*squints a a paper that has a checklist on it*
"All credit to respective owners...Check."
YARN marked a checkmark on the paper as he glanced a the screen.
"Reviews and Constructive Criticism are appreciated... Check."
Another mark.
"Enjoy the fic... Check."
Another mark.
P.S. I know Aladdin — and every other Disney hero — simply has a weapon in the video games that can harm the heartless, but on Destiny Islands, a wooden sword doesn't even touch them and in Kh3 while starting off in San Fransokyo we saw that normal weapon weren't really capable of harming or truly slowing the heartless, as the heroes couldn't beat them until they worked alongside Goofy, Donald, and Sora for enhancements while Sora capabilities were downloaded into Baymax. That being said, I am going to throw in that the sword he wields is from the Cave of Wonders and is magical in nature, allowing him to actually help fight the heartless. Does it really seem implausible? Look at ALL of the fast and loose rules in Kingdom Hearts and then answer.
P.S. All credit to respective owners!
Riding through the desert wasn't exactly the most fun of experiences, all of us being crammed onto a carpet did make it much easier though. Despite the tight squeeze, we arrived at what seemed to be a bunch of rocks arranged in a semi-circle where we heard frantic grunts and panicked squeaks. We leapt off the carpet to see a young man in a purple open chested vest, a red hat, tucked in pale pants carrying a sword and a small chimp struggling to pull themselves out of what seemed to be a pit of quicksand. As we approached, a large number of the bandit heartless materialized and began to circle us, forming scimitars and getting ready to rush us. We materialized our weapons and charged the heartless, hoping that the somehow the guy and monkey would be able to keep themselves from being buried long enough for us to help pull them out.
The situation didn't seem to get much better from then on in, with the heartless suddenly spawning en masse as we cut them down. For each bandit we destroyed, two more seemed to materialize in its place and keep us from making any appreciable headway. I directed a slice into the dirt before angling my keyblade up and into the bandit's head, only to leap to the side as another descended on my previous position. My back bumped into Sora's side and I saw he was scowling as well, blue eyes narrowed. The ramp up in darkness in this world was something we all had anticipated to make things harder, but this was insane.
"What is up with these numbers?" I grumbled as the Bandits approached on all sides, "Things were never like this before!"
Sora grunted as he knocked a flying scimitar out of the air before countering with a Strike Raid, "We have to keep trying! Otherwise that guy won't make it!"
The heartless seemed to swelling when we heard a command from the man struggling in the quicksand.
He yanked out what seemed to be a golden item before he rubbed it and frantically called out, "Genie! Get rid of these guys!"
We watched in awe as blue smoke swirled out of the lamp and revealed a blue-skinned man stretching as he seemed to yell a facsimile of a yawn.
"Wish Number One, coming right up!" He announced.
He snapped his fingers and around all of us and blue light flashed as the multiple heartless surrounding us exploded into pink smoke. We all turned and watched as the man and the monkey both finally scrambled out of the quicksand sinking them. The man managed to get clamber out of the quicksand while clutching a golden lamp in his hand as he brushed the sand off of himself while the monkey which grabbed onto him shook itself free of any of the sand covering it. We all waited for a second before realizing the assault seemed to be done and relaxed at the reprieve.
"Thanks... um..." I began.
"The name's Aladdin." He said, "My friend here is Abu."
After a small round of meet and greets — as well as a 'thank you' on Aladdin's part — Sora looked at the lamp in Aladdin's hand and asked, "Aladdin, what are you doing out here?"
"Same old stuff." He replied excited, "Hunting legendary treasure! Just paid a visit to the Cave of Wonders!"
The carpet glided closer before landing on it's lower edge.
"I found that magic carpet, this sword," He continued gesturing at the carpet and weapon at his waist, "and this lamp. Legend has it that whoever holds the lamp can summon —"
"Please, kid, leave the intros to a professional!" The blue man from earlier cut Aladdin off exuberantly, "The one and only GENIE OF THE LAMP!"
He continued to talk about his abilities — sounds and various special effects all conjured by the genie's magic — and my jaw dropped as he said he could grant any of our wishes, that could be the key to solving a lot of our problems!
After using his magic to explain the limitation of three wishes, I frowned a bit but was still caught up in the possibilities. Of course that was if we all took turns to use the lamp, that was a total of twelve wishes! It may not seem like many but if you knew what to wish for, it could make a literal few worlds of difference! Of course that was assuming we actually could use the lamp despite being from other worlds...
"So master what'll you have for Wish Number Two?" The genie declared while a light shined down on Aladdin.
