The trail we were following to catch up with the thieves had gone cold when we reached the square. They were long gone and out of sight by the time we got outside. No matter how hard we searched, it looked like they were out of town already. Getting the heart back was going to be no easy task, that was for sure.
"We lost them," Sora sighed.
"Worry not, we still have an ace up our sleeve," Jack reassured Sora, slapping his palm against his thigh a few times. Right on cue, Zero came flying out of the graveyard and joined us in front of the fountain. "Zero, after them, quick!"
"Hurry!"
We followed Zero through the graveyard and to the pumpkin patch just outside of town, where we were met with a bunch of hungry looking Heartless. The ghost dog led us to a curly hill, which was called the Curly Hill for just that reason. It was a giant curl in the earth.
From afar, I could see something walking across the curl and over a stone wall. It looked like a porcelain tub, and there were three heads poking out the top. Must be those little kids. The trail was hot again with their sighting, I silently mused.
Jack was leading the way after them, and we hurried across a bridge to reach an open canyon. The tub full of children wasn't too far ahead now, but it looked like they were retreating into a giant tower. Or, maybe it was some kind of manor. Whatever it was, it was all sorts of weird with how it was built out of scraps.
"I knew Oogie Boogie was behind this!" Jack sounded angry. He stomped forward and admired the manor from the start of the hole-covered bridge. "Careful, now. He's sure to have this place full of traps."
"Oogie Boogie?" I stepped forward and folded my arms. That was the name of the guy that Maleficent told me to meet up with.
"You know him, Kara?" Sora asked me, following behind me as we made our way to the manor.
I shook my head, "No, but I've heard of him."
"Like in those spooky bedtime stories?" Goofy wondered out loud.
"I hate those!" Donald grumbled.
"Eh heh, I guess you can say that," I laughed at them and continued on the winding path to the top of the manor.
The number of Heartless around the manor was surprisingly fewer than those back in town. It was possible that they didn't have much of an influence around these parts, but it was suspiciously pleasant. Not only that, but they were getting much easier to fight. Either they were weaker, or we were just getting a lot stronger. My bet was on the latter.
Entry into the manor was as simple as simple could possibly be. The door up top was unlocked, so we welcomed ourselves inside. Jack called it the evil playroom, and I could see why that was. There were torturing tools lying around everywhere. But, most importantly, we caught the three runts while they were bickering with each other.
Unfortunately, the heart was thrown into a shoot leading to somewhere else. It was out of our hands now, though we could still catch them and get some answers about all of what was going on. We had the chance to figure out what Oogie Boogie wanted with the heart.
"Get them!" Sora shouted, initiating the challenge of catching all three.
It was a little tough getting them all together in one place, so we split off and took care of one first. They kicked and bit and made it more troublesome for us. The three kids- Lock, Shock, and Barrel- were soon apprehended by Jack when he caught them off guard. We cornered them so that they couldn't escape afterward.
"You've got one chance to tell us why you did it," Jack told them.
Reluctant to answer, the unmasked trio twiddled their thumbs and looked down at their feet. Shock, the little girl, looked up from her feet and smiled even though it was their loss.
"We were just following orders!" she claimed. "Oogie Boogie told us to steal the heart. It's all Barrel's fault! It was his idea to tell Oogie Boogie about the heart."
"Yeah, that's right!" Lock nodded in agreement.
"B-But you guys said-" Barrel was at a loss for words when they openly accused him. I sighed and folded my arms.
"You should be ashamed!"
And the bickering continued until Jack scared them to a stop. The three were splt up soon after we got all the answers we needed. It was now Oogie Boogie who we needed to go and see. Of course, the way to his hideout was unknown to any of us, save for the three who we just interrogated.
Although they weren't supposed to tell us about any levers or green doors, they openly let us in on the secrets of Oogie's manor and pointed out the way we needed to go to get to the main part of his lair. Once we were all prepared with our supply of items and equipment, we entered the secret door to get into Oogie's lair.
Bugs and other disgusting critters crawled all around as we walked down the empty hall. I could have sworn that a couple got squished under my foot. It was so gross. On the plus side, it was only a short walk to the torture chamber of Oogie's lair. That was where he was waiting for us. Well, he had no idea that we were even coming. Our arrival caught him by surprise.
Jack pointed his bony finger at Oogie, having finally caught up to the mastermind of the heart's theft, "Oogie Boogie, give me back the heart!"
"You want it?" Oogie held up the heart for us to see. In a split second, he gulped it down with a loud swallow and emptied his hands.
"Well, then come on over and get it!"
"What?" Sora gagged.
"Now what are we gonna do?" Donald shook his head in disbelief.
