Jack Oogie was using them to draw from the power of darkness and make himself more powerful. If we could destroy them then Oogie and the house should come apart. "Alright we have a plan of attack. Take out the blobs. Destroy the house. Just watch out for the heartless and that big flaming lantern in his right hand. Let's do it!" Asuna shouted. And so we jumped to the bottom of the canyon all except Asuna who couldn't climb like the rest of us in her Lamia form. Instead she stayed at the top and coordinated our attack. Thanks to her, we were able to find each blob quickly and easily while avoiding attacks from the heartless and the house itself. When the last dark blob was destroyed the house came crumbling down and all likeness of Oogie boogie had vanished. "Is it over?" Yuuki asked. A blue light began to glow from the ground, the light formed a large keyhole on the ground. Sora used his keyblade and shot a beam of light up high. The light scattered into several smaller beams and fell to the ground and outlining the keyhole. The keyhole clicked to signify that it had been locked and the light faded. "Now it's over." Kirito stated.

We had returned to the doctor's laboratory where he and Sally had awaited Jack's return. We told them that the experiment was a failure and That Oogie would no longer be able to bother them. "Well I suppose that's one good thing to come out of this debacle. Still, what went wrong? Emotion, memory, we had all the necessary ingredients. But is there more to a heart? And what is a heart anyway? I can't seem to figure it out!" Said Dr. Finklestein. "Who knows? Maybe somethings are beyond science." Yuuki said. "Preposterous! Everything is explainable through science! I just need to figure out the science of the heart." said. "Then I guess you've got more work to do right doctor?" Yui said. "Oh sally, why didn't I just listen to you?" Jack said depressingly. "Don't feel bad Jack. We'll come up with another plan for Halloween." Sally said as she held Jack's hands in her own. "And next time, we'll do it together." Said Sally. Jack smiled as he looked at sally. As the two shared the moment Sora and the others left the lab and returned to the gummi ships. "I've gotta say Asuna, I'm surprised you didn't freak out here as much as you do when Lis tells ghost stories." Kirito said. "Well, after visiting so many worlds and fighting so many heartless, I think I'm used to it now. Don't get me wrong, I'm still freaked out sometimes, but now those stories just seem silly by comparison." Asuna said. "I guess fighting monsters will do that to ya." Kirito said. "So where to next?" Yuuki asked. "The next world. Set a course Yui. We'll follow Sora and Dock at 18:00 for dinner." Kirito said. "Aye-Aye captain" Yui said. "Are we really still doing this?" Yuuki asked.