The Ocean Between Worlds—Captain Hook's Ship
Katie got her wish: they had commandeered Captain Hook's pirate ship. But it was only until they got all of the children off and somewhere safe. Peter Pan had said that their world was lost to Darkness, so the next best bet was the Darling Children's home-world.
In the meantime, there was something Penny had to take care of.
"Alright, Hook." She said to the captive Captain. She held him up by his collar, just over the edge of the ship. "Tell us where we need to go and we won't toss you overboard."
"I thought I was the bad cop." Katie said.
"I thought forced in-terror-gation was bad." John Darling said, stumbling over five-syllable words
"It is, so don't watch." Penny answered.
Wendy helped turn her brothers and Katie around.
"They're heading for a world called Hollow Bastion." Hook said. "Maleficent's plan involves bringing together seven maidens of pure hearts. Supposedly that'll give her great power, but I don't know how."
"She didn't tell you the whole plan?" Penny asked.
"I don't think she told anyone the whole plan." Hook said. "The boy seems to think it'll allow him to bring back the girl, but I don't know."
"And Hollow Bastion?"
"Never been to it. I'll be surprised if it's an actual world or just some rock Maleficent found floating in space."
"The word you're thinking of is meteor." Penny said.
She gestured to the two boys in matching raccoon costumes to take him to the brig with the other pirates. But her mind was full of thoughts. Hook had been very clear on what Maleficent's goals were, but she still didn't understand any of it. What were maidens of pure heart? What were these maidens going to do? What did this have to do with saving Kairi? And if it did, was there a chance they could save Dani and Hanna's brother, too?
"Land ho!"
Goofy's holler shook her out of her thoughts. Penny looked over the hull of the ship, down at the world below. The moon gave an amber glow over the surface, letting her make out the shadows of structures, tall towers and narrow streets that separated them. But it was still too dark and too distant to make anything else out.
"Something's not right." Wendy said. "It's too dark out. Where are all the lamplights?"
"Maybe it's still early." Penny said. "The moon is pretty low to the ground."
"That's no moon…"
Penny followed Katie's gaze. No, that wasn't a moon. She could just make out the markings of a clock face.
Jolly Holiday—Clocktower Side
Penny felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Before she could even so much as blink, Katie had her two Keyblades summoned, one pointing right past her. Wendy screamed, and Penny did not have enough time to duck before Katie had shot out a Water spell. Thank goodness it only shot right past her, barely splashing her hair.
"What was that?" Penny asked.
"Behind you!"
Penny turned, and felt her heart stop. Something was lurking over her, a dark figure against the dark night. It had to have been a Heartless, but it had no real defining features or the Heartless emblem she was used to spotting. It looked more like an inkblot in water, nothing but torn cloak and hood that flowed freely in the wind. It had stumbled against the force of Katie's blast, but now flew off to face them at the bow of the ship.
"Wendy, you and the other boys go to the captain's quarters." Penny said. "We'll take care of this thing."
Wendy nodded and ushered her brothers along. The Phantom was facing them now, and everyone had taken notice. Four orbs of Darkness floated around the Phantom, crackling with magic. It tossed it down at them. Penny had to jump out of the way of one. The ship was not as lucky. The deck cracked and caved with the force of the blast. The ship shook with the blast, stumbling and shaking in the air. The ship wouldn't stand another attack like that. But still, what else could they do?
"How are we going to fight that thing!" Penny asked, shouting over the chaos.
"We fly, of course!" Peter Pan said.
Easy for him to say, he took to the skies like it was nothing. But then there was Hanna, flying after him, one Keyblade in hand and the other floating next to her. Since when could she do that? Did that glitter Peter's pixie pal actually work?
Time to find out. Penny closed her eyes, took a step forward, and jumped.
It was a combination of Donald's Graviga magic and Sora's Aero magic that prevented the ship from crashing into the rooftops. Instead, it landed with a firm thud, strong enough to shake the occupants but far too weak to do any lasting damage to the ship.
"We gotta go help them." Sora said.
"How? We can't fly." Donald quacked.
"There has to be some way." Sora said. "Peter said all we had to do was believe in ourselves and make it happen, right?"
Sora rushed to the edge of the rooftops. He closed his eyes, took a step forward, and jumped.