"Ahahahahaha!" Oogie guffawed. "Now, let's see if I can get their attention. Oh, Heartless!"
Bracing ourselves for the worst, we all summoned our weapons for when the Heartless showed their ugly faces. But only two of them appeared on either side of Oogie Boogie. We were a little taken back. For someone so wrapped up in darkness, he had little control over the Heartless. Maybe it was just that he had poor control, and they didn't look up to him in any way.
"This is it?" Oogie looked at the Gargoyles. Disappointment was written all over his face. He howled and stamped his foot on the ground. "Nobody disrespects me! Nobody!"
"Let' get him before more show up," I said, jumping down into the ring of the chamber alongside the others.
Traps were set up so that our way was tampered with. It definitely gave us a hard time when we tried to get close, and Oogie threw some exploding dice at us so that we couldn't get up to his point. Although, we used our heads in the battle against him. The dice were big enough for us to deflect them with ease, and they were launched right back into Oogie's face.
And while the others dealt with what few Heartless there were, Sora and I cornered Oogie Boogie and teamed up to fight him. He was slow and rather weak for a big guy. Although, he still gave the two of us a little bit of trouble with more tricks he had ready. We managed to beat him and put a stop to the obstacle course he made after some time of fighting.
"Noooooo!" was the last thing uttered out of Oogie's mouth before the bag of bugs burst open.
I cringed at the sight of thousands of bugs crawling around my feet. They were running away and not bothering us, but it crept me out. Only one remained, but it was crushed under Sora's foot. All that remained of the villain was the empty bag that used to be his body, and the heart that the doctor made. The menace that was Oogie Boogie, was finally stopped.
Perhaps it was a waste for Jack and Finkelstein to make that heart. While Oogie was able to summon a couple Heartless, I didn't think that it was because of the heart. It had to have been something else. The power of darkness. There was no way that something artificial like that could completely replicate a real one.
"So, that heart was a failure after all," Jack whined. The mechanical organ was withering away. He was disappointed by it, but Jack quickly got over it. "Come on, let's let the doctor know. There's no reason to stay here."
"Yeah, we'd better go." Sora agreed and followed after Jack.
We just barely got back across the bridge when the ground started to quake and rumble. Goofy nearly tumbled down into the canyon, but Donald and Sora made sure to keep him up with us. The bridge behind us collapsed and broke apart, leaving us with no way across to the manor. Actually, there was no manor to go back to. In its place was a transformed monster. Parts of it looked just like Oogie Boogie, and it sounded like him, too.
"Huh?" Jack ran ahead and peered into the debris-covered canyon. "Unbelievable."
"Whoa!" Sora gasped. "How did he get so big?"
I stood at the edge of the cliff and examined the transfigured Oogie from afar. Darkness seeped out from his seams. All over, there were protruding globs of a dark substance. The atmosphere was so heavy because of it. I could recognize that feeling from anywhere.
"Look at those things," I told the others, pointing out each glob. "He's being influenced by the power of darkness. Oogie Boogie is drawing power from those dark globs, I bet."
"So we just have to destroy those things, right?" Sora asked me.
"It's the only way I can think of," I nodded my head.
"Then it's worth a shot!" Jack patted my back and jumped down into the canyon. His skinny legs effortlessly carried him down so that he could pursue the globs of darkness. "Come on, fellas!"
"Do we have to go down there, too?" Donald shakily looked down at the great view. It made him shudder, but Goofy stood behind him to keep him from running away.
"We gotta help!" the shield knight declared boldly, adding a little more surprise to our day. That was the greatest thing he ever did say yet.
"Okay, then let's do it," Sora hopped down, followed by the rest of us. With all our might being poured into our attacks, we fought against Oogie Boogie in his monstrous state. He was an even worse challenge like this, though.
A couple of times during the battle, we were getting scorched by a flying lantern coated with fire. I wasn't sure which part of it was worse, but all of it had a bad vibe. Some of the dark globs shot out fire, too, but we quickly took care of them. But because they were all so far apart, we split up into two teams to get the hob done.
One by one, the dark globs were erased, and the influence of darkness was no longer over Oogie Boogie. His giant form, as a result of the loss of darkness, melted away into nothing. The entire manor that he fused with broke down until nothing was left. There were no Heartless left to fight, either.
"This light..."
Sora stepped forward as the moonlight shined down from up above. Something was unusual about it. In the middle of a ring of debris, some of that light reflected and was shaped like a Keyhole. Okay, so it wasn't small like any of the others that we had seen. It took up a lot of space, nearly all of the open canyon.
I was amazed by how skillfully Sora sealed the Keyhole. The beam of light shot into the air and burst into small pieces of light that rained down onto the Keyhole. Light filled it, and it locked like all the others. It eventually faded away until we were left to our own devices.
"Simply amazing," Jack wowed the spectacle.
"It sure is something," I said with a smile. "Well, we'd better head back to the doctor's lab."
Back in town, we were glad to see that the Heartless were no longer tearing apart the town. Things were finally calming down, and the residents were happy to be rid of the problem that plagued them. We returned to the research lab with Jack to meet with Doctor Finkelstein and Sally, who were eagerly awaiting our return.
Jack, saddened for some reason, approached Sally with a thoughtful look on his face.
"Sally, why didn't I listen to you?" he said in a low tone, dropping his head.
"Don't feel bad, Jack," Sally told him comfortingly. She didn't seem mad about it at all, showing us just how patient of a person she was. "We'll come up with another plan for Halloween. Next time, we'll do it together."
"I... I guess we have no choice," Jack smiled back at her, taking her hands in his. Keeping her hands locked with hers, Jack turned to us with his joyful demeanor returned. "We'll have to cancel the Heartless Halloween festival for now. Thank you for your help in saving the town. I do hope you kids visit us again real soon! It'll be the scariest Halloween next year!"
"Oh, joy..." Donald grumbled.
"Emotion, memory..." the doctor started his mumbling again. "We put in all the necessary ingredients. What else do you need to make a heart? What is a heart, anyway? I can't seem to figure it out..."
"Heh, it's a whole mix of things," I said quietly, but he must not have heard.
"Guess it's about time we left," Sora said to Donald and Goofy. We left the lab and walked together to the woods outside of town, where the gummi ship was hidden. I wanted to see them off, at least, before I went off on my own. No sign of any corridors, anyway, so I had some time to kill.
I think this is far enough, I thought as the gummi ship came into view. It was a little different looking than the last time I saw it. There were more weapons and gummi blocks used for its armor. Cid must have set it up with an improved defense system. If he did, then that was very kind of him.
Slowing to a stop, I glanced around and picked a direction to walk. The forest was a little more confusing to navigate than the town, but I figured that my way out would show up eventually. Before I could even start off for wherever, a hand grabbed me by the wrist gently. My one visible eye widened with surprise, and I looked back to see Sora lightly gripping my wrist. After a minute, he let me go.
"What?" I asked him simply.
"Kara, come with us," he said after a long moment of silence.
"Pass."
"What?!" This time, all three of them jumped. It startled me, and I stepped back when they reacted to my response. They were in unison the whole time. "But why?"
How was I supposed to explain it without making myself look bad? Better yet, how was I supposed to explain my situation to them without causing any future problems? Now that we were face to face, I had little wiggle room with it. That made things worse. Maybe it was best to get it out of the way, or I could be as vague as possible. Ah, kind of like one of those silly games we used to play when we were little. It was a game where someone tried to guess a word after being given lousy hints by other players.
Thinking about it, though, it sounded silly playing around with Sora like that. Mean, even. Wasn't Riku supposed to be the one who teased and taunted him? I wasn't very fond of the role.
Any minute now, Maleficent should have a corridor open. Then, I can just leave, I thought to myself.
"Well?" Donald quacked after a few more minutes of silence.
I turned around with a wince. The corridor should have been open right about now, I was so sure of it. But, nothing did happen. We were all standing around in the middle of the woods, awkwardly. Maybe I should have went the other way before we even got out here. Looking back at them, they seemed determined to get some kind of an answer out of me. This was the worst. I was hoping to get out without having to deal with something like this. Oh, well, guess there's no avoiding it now.
"I came here looking for someone, but it doesn't look like she's here," I said, finally. My arms were folded across my chest as I looked out at the yellow moon sitting behind the thicket of trees. "Mm... Maybe it was just a waste of time coming here. It definitely didn't turn out the way I was hoping."
"Huh? I don't understand," Sora cocked his head to the side. "Who're you looking for?"
"O-Oh... No one that you should really concern yourself with," I waved my hand. "Anyway, I'd better get going. I need to keep looking."
"Wait!" he ran up ahead and cut me off. I paused in my walk again and raised a brow.
"What?" I mouthed.
"If it's something important, then why don't we go together?" he suggested, holding out his hand. "We can get a lot more done if we work as a team, you know. It beats doing things alone. What do you say?"
"Ah..."
"Yeah, we all said that we were in it together!" Goofy chimed in.
"We are your friends," Donald stepped up beside me.
"You guys..." I sighed and smiled at them. "Fine, I'll go with you for now."