"Hmm, how about making me a fabulously wealthy prince?" Aladdin said excitedly.
"Oooh! Money! Royalty! Fame!" The genie cheered, "Why didn't I think of that?"
I couldn't help but grin at the genie's antics, he seemed to love being a showman and making sure to let us see the spectacle. I could honestly say I enjoyed the show based solely on the act, and I always loved watching shows as a child.
"Okay you asked for it! A hundred servants and a hundred camels loaded with gold! Just say the word and I'll deliver in thirty minutes or your meals free!" The genie said happily, "Hey I'll even throw in a cappuccino."
"No thanks." Aladdin chuckled waving the genie off.
"Okay." The genie seemed to lose some of his enthusiasm at that but waited patiently.
"I think I'll put that on hold until we reach Agrabah."
"Why a prince?" Goofy inquired curiously.
As Aladdin explained about a girl named Jasmine — who happened to be a princess — the pieces started falling in place and we all jolted as we remembered what was going on.
"Oh, that's right!" Sora gasped, "She's in trouble, Aladdin!"
"What?!" Aladdin yelped, "C'mon, let's get going!"
We tried to all squeeze onto the carpet and barely fit before it launched, nearly causing me to fall before Donald steadied me. We flew across the desert as the Genie opted to fly alongside us, obviously enjoying being able to be free of the lamp's confines. As Sora remarked on that, the Genie tone became slightly more morose as he explained that while he was a Genie with phenomenal cosmic powers, he was doomed to return to the portable prison of his lamp after every three wishes.
"Say Genie," Aladdin said, "What if I use my last wish to free you from the lamp? What do you think?"
"You'd do that?" Genie said shocked but ecstatic at the idea of being freed.
Aladdin nodded, "Genie, it's a promise. After we help Jasmine."
The Genie smiled happily at the thought, and while it did curb some of my enthusiasm at my possibility for wishes, what Aladdin did with his wishes was his business, and no deserved to be a slave to someone else's beat like that.
We arrived at the city limits, another heartless welcoming party and street parade of the monsters were waiting for us. Aladdin unsheathed what seemed to be the sword from the Cave of Wonders and we materialized our weapons to defend ourselves. After the multiple fights, we finally ended up regrouping at Aladdin's house where Genie revealed that he had heard about the keyhole, but that had been sometime 200 years ago he couldn't exactly remember where, much to our disappointment. We decided that it could wait and that saving Jasmine came first before anything else at the current moment. Unfortunately going into the streets only led to the heartless zeroing in on us and spawning to attack again. After scouring the streets and tidying the city of the multiple groups of the heartless, we finally made it to the gates to the palace only to be horrified that Jasmine was finally cornered by the Jafar. He smiled maliciously and slowly walked towards her, enjoying her increasing panic with a pleased glint in his eyes.
Jafar heard us approaching and sneered at Aladdin, no doubt knowing who he was, "Setting your sights a little high, aren't you, boy?"
Aladdin frowned, a bit of annoyed defiance glinting in his eyes.
Jafar smirked before once again addressing Aladdin, "Back to your hole, street rat. I will not allow you to trouble the princess anymore."
"Jasmine!" Aladdin shouted in worry.
"I'm so sorry, Aladdin." Jasmine replied, flinching as Jafar held out his arm to keep her from running away.
"Seems a bit hypocritical you old coot..." I drawled, "As if you aren't doing the same by trying to force her to marry you when she has clearly shown no interest and clear disgust. You really are a crusty old creep who probably can't find someone willing, right?"
"You... You brat!" He fumed, eye twitching and grip on his staff turning white-knuckled as his eyes blazed, "You should respect your superiors!"
I materialized my keyblade and pointed it at him, "That would imply you actually being in a position where you are better. Can't say I agree on that one."
"Genie..." Aladdin muttered, surreptitiously rubbing the lamp behind his back, "Help Jasmine. Please!"
Jafar turned at the sound of Genie's materialization and his eyes widened.
"One wish left!" Genie cheered, "You're making this really easy, you know."
Jafar chuckled as he turned to us, "So sorry, boy. I'm afraid your second wish has been denied."
A red blur rushed past us, grabbing the lamp from Aladdin's hand as he cried out in surprise and going over to Jafar. My stomach dropped as that was probably one of the worst possible things to happen in this world since we arrived. The bird dropped the lamp into his waiting hands, and the genie suddenly flinched.
"I'm sorry Al!" He cried as he vanished in a puff of smoke and dropped the princess into a pot with an open lid. The lid snapped shut and sprouted spider-like legs as it began to rattle.
"And now, I bid you all farewell."Jafar said imperiously, "Attack!"
