Jack told us all about the world on our way out to the town square. He also told us a little bit about his friend Sally, who was the Doctor's most successful creation. Apparently, that also meant that she was his daughter. It was a weird thing. I didn't want to bother with trying to understand it anymore.
Back outside at the town square, we were expecting to get by the seemingly harmless group of Heartless to find Sally at her favorite place to hang out. What we didn't expect were those very Heartless running out of control, attacking everything in sight. Half expected... So it was totally expected that they'd do something like that at some point.
The mayor of Halloween Town was running back and forth, avoiding the rampaging Heartless as best he could. He was screaming into the megaphone he had and demanded that they leave him alone. We surrounded the mayor and staved off the Heartless so that Jack could take him away to safety.
"Jack! Jack!" the mayor cried, still using the megaphone. "We have a major crisis! The Heartless are completely out of control! We can't stop them! The festival is going to be ruined..."
I winced and uncovered my ears, This is getting out of hand...
"Hmm..." Jack rubbed his skull thoughtfully. "Maybe our experiment triggered something. Everything will be fine, Mayor. You have nothing to worry about."
"Oh, really?" Donald tapped his foot.
"Come on, fellas!" Jack chuckled, ignoring Donald.
There wasn't a second to lose. We did our best to get rid of the rampaging Heartless first, though Shadows started popping up all over the place. The square was eventually cleared out. It took us a long time to do but things worked out for the better. With the mayor and the rest of the townspeople safe in their homes, we were able to move on to the graveyard. According to Jack, it was probably her favorite place to be compared to anywhere else.
Dark and cold. The fog made the muggy cemetery have an ominous atmosphere. Donald was shivering and holding onto a loose piece of cloth hanging from his arm. At least for a moment is was quiet, but an ambush of Heartless appeared. Some looked like undead mummies, kind of like Donald's costume but better.
"Let's check this place out once all of the Heartless are cleared out," Sora suggested.
"Beats looking around with those things at our backs." I laughed shortly and summoned my Keyblade. A pair of claws whipped around, nearly hitting me in the side, but Goofy jumped in the way and blocked them with his shield. "Thanks, Goofy."
"You're welcome!" he saluted, then went on to fight.
"Come on, you guys," Donald blasted a Heartless with some fire magic. He was grumbling something under his breath. "We've got Heartless to take care of!"
"Don't have to tell us twice," Sora nodded as he swatted away a couple more Shadows.
The haunted graveyard was peaceful, in a way, with the removal of all the Heartless. When all was clear, a ghostly pup shot out from a gravestone titled Zero. It flew around us and began to yipe happily at Jack. Mr Skellington looked tickled by the greeting.
"Ah, Zero!" Jack welcomed the ghost dog, booping it in the pumpkin nose. "Have you seen Sally anywhere?"
"Zero?" Sora and I looked at each other.
"'Cause he's a ghost?" Goofy scratched his head.
"Don't know," Donald shrugged.
But, regardless of our thoughts, Zero got to work with finding Sally right away. He flew around the graveyard and zoomed behind one of the tall statues, and a woman yelped in surprise. Jumping out from behind the narrow stone was a red-haired woman with blue skin. She was covered in crudely done stitches.
She calmed down and patted Zero on the head, then walked around to meet with us. Without a doubt, this was the Sally that the Doctor was sending us after. Unlike everyone else in Halloween Town, she wasn't really scary looking.
"Is something wrong, Jack?" Sally asked the skeleton man in a gentle voice.
"No, everything's great," he replied, seemingly paying no mind to the Heartless attacking the town. "We're going to have the best Halloween ever! All we need is your memory to finish the experiment."
"Memory?" she cocked her head to the side. A gear in her head spun, then she pulled something out of her pocket. It looked like a wilted plant picked from a patch of dead flowers. "You mean this? Here. I don't mind. It's a Forget-Me-Not that I found some time ago. If it will help..."
"But, Jack, I have a bad feeling about this. Why don't you try something else? There's still time."
"Nothing could beat what I've got planned!" Jack claimed and admired the flower. He spun around, moving closer to Sally with a sparkle in his empty eye sockets. "Once we give the Heartless a heart, they'll dance just as I envision it. Trust me. You're going to love it!"
Sally still argued against the idea, "Why not have these four star in the festival instead? They both look rather frightful. And funny, too. They'd be much better than the Heartless."
"Yeah!" Sora agreed, as did Donald and Goofy.
"Mmm..." I hugged myself and tuned my head away. "I don't know."
"What? Are you scared?" Donald teased, which earned him a hard tap on the shin. "Ow!"
"Come on, Sora and co!" Jack yelled as he headed for the gates. "We're heading back to the Doctor's!"
