Kingdom Hearts

Ch. 34

Deep Jungle

The World's Greatest Hunter

The blackness of space covered over the night sky with sprinkles of light dazzling over the jungle. