Chapter 37 Oogie Boogie
"Doctor, we have the memory!" Jack said as he entered the lab. The doctor turned around to see the plant in Jack's hand.
"Yes! That's it." Finkelstien said happily. "Now, just one more ingredient. We need 'surprise' to complete the heart."
"Where do we find that?" Goofy asked
'The mayor might know where to find some." The doctor said and with that, the group was off.
In a hidden room designed like a casino, only deadlier, was a large round man who had a sack for a body. He had two holes for eyes and another opening for a mouth.
"Hehehe. That bonehead Jack is really making a heart? I'll be jiggered!" He laughed manically while Lock Shock and Barrel were cowering in a corner. "That works for me!" he laughed
"Ohh, when I get my hands on that…well, I've got no hands, but I'm still going to nab that heart and control the Heartless." He laughed Oogie had been bringing the Heartless into Halloween Town on Maleficent's orders, but shortly after he did, they stopped following him, and he felt like a laughing stock.
"Well soon, that's going to change. I'll get back the Heartless and boot that bonehead Jack to the curb and finally rule this town!" Oogie said. Then he turned to the three kids. "Well, what are you three waiting for? Go get that heart!" He ordered and the three kids ran out.
Back with Sora and co, the four found the mayor and asked for the "surprise" the doctor was looking for and they were given a Jack in the box.
"It's astounding what we are told to look for, and what we get." Donald said
"Probably stuff that represents these emotions? I don't know, I'm not a scientist." Corrin said
"Still, I really wonder if you could actually make a heart." Sora pondered.
"You agreed to help without even thinking about it?" Donald asked rhetorically.
"Hey, I really wanted to see if the Heartless could actually dance." Sora said.
"Let's just get back to the doctor." Goofy suggested before another argument broke out.
The group made it back to the lab and gave the jack in the box to the doctor who happily took it. The doctor added all the ingredients into the artificial heart.
"There we go, that should do it." He said grabbing the heart. As he wheeled his way to the table, Barrel jumped down in his way, causing him to fall over and accidently toss the heart to where Lock and Shock were waiting at the entrance. Lock caught it, and the three kids bolted out of the lab.
"Those little hooligans!" The doctor shouted.
"What just happened?" Sora asked
"Who were they?" Corrin asked Jack
Jack just sighed in annoyance and anger, knowing where this was likely going. "Lock, Shock, and Barrel. The Trick or Treaters of Halloween Town. And they like to help HIM." Jack said in annoyance.
"Him?" Donald asked.
"Oogie Boogie. He used to be the king of a place called Bug Town that celebrated a holiday called Bug Day."
"Bug day?" The four asked "Never heard of it." Sora said
"I heard it fell out of popularity and the town fell soon after, so he tried to take over Halloween Town around the time I was named the Pumpkin King, but I put a stop to it." Jack explained
"Do you think he was the one who brought the Heartless here in the first place?" Sora asked Corrin
Corrin just shrugged. "Well, considering every place we visited so far has had their residential bad guy with the Heartless so far, I wouldn't be surprised."
"Well, where is this Oogie Boogie fella live Jack?" Goofy asked
"Outside of town. Follow me!" Jack said leading the group to a hill with a twist at the tip that curled inward. As they arrived, more search ghosts appeared.
"We don't have time for this!" Sora declared as he summoned his Keyblade and started slashing Heartless with the rest of the group. Once they were gone, the mountain's tip unfolded and led over the gate which Jack led the group over.
Soon, the group arrived at a large treehouse that sat at the other end of a long worn out bridge. On the other side, Jack spotted Lock, Shock, and Barrel in a walking bathtub entering the large door on the tree house.
"Over there! If we catch them, we can get the heart back!" Jack declared, but Corrin was more focused on the bridge.
"Are you sure this thing can hold all five of us?" Corrin asked
"It held a walking bathtub with three kids on it." Sora said.
"That doesn't help me Sora." Corrin sighed.
"We'll be okay, as long as we cross carefully." Goofy said.
"And don't run into any Heartless on the bridge." Donald added
"And even if we did fall, so what? After that Jungle, a fall like this doesn't look that threatening." Sora said.
"Good point." Corrin admitted.
"Hurry! We need to catch them!" Jack said as he ran across the bridge with the others following him.
After arriving on the other side of the bridge, and opening the door, the group was attacked by these purple heartless with black bat-like wings and root-like claws and toes. The Gargoyle Heartless took to the sky and dived down at the group.
"Great, not only can they fly, but unless we want to climb from the bottom, our space is limited!" Corrin shouted annoyed.
"So, what do we do?" Goofy asked worried
"Why don't we use magic? We can hit them from a far and we won't have to worry about falling off by accident?" Sora suggested
"Sora that's…actually a good idea." Corrin admitted. "Goofy, stay back and cover us."
"You got it!" Goofy declared readying his shield.
"THUNDARA!" Sora, Donald, and Corrin shouted as bolts of lightning hit the Gargoyles.
"Have some of this!" Jack shouted launching icy spears at more heartless, but more keep coming.
"We're going to run out of magic at this rate." Sora said.
"I have an idea, Ghostly Scream!" Jack shouted as he unleashed a gravity spell that sent the heartless down to the ground bellow.
"Great thinking Jack!" Sora said
"Let's hurry before they get back up." Corrin said
"Ghostly scream?" Donald asked as he raised an eyebrow at Jack, but Corrin just pulled him up the treehouse.
"No time, let's go!" Corrin shouted as they made it to the top of the treehouse.
Jack pushed the door opened to see Shock throw the heart down a tube as they noticed Jack and the others.
"What have you three done to the heart?" Corrin asked angerly
"None of your business Lizard breath!" Lock retorted as the three charged at the group.
After a quick scuffle, the three little brats were finally subdued.
"Alright, we give up, please just stop!" Lock cried.
"We were just following orders." Shock cried. "Oogie boogie told us to steal the heart. It's all Barrel's fault." She said pointing to Barrel who jumped in shock.
"Mine?" Barrel cried shocked
"It was his idea to tell Oogie Boogie about the heart!" Shock continued
"Th-that's right!" Lock agreed
"B-but you guys said…"
"You should be ashamed!" Shock cut off Barrel.
"Who cares whose idea it was, you three are all at fault for stealing in the first place!" Sora scolded
"When I get back, the four of us are going to have a little talk about following Oogie's orders." Jack said sternly.
"Yes Jack." The three kids said defeated and scared.
"So where is Oogie?" Donald asked
"At the bottom of this manor." Jack said pulling a lever. "Let's hurry and stop whatever he is plotting." Jack said as he left with the other three.
"Man, those kids…" Corrin mumbled.
"I don't mind them pulling pranks, but they tend to take things too far." Jack said
"I know the pain." Donald said
"What do you mean?" Sora asked
"Remember those three back at the item's shop in Traverse Town? Donald asked
"Your nephews?" Corrin asked to which Donald nodded
"Try taking care of them. I guarantee, they will drive you up the walls." Donald sighed "I love them, but they always make me lose my temper."
"Everything makes you lose your temper." Sora joked
HEY!" Donald shouted.
"You do have a short fuse Donald." Goofy added
"I DO NOT!" Donald shouted
"Okay, let's head down." Jack said as the group leaped to the bottom of the large treehouse. As they reached the floor, Gargoyles surrounded them.
"Oh yeah, I forgot about these guys." Corrin said awkwardly.
"At least we won't have to worry about our footing." Sora said as he summoned his Keyblade.
"Let's hurry this up." Donald said blasting a heartless with a fira spell.
"GOOFY TORNADO!" Goofy shouted as he smacked some heartless with his shield.
"STRIKE RAID!" Sora shouted as he tossed his Keyblade at a Heartless destroying it.
"HYDRO SHOT!" Corrin shouted as he fired a blast of water destroying the last of the heartless.
"Now that that is done with, let's get that heart back." Sora said
"Hang on a minute." Donald said handing Sora a small bottle with some blue liquid in it. "This is an ether, it can help you recover magic power."
"How long have we had these?" Corrin asked taking one for himself.
"Quite a while. We just never needed them till now." Donald answered.
"You guys sure talk about a lot of weird stuff. Where are you four from again?" Jack asked curiously. The four jumped at this.
"Uh…well, we are from far away." Sora answered
"Sorry, it's hard to explain." Corrin admitted
"Well…okay I guess." Jack said uncertain. He didn't distrust them, but they were rather curious.
"Anyway, don't we need to stop this Oogie guy?" Donald asked trying to change the subject.
"That's right! We need to hurry!" Jack said as he ran towards an eerie green door. "Oogie's room is right in here. Are you four sure you want to go in?"
"We didn't come this far in order to get cold feet. Let's go!" Sora declared as the rest nodded. Jack nodded as well and the five went in.
Inside was a bazaar room that was decorated like a casino table, only deadlier. In the center of the room was a large hole that took most of the space with a rail of higher ground outside it. The four out-worlders could even see many types of sharp and deadly instruments that decorated the room. On the other side of the room was what the group believed to be Oogie Boogie, holding the artificial heart in his hands.
"Is that him?" Sora asked and Jack nodded.
"Oogie, give me back that heart!" Jack declared
"You want it? Well then, come on over and get it!" Oogie laughed and much to the others shock, he ate the heart.
"Muhaha! Now, let's see if I can get their attention. Oh Heartless!" Oogie shouted.
After a minute of silence, two Gargoyles appeared by his side.
"This is it?" Oogie asked as he looked at what he was able to summon before he got angry. "NOBODY DISRESPECTS ME, NOBODY!" He yelled.
"Did you have something to do with these heartless in the first place Oogie?" Jack asked angry.
"Of course, I did you bonehead!" Oogie shouted in anger. "But you and your little experiment took them from me! I was finally on the verge of taking over this town!"
"I guess you didn't learn your lesson last time!" Jack said.
"And it won't end up like last time ether!" Oogie said throwing some dice behind the group that exploded and sent the group into the casino death pit below. "Now let's play."
"I'd like a second opinion." Corrin cried out.
"Denied!" Oogie shouted as he threw more explosive dice at them as the floor began to spin.
"Any ideas here?" Sora asked as he dodged more explosive dice.
"I'll let you know when I think of something!" Corrin said dodging explosive dice himself. Oogie threw three more dice down. Unlike the others, these didn't explode on contact, but instead rolled like any other dice. The three dice all landed a one.
"Buzz saw!" Oogie sang.
"Buzz saw?" Corrin asked, only to get pushed aside by Sora away from a giant buzz saw that started to move across the board. "Oh, that. Thanks." Sora just nodded
Jack was easily dodging the traps left and right as his body was very flexible. He then noticed some yellow toy solders point their guns at them. "Everyone, duck!" Jack shouted as the guns fired. Thankfully, everyone heard Jack's warning and ducked.
The Gargoyle heartless swarmed down to attack, but were taken out by Donald and Goofy. Oogie rolled more dice that all landed on fours.
"Four! Spin wheel!" Oogie declared as three giant scythe blades descended down and started to spin.
"This is ridiculous! We can't keep dodging forever." Sora said
"I know, but I have a plan. Just hold out a little longer." Corrin said as he and Sora jumped over the blades.
"Okay Corrin. But hurry." Sora said.
Corrin nodded and jumped up to grab one of the poles that held the blades as they rose. Corrin then swung his feet and jumped right towards Oogie, much to the bag of bugs surprise. Before Oogie could react, Corrin slashed him with his sword causing him to tear open and release the many bugs inside of him.
"No, not my bugs! My precious bugs!" Oogie cried as the bugs just poured out much to the groups (minus Jack's) disgust.
"I could have gone my whole life without seeing that." Corrin said
"Agreed." Sora, Donald, and Goofy said.
Jack only watched as Oogie dissolved down, leaving only his skin and the artificial heart behind. "So, the heart was a failure after all." He said sadly.
Corrin just picked it up. "Yeah. If he couldn't call the heartless well with this, I doubt you would be able to use this to get the heartless to dance with you." Corrin said as he tossed the heart aside.
"Come on Jack, let's just head back." Sora said trying to cheer Jack up.
"I suppose so." Jack relented. And with that, Sora, Jack, Donald, and Goofy climbed out and the five left the manor.
As the group finished crossing the bridge leading back to town, a large earthquake caused them to stop in their tracks and stumble about. Jack turned around and saw that the bridge was destroyed and the tree house was covered in smoke with Lock shock and Barrel fleeing down below.
"What's going on?" Jack asked
As the smoke cleared, the group was shocked to see that somehow, Oogie managed to merged with the tree house. His skin had fused with the whole thing as parts of the tree house stuck out of his now massive body. One of his hands was on fire and his other hand had a large lantern in it that he swung viciously. He also had a smaller lantern in the form of a spider around his shoulder.
"Ho did he get so big?" Sora asked shocked. Corrin noticed something on his body.
"Look at those globes on him." Corrin pointed to one of the shadow colored globes that stuck out on Oogie's body. "If I were to guess, I'd say he's drawing power from them."
As he said that, many more Search Ghosts and Gargoyles started to appear.
"This isn't good. At this right, Halloween town will be overrun with Heartless." Jack said worried.
"Then we know what we have to do." Donald said
"Let's go!" Sora said as the five jumped down to the ground and charged at the now massive Oogie Boogie.
The giant Oogie started to swing his lantern around causing Fire balls to drop down and home in on the group.
"Look out!" Corrin shouted as the group dodged the fire only to get swarmed by the Heartless.
"Get out of our way!" Sora shouted slashing at Heartless.
"We won't get anywhere at this rate. We'll have to split up." Corrin said. "Sora and Goofy, can you take care of the Heartless?" Corrin asked
"No problem! Leave it to us!" Sora stated as Goofy nodded.
"Donald, I need you to do something about that lantern." Corrin said.
"No problem! My magic will take care of it!" Donald boasted
Jack, we need to take out those Shadow Globes." Corrin finished
"Right." Jack nodded "I'll climb up to those higher ones, while you take care of the lower ones."
"Sounds good. Let's go!" Corrin declared and everyone was off.
Sora and Goofy got to work destroying heartless. "Alright, SONIC BLADE!" Sora shouted as he slashed the heartless at high speed five times.
"You sure are getting good at that Sonic Blade Sora." Goofy commented smacking another Search Ghost with his shield.
"Thanks!" Sora said as another Search Ghost grabbed Sora from behind lifting him into the air. Goofy charged at it and smack it with his shield destroying it. "Uh, thanks Goofy." Sora said sheepishly
"Anytime pal!" Goofy said
Donald was climbing up the giant Oogie Boogie to reach the Lantern that was still swinging around releasing flames across the area. Once he finally reached a platform getting a good shot at the lantern, he readied his staff.
"Alright, this looks like a job for my magic! BLIZZARA!" Donald shouted extinguishing the flame with ice magic. "No problem." As Donald said that, the spider shaped lantern ignited and started shooting flames like the first one.
"Not on my watch!" Donald declared as he fired a blizzara spell at the second lantern extinguishing it like the first one. "There! All done." Donald said, but a single flame relight the first lantern. "What?" Donald shouted in shock before he growled and shot a blizzara spell at the first lantern only for the second one to light up again. Donald growled angerly as the lanterns kept relighting themselves.
"WWWWAAAAAAKKKKK!" Donald roared as he furiously shot a bunch of Blizzzara spells all around finally extinguishing the two lanterns.
"Finally." Donald said cooling down, only to get slammed by Oogie's fist causing him to see stars. "Waak." Donald groaned
Jack was blasting the shadow globes with his magic as he climbed up the giant Oogie.
"Jaaacckkk!" The giant Oogie groaned in anger.
"I'm putting a stop to this once and for all Oogie." Jack declared
Corrin just finished slashing another glob with his Dragon Fang attack, and there was one glob left. "Hydro shot!" Corrin shouted as he blasted the final Shadow Glob with a powerfully concentrated blast of water destroying it.
"Is that the last of them?" Corrin asked as his mask vanished. His mask for the most part was exactly the same with the only difference was the coloring was more faded than before.
With the globe destroyed, Oogie began to shake viciously as he began to crumble.
"I'll take that as a yes." Corrin said as he and Jack jumped to safety. Donald collected himself in time and jumped down with them. The five backed away as Oogie screamed and fell to pieces that strangely vanished leaving no traces of giant treehouse, or Oogie Boogie. Beneath it however, was a massive Keyhole that suddenly lite up. Sora instinctively pointed his Keyblade up to the moon and fired a beam that reflected in the sky and fell into the giant Keyhole locking it up.
"Wow, what was that?" Jack asked in awe.
"Something that should help keep the Heartless away." Sora answered.
"You should probably give up on the Heartless Halloween idea." Corrin suggested
"Yeah, you are probably right." Jack admitted, now seeing that the Heartless were too dangerous to use. "Let's head back to the lab." And with that, the five left.
Upon entering the lab, Sally and the mayor ran up to Jack in relief.
"Jack, you're okay!" The Sally said
"Those three troublemakers came running back into town in fear from something that was going on at Oogie's manor and we got worried." The mayor said.
"Not to worry everyone, Oogie has been taken care of." Jack said.
"What happened to the heart?" Finkelstein asked.
Jack and the others told the three what had happened back at Oogie's manor.
"Well, I'm just glad you are all safe." Sally admitted
"Oh Sally, why didn't I listen to you?" Jack said upset
"Don't feel bad Jack. We'll come up with another plan for Halloween." Sally said grabbing Jack's hands. "But next time, we'll do it together." Jack only smiled at that as he turned to Sora and co.
"I guess we'll have to cancel the Heartless Halloween festival." Jack said.
"Hope you guys can come up with something else." Sora said
"Actually, I have a favor to ask of you Corrin." Jack said
"Me?" Corrin asked and Jack nodded.
"That mask trick of yours. Can I see it again?" Jack asked
"Uh sure thing." Corrin said summoning his mask.
"Sally, can you draw this really quick?" Jack asked
Sally nodded and made a quick sketch.
"If you don't mind, that mask of yours really scary. Do you mind if we use it?" Jack asked
"Sure." Corrin agreed.
"Thanks you guys, for everything. Here, I found this in the manor. You can have it if you want it." Jack said handing Corrin a piece of paper, which Corrin quickly realized it was a part of Ansem's report.
"Thanks Jack." Corrin said.
"Please come visit us again. I promise you, next year's Halloween will be the scariest one ever." Jack said. Sora and Corrin nodded, while Donald and Goofy looked a little afraid.
"Emotions, memory…we put everything necessary to make a heart, so why did it fail? What even is a heart anyway?" Finkelstein asked himself.
"Honestly, we don't even know." Sora said as they waved goodbye and left.
Back on the ship, the group called Cid.
"Yo! How's it going there?" Cid asked as the screen turned on.
"Pretty good. We got another page of Ansem's report." Corrin said.
"And Malificent's allies are continuing to drop." Sora added.
"That's great. Send it over." Cid said and Corrin did just that.
"On a side note, congratulations on your victory against Leon Sora." Cid congratulated.
"Thanks Cid." Sora said. Cid then received the page on his end.
"That's another one down. You guys are getting really good at this." Cid commented.
"Sadly, we haven't found Kairi yet, and Riku has been acting rather weird lately." Sora said.
"I'm sure things…Bzzt bzzt." Cid was cut off as the video link was being disrupted.
"Well, that was weird. What's going on?" Corrin asked
"Something is interfering with the communications." Donald said frantically.
"What's causing it?" Sora asked
Uh…maybe that?" Goofy said pointing outside. The other three turned to see a giant Pirate ship flying close by.
"Is that a pirate ship?" Sora asked.
"First a whale, now a pirate ship? What's next?" Corrin asked rhetorically.
"Bigger problems bro." Sora said
"Like what?" Corrin asked
"LIKE IT'S ABOUT TO RAM US!" Sora shouted as everyone screamed as the Pirate Ship charged at fast speed towards the Gummi Ship and everything went white.
And that's a wrap!
My longest chapter so far, as a gift to end off the year.
I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I got Super Smash Bros Ultimate for Christmas, and man is it a fun game. And before anyone asks, no I have no intentions at the moment to do a World of Light Arc. That doesn't even have much of a story to begin with, and I'm only familiar with the personalities of about half the cast of Smash.
Next stop is Neverland, and then I get to the big climax, so I hope you all look forward to it.
Guestwithideas: Yeah, KH1, Jack's spells were just the basic spells with different names. KH2 were a bit more different, so I went with that instead of being another Donald but without Cure, Stop and Aero. And yeah, that coach idea could probably work.
Anyway, That's all for now. Happy New Years, and I will see you guys next time. (And next year!)