The two pots behind us exploded to reveal what looked like a centipede's head and tail, beady eyes glowing. The pots converged and Jasmine cried out as she was rattled around and they pots attached to the heady and tail connecting them to create a centipede heartless. Hearing Jasmine's cries for help, we immediately began to charge the heartless, only for our weapons to slightly crack the pots before they bounced off, causing us to stagger.
"What?" I grunted, before I leapt out of the way of a venomous tail lashing at me.
"This should be easy!" Sora complained, "How do we damage it if we can't break the body?"
"Go for the head and tail!" Aladdin growled as he swung his sword and sliced into the heartless' tail, causing it to chitter angrily and for the venomous tails to lash viciously forcing him back, "If we have to, we go for body with our strongest attacks!"
Sora, Donald, Goofy, and I all exchanged looks before shrugging and going to attack the head and tail, Jasmines cries urging us on. We bolted forwards and began to hack and slash the heartless, trying to destroy it and eventually smashing a few sections of the body. That would have been encouraging if it wasn't for the fact that it seemed that all the pots in the city seemed to have been turned into heartless by Jafar while we were gone. As soon as one section exploded, another fresh pot seemed to take it's place as they swarmed and constantly switched out like they were playing a frenzied game of musical chairs.
I scowled and smashed a pot before it could join the body, shattering it, I held a fist to my chest and held my keyblade to my side, a sphere of light surrounding me.
"Chaos Snake!" I shouted, swinging my keyblade as I tried one of my shotlocks for the first time outside of training. Angular streams of light exploded out of my body and began to impact the centipede, destroying pots and causing the heartless to chitter and flail wildly in confusion and pain. It desperately tried to protect its head and tail, but lost more than enough pots to send it scurrying away in terror. It fled from my attack in the worst possible direction, the dead end where we first encountered Jafar. Sora blitzed forwards, keyblade angled next to his head and glowing with power.
"Sonic Blade!" He shouted, immediately lancing through the small enclosed space and striking the tail and head several times before using his last blast on the head.
The heartless wailed in pain as it erupted — all the pots that connected it to its tail exploding — and dissipated into shadows and a heart flew free from the smoke. We shielded our faces from the shards and looked only to realized that Jasmine was nowhere to be found.
"Jasmine!" Aladdin cried, rushing into the space only to realize that she was nowhere to be found.
We all looked around as Jafar's mocking laughter echoed around us. We all immediately groaned as we realized we had been suckered and Jasmine was long gone.
"To the desert!" Aladdin commanded, "Come on, let's move."
After another helping hand from the magic carpet and a small downing of a potion and ether to fill our depleted reserves , we arrived to the same formation of rocks that surrounded the pit of where we had first met Aladdin. We approached the middle only for a huge plume of sand to fly upwards as a tiger head made entirely of sand slowly rose from the ground. Aladdin ran towards the head only to pause when the head shifted and tried to bite Aladdin in half. He managed to throw himself out of the way before the teeth closed on him. We all watched as the head writhed and roared, eyes blazing purple as several heartless materialized around it.
"Was it like the first time?" I demanded, forming Abaddon Plasma in my hands.
Aladdin shook his head, "No, it never attacked me like this!"
"So how do we get in?" Sora asked as he fired a blizzard spell at an approaching heartless, destroying it.
The head stared down at us and my jaw tightened as it began to literally fire blasts of darkness from its eyes. We scattered as the blasts detonated where we had been standing, sending up plumes of sand and dust. I strafed to the side and lunged at the head with Abaddon Plasma, burying the keyblade hilt-deep in The Cave of Wonder's jaw. I expected a flinch or a cry of pain from the roaring head, but absolutely nothing like that occurred other than a brief pause before it shook itself like a dog shaking off water and I was dislodged with a cry of shock. I got mouthful of sand as I face-planted into the dirt from the force of my landing and sputtered as I tried to spit all of it out. Next thing I knew, Sora was dragging me back as a bandit heartless stabbed its blade right where I had been recovering.
"We need to find it's weak spot!" Sora shouted.
"I figured that might be important!" I coughed as I spat the last of the sand out of my mouth, "But I have no idea what its weak spot is!"
"The eyes!" Aladdin shouted as he threw himself out of the way of bolts of darkness, "The only way to open the chamber of secrets are to use an amulet that becomes the eyes of the chamber! The were yellow before but how they are leaking darkness, that must be the weak spot!"
I glanced at the head and noticed the eyes were gleaming with a shadowy aura which reminded me of the heartless.
Oh hell, it was all we really had to go on at the moment.