He did not catch himself. No, he kept falling and falling…
It feels familiar...falling…
…until something firm grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back up.
Sora landed back on the rooftops, falling on his butt with the force of the yank. He looked up at his rescuers. But it wasn't Donald or Goofy, like he expected. He actually had no idea who these people were. It was hard to make out their faces under their pageboy hats, their thick woolen clothes, and the dark soot that covered their faces. One man stepped forward from the group, offering him another hand upwards.
"Ya o'right there, guv'na?"
His accent was…indescribable. But his face was friendly, pearly white teeth in a wide smile under all that black soot. Sora decided to trust him and accepted his hand to pull him upwards.
"Ya shouldn't be puttin' yourself in danger like that. Yer old pal Bert won't be there every time to save ya!" The man said.
"Bert? Is that your name?" Sora asked.
"In the flesh I am!" The man said. "Although, I don't think I've seen you around before."
"I'm Sora, and that's Donald and Goofy, and my other friends are…"
Sora glanced by over to the clock tower. It was too far to really make out his friends, and he figured Bert would be more interested in the giant Heartless anyway.
"Looks like yer friends are in a right pickle." Bert said. "O'right then! Come on fellas, step in time!"
It was not the sky that caught Dani, but the backside of an elephant.
If her elephant friend seemed at all surprised that she had just landed ass-first onto him, he did not show it. He gave an adorable fanfare with his trunk as the two rushed forward towards the Phantom. Water magic swirled around them, and Dani held out her Keyblade, ready to fight. They were getting closer, and closer and—
Dani had to drop her Keyblade and pull on her mount's ears in order to get him to not crash into the clocktower face. Had they just…flown through it?
The two had circled back to the Phantom. This time Dani wasn't going to leave it to chance. She jumped off, Keyblade re-summoned and raised, and slashed down. She watched as her Keyblade passed through nothing, and oh—she was falling again.
This time there was a sharp tug on her arm as Hanna caught her. She felt like dead weight as her sister had to carry her back, landing on the opposite side of the clocktower, away from the fight.
"Are you okay?" Hanna asked.
"No time, how are we gonna fight that thing?"
"I think there's plenty of time!"
"Are you guys alright?" Penny asked as she and Katie landed right beside them.
"I can't hit that thing." Dani said, eager to avoid the topic.
"My magic's not doing much either." Penny said.
"Really? I used a Fire spell and that seemed to work fine…" Katie said.
"Maybe you just aren't believing in yourself enough." Peter said.
"Really? Because I believe I really want to beat that thing up now!" Dani said.
Hanna opened her mouth like she wanted to protest, but the sounds of explosions behind them cut her off. They scrambled to the other sides of the Clocktower. Looks like the Phantom had been stunned by…fireworks? It was hard to tell if the fireworks were really doing all that much damage, considering that the only indication the Phantom was in any pain was that the orb beside it was rapidly shifting colors.
"I have an idea!" Katie said.
Without any other word on what that idea was, Katie rushed to the edge of the clock tower and kept rushing, flying after the Heartless.
"W—wait!"
Penny jumped after her, and Peter took off after them. That left the two of them alone.
"Are you okay?" Hanna asked, her tone shifting to make it clear she needed an answer. "I saw you almost fall out there."
"You and Peter made flying look so easy." Dani admitted.
"W—that's what you're upset about?"
"Of course! Because there's a big scary monster that flying around, and if I can't fly around it then I can't keep you safe!"
Hanna blinked, then closed her eyes and sighed. She probably understood what was going on better than Dani did.
"There's a difference between knowing you can do something, and believing you can." Hanna said. "But Dani? I know you can, so believe me for a bit, okay?"
Dani nodded firmly. She understood what Hanna was getting at. So she took a deep breath, took a leap of faith…
…and plummeted to the streets once more.
It was almost too easy, once you figured it out. Katie even tried a few different combinations of spells to see if her theory was wrong. But not, it really was that the orb under it was color-coded to what kind of magic it would take damage from. Kind of a design flaw, but Katie wasn't in the business for designing Heartless.
The orb glowed a pale blue. Too pale to reflect Water, had to be Blizzard. So Katie responded in kind by firing off a Blizzard spell in its direction. The Phantom staggered back. Now was the time to attack.
"Pen! Now!" She called.
"Now what?" Penny asked.