Moonlight poured down on the empty graveyard as the young heroes left with Jack and Sally. The light shined on a partially open grave. Its lid wiggled and threw open to release three tiny children dressed in their Halloween costumes. They giggled uncontrollably, hiding their wicked smiles behind grinning masks.
"Lock!"
"Shock!"
"Barrel!"
One after the other, they introduced themselves to no one, really. But, the lack of a visible audience was no bother. The three children were far more interested in what was being talked about when Jack was still around. "Did you hear that?" one of them asked the other two, who nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, I sure did!" Lock exclaimed. "A heart! What should we do?"
"Gosh, you really are stupid," Shock knocked the boy in the red in the back of the head. "Isn't it obvious?"
"Tell Oogie Boogie."
The trio of mischievous youths hurried off for Oogie Boogie's lair elsewhere in Halloween Town. News of the experiment soon met the ears of the villainous figure. Of course, anything Jack Skellington did interested Oogie, especially the fact that the skeleton king was able to nab himself some Heartless. Of course, that turned out to be a bust. Amusing to Oogie, but a major problem for the rest of the town.
This talk of a heart was something else. Where did Jack find the resources and smarts to craft a functional heart? Oogie was no stranger to science. He had a lot of creations in and around his lair. The entire place was loaded with crafty ideas.
But... a heart.
Chuckling darkly, Oogie cornered the children that invited themselves inside his hideout. His natural scare made them tremble and hold onto one another. Now there was no need to chase them all over for more information.
"A heart?" Oogie settled down and eyed the children, one by one. "That bonehead Jack is really making a heart?"
"I'll be jiggered! That works for me!"
Swinging around to gulp down a jug of bugs, Oogie grinned and slammed the jug down on the table by him. "Ohh," he moaned, "when I get my hands on that... Well, I've got no hands... but I'm still gonna nab that heart and control the Heartless."
"R-R-Right!" the children nodded their heads.
"You kids run along and do me a favor." Oogie straightened his back and looked down at the three troublemakers. "Go and get me that heart."
"Yes, this is it."
Doctor Finkelstein was amused when we brought back the Forget-Me-Not flower, though he shot Sally a glare when she stepped inside the research lab. He took the wilted flower from us and took one more look at the big book sitting on his desk. Some mutterings under his breath and he was back to talking with us.
"Now, just one more ingredient," he said. The mayor pointed at the list of ingredients in the book and opened another to share with us. "We need surprise to complete the heart. Jack, if you would."
"Ah, yes!" Jack nodded vigorously.
Why is he looking at me? I wondered. Jack was smiling. Suspiciously, as a matter of fact. I looked to Donald, then to Goofy and Sora. No one was saying anything about it. They were just watching. Why do I get the feeling that-
"GROOOOOAAAAAARRRR!"
"KYAAAAAAAAAA!"
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!"
My heart nearly shot out my chest...
Oh, my vision was becoming blurry. My legs were shaking uncontrollably, too. Where did the stars come from? I couldn't help but fall onto my behind in weakness from the rush of... of... that surprise scare. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Donald cowering behind the bookshelf. Only his wrapped up rear end was sticking out, and quivering.
Then came the burst of laughter from Sora. Goofy was too busy checking on Donald, though he spouted a few good laughs at his pal. As faint as I was feeling at the moment, seeing the wide grin on Sora's face snapped me out of my daze.
I shook my head and pointed an accusing finger at him and the others, "T-That was too mean!"
"Hush, child," Doctor Finkelstein gave a 'tsk' and rolled away with a ghostly orb. "We've got the surprise and memory. Now we can finish the experiment. Let us begin!"
Putting all of the ingredients together, the doctor fiddled around with his power tools and dabbled with the mechanical heart. We sat around and played simple games with Jack and Sally during the wait. It was about an hour later when he finished tinkering with it. He picked up the pulsing organ and admired the work he did to it.
"There you go," Doctor Finkelstein grinned. "This time it's sure to work."
He was wheeling around to the table so that he could get on with the experiment. But, to our shock, a tiny little boy rolled out from under the table and kicked the chair out from under the doctor. The elderly scientist was launched out of his seat and fell to the ground with a thud.
"Oh no!" Goofy yelped.
The heart went flying through the air and landed in the hands of another little boy dressed like a devil. We watched the two join up together with a witch girl, and they all ran out of the lab laughing. Doctor Finkelstein waved his fist at them from the ground, helpless and unable to do anything else to stop them. Right before our very eyes, the heart was stolen.
"What was that all about?" I asked the doctor, helping him back into his wheelchair.
"The nerve of those little hooligans, stealing my work!" Doctor Finkelstein growled.
"What are you waiting for? Go after them and get that heart back!"