I scampered around the head and heartless, trying to keep moving before scrambling up the back and rolling to land on the ridge that made the nose. I fought down the urge to shudder as the eyes sclera had turned to purple and its glowing iris swiveled to stare right at me. I flipped the keyblade in my grasp and plunged it as hard as I could into the left eye with a roar. I was unprepared — but not really surprised — for the literally geyser of shadow that erupted in my face as my key dug into the corruption's location. I couldn't wrench my keyblade out to defend myself before a blast from its other eye knocked me off, landing onto the sand with a muffled thump. I made the idiotic decision to shake the sand from me rather than move and was immediately blasted again, sending me sliding through the sands. I called Abaddon Plasma back to my hand as I rolled to my feet and quickly cast a cure spell to clear out the pain. Sora was already moving while Goofy was on his heels, batting away the blasts from the keyblade wielder. Sora flung his keyblade at the eye I had already struck, keyblade smashing into it and the purple fading as the yellow began to glow brighter. A final hit from strike raid and the left eye let out a burst of yellow light as the darkness was successfully purged from the eye.
The entrance to The Cave of Wonders howled and seemed to hesitate in moving whereas before the attacking movements were fluid. I was about to try to climb when the bandit heartless seemed to understand that we knew the weakness and began to truly attack en masse. It was heard enough with the heartless playing around and avoiding the roaring head to The Cave of Wonders, now it was a nightmare.
"Sora!" I yelled, block three blades landing on my keyblade at once, "We can't keep this up!"
Aladdin rolled out of the say of a heartless and stabbed another one in the chest, "We need backup!"
Sora grunted as he leapt away before he suddenly grinned, "I got it! Cover me!"
I moved to charge the bandits converging on him as Goofy and Donald cleared the area around him.
Sora stood and clutched at his chest, head bowed before he shouted, "Give me strength!"
He thrust his keyblade out and twisted his wrist, a ball of light forming at the tip before he swung his keyblade up and the light flew into the sky. My mouth dropped open when an honest to god lion formed from the light and landed heavily on the ground, roaring loudly. He zeroed in on the heartless— much to my relief — and launched himself at them, tearing them apart and roaring with such force that some of the heartless exploded into wisps from the force. A blast of darkness hit him in the side, but he only let out a startled growl before he glared at The Cave of Wonders and charged it.
"The purple eye!" I shouted at it, "Aim for the purple eye!"
The lion's eyes flicked to me as it sped past, leaping and easily scaling the head to lash at the purple eye with it's claws before roaring right at it and the eye flashing yellow as it shouted the darkness right out of it. The Cave slowly stopped moving and the lion leapt form the head to land in front of us.
"Where am I?" He asked in confusion as he looked around, " What is this desert and where are the monsters that attacked me?"
A talking lion?A honest-to-god-lion speaking perfectly understandable words?
You know what?
Whatever.
After Wonderland — no, after my world straight up just got swallowed up by literal monsters of darkness — I can just toss all my logic and assumptions right out the window.
"You're in a different world." Sora answered softly, making sure Aladdin didn't hear.
Aladdin seemed much more interested in keeping away from the large animal that just plowed through the horde of heartless we were struggling with like a battering ram with claws and sharp teeth. Either way, we had to do our best to keep the order of the worlds, I wasn't sure it was a good idea to mention that to our summons, but they were probably an outlier because of their situation.
"What happened to my home!" The lion said worriedly, "Where are my friends?"
"Lost." I answered promptly, causing him to flinch before he turned to me, "We are trying to bring them back, but we needed help. We were able to summon you to help us fight those creatures that took your world."
He seemed to process this before nodding to me, "How can I help?"
"We are trying to get to the bottom of the problem, but sometimes we are not strong enough on our own, do you mind coming to our aid when we need you?" Sora inquired, "You don't have to agree, but we would really appreciate it if you lent us aid."
The lion nodded, "To bring my home back? I don't mind at all. My name is Simba."
Sora introduced us, but Simba suddenly began to lose his form, body beginning to dissolve into light.
"What's going on?" Simba panicked as he felt himself fading.
"The summon must have a time limit!" Donald quacked, "It must have run out!"
"Don't worry!" I assured the lion, "When we fix this, you will go back to your home! I promise!"
He seemed to calm slightly and even smile softly before he faded completely.
We all stood and stared at the spot Simba had been, paw prints still visible in the sand.
Sora turned to me, "We're going to save him."
I nodded, "We're going to save everyone."
Aladdin jogged over and shook us out of our contemplative stupor, "We need to go!"
That was something we all agreed on as we descended into The Cave of Wonders.