Did she not see it?
"Did you say 'Pan'?" Peter asked.
"NO!"
Too late. The Phantom recovered from the attack, and boy was it mad. It raised its…claws?…and fired a sphere of Dark energy towards her. Katie took the full force of the attack, and for a moment she felt her heart stop. She was certain she would have fallen out of the sky if it weren't for Penny catching her.
"Are you okay?" Penny asked.
"Barely…" Katie said. That attack had hurt, and seemed to be getting worse the more she lingered around. But no time to dwell on it. "Why didn't you attack?"
"I was supposed to do that?" Penny asked.
"I left it wide open for you!"
"But I can't read your mind, Katie!"
"I thought it was pretty clear!"
Katie opened her mouth for a rebuttal, but she hadn't thought that far ahead yet. Fortunately, she was interrupted when Penny pushed her out of the way of an incoming firework.
"It's the orb." She said once the firework had gone off. "That's it's weak point, and it changes color."
"How'd you figure that out?" Penny asked.
"I watched?" What kind of stupid question was that? "Listen. When it turns white, attack it with your Keyblade. I'll use my magic to make it change color."
Penny shook her head. "You're better at physical attacks than me, and I'm better at magic than you. Just tell me what spells to shoot when."
"Got it!"
Dani watched the fight from atop the clock tower, feeling incredibly useless. It wasn't like she needed to be in the battle; between Katie's, Hanna's, and Penny's Keyblades as well as Peter's dagger, they had even more than their usual amount of weaponry. Not to mention she was positive it was Sora, Donald, and Goofy that were helping to control the fireworks that worked to stun the creature long enough to fight. But where did that leave her?
It was hard to think about how useless she was with the hard chimes of the clock behind her. Maybe that was a good thing, but…wait, why was the hour hand moving down?
Dani glanced up, only to find someone standing on the hand. It was an older woman, maybe a little younger than Dani's own mother. She almost looked like her mother, too: hair in a neat bun and hidden under a dark hat, deep red dresscoat, a little soot on her face but hardly enough to detract from her beauty…She looked incredibly out of place here, in the middle of the fight. But there was such an air of grace and confidence around her that Dani hardly noticed. She stood on the top of the hand, gently pushing it down. When she was close enough to step down to the ledge, she jumped off, landing delicately on the stone ledge.
"Alright then, what appears to be the problem?" She asked, with all the exasperation of her mother when she had to break up Dani and Charlie's fights.
What?
"Don't leave your mouth open like that, Danielle, it'll attract flies."
Dani shut the jaw that she had not realized had dropped. Her head was buzzing with questions, but the more rational part of her realized that none of them had anything to do with the pressing matter of the battle behind them. So she gestured to the battle behind them.
"Honestly, a Heartless should be no issue for a Keyblade wielder." The woman rolled her eyes.
Dani decided not to be surprised by anything anymore.
"I can't fly out there, that's the problem!"
"So, you must find a way around it." The woman said. "Think then. What is something you can do here to help your friends now?"
"Is this some kind of test?"
"Answer the question, Danielle." The woman sighed.
That sounded like a test. But it also sounded like what her mother would have told her, or Jiminy Cricket if he were around. So Dani looked around. She studied the Heartless, her friends, the rooftops around her…
…the clocktower behind her.
Hanna wasn't quite sure what had happened. One moment she was fighting, and the next everything just seemed to stop. Magic hovered in air moments after being cast by Penny. The Phantom's claws stopped short of striking Katie. Even the clock stopped.
But Dani did not stop.
Hanna could only watch (she had a hard time moving anything other than her eyeballs) as she barred towards them, gliding on the air with an umbrella. As soon as she got close enough to do so, she moved her feet in a flurry of kicks. The Phantom could not react, could not change the color of its orb under the frozen time. But it was taking the damage, perhaps more than any of them could have done without time being stopped. Once time seemed to start again, the Phantom took the full effect of the attack all at once. The orb disintegrated, releasing the crystalline heart illusion in the process. The cloak that had been the Phantom's body tumbled to the streets below. And the clock tower began to chime once more.
But Dani did not have much control over her makeshift glider. She kept gliding forward, stumbling through the air. Hanna stumbled after her, grabbing her ankle in an attempt to take control. Then she felt Katie grab onto her ankle, then Penny on to hers, before Dani managed to steer onto a rooftop.
"Dani, that was awesome!" Sora cried as he rushed up to them.
"I stopped time, how much did you see?" Dani asked.
"Not a lot!"
"You'll have to be more careful in the future to make sure the other members of your party aren't affected by the spell as well."
Hanna jumped at the new voice, like she had just been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. A woman was next to them now, looking prim and proper.
"Who are you?" Hanna asked, still a little startled.
The woman opened her mouth to answer, but someone else beat her to it.
"MARY POPPINS!"
All at once they were swarmed by a group of chimney sweeps rushing up to them, to her. The woman, Mary Poppins, held them off with a gentle but firm hand. But then the chimney sweeps leaped backwards, and the real party began.
It was quite the impressive party, too. The chimney sweeps were magnificent dancers, leaping around the rooftops with practiced ease and with such a spring in their step that everyone began to feel it as well. Soon everyone had joined in for the fun, save for a few Lost Boys who kept the fireworks firing.
But Hanna…after everything that had happened today, she was just too tired. So she did what she did at any school gathering and took to the wall, blending in to the shadows, and watched.
It did take her a while for her absence to be noticed. And it was not Dani, or one of her friends, but rather one of the chimney sweeps. He was in the middle of a dance with the others when he caught her eye, and oh there was that feeling of having your hands caught int he cookie jar again. But his gaze softened as he stepped towards her.
"You o'right there, luv?" He asked.
It took Hanna a minute to even figure out what he was saying, but when she did, she didn't have an answer for him.
"It's been a day." She answered.
"Don't have ta tell me twice!" The man laughed. "Why, even before all this went on, I had ta help the Banks kids get home from halfway across the city! They went on an outin' with their father, but they got so scared they ended up runnin' off and gettin' lost! But you know wot I told them? I told them that they have plenty of people lookin' out for them. They have their mother, and they have me, and they have Mary Poppins…and I guess we can add you to the list as well, what with you savin' all of us from that thing. But their father, Mr. Banks?"
He punctuated his thought with a solemn shake of his head.
"No one. Not a soul. He fends for himself, he does, and that can make him do some dumb things. Like push the people he cares about away."
Hanna could see where this was going.
"I'm not trying to push people away." She said, defensively.
"Of course yer're not! But maybe there's someone you know who is."
What? Hanna glanced back up at the party before her, trying to figure out who he was talking about. There was no way Dani or Katie would do it deliberately. Penny could be prickly, as could Donald, but they would never push people out intentionally if they didn't have a good reason. And Hanna had a hard time believing Sora and Goofy had a mean bone in their body (she had a hard time believing Goofy had a bone in his body, but that was a different story). So, who else?
"Just a thought." The man said. "But there's rarely a big scary monster that hurts ya. More often than not, it's just a person doing what they think is best and hurting people in the process. But I think at the end of the day, they're hurting themselves more."
There was one person Hanna could think of doing that. But she had no idea how this chimney sweep would know about Riku, and she had no idea where that left her.
HANNA obtained SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS
Increases the damage dealt by magical attacks
Author's Note: If there's anything I learned from Kingdom Hearts 3, it's that you do actually have to be careful in how you adapt your Disney worlds. Let's take, oh, Mary Poppins for example. Having Sora and co. in the story would be distracting at best and actually harmful to the work at worst. Mary Poppins is a story without a major villain and world-ending stakes. It would be weird and distracting for anime characters to show up and talk about Darkness every 5 minutes in the middle of the story of Mr. Banks learning to appreciate his family and stop taking them for granted (see also: Arendelle).
So, you have to get creative. You could have Sora and co. be running around the chalk world (which I have affectionately dubbed Jolly Holiday: Chalk Side) and fighting monsters there with minimal connections to the actual plot of the movie. Oh, you can look at a bonus boss you always meant to get around to beating and use that for inspiration.
And don't tell me Mary Poppins wouldn't know magic. It's in the movie! She cleans up a bedroom by speeding up stop-motion footage!
On an unrelated note, please check out some of Disney's live bands. They're honestly one of the best parts of the parks in my opinion.
…You know I could have had Timothy Mouse be in Dumbo's ears talking to Dani. I actually really like Timothy Mouse; he's one of my favorite classic Disney characters. Oh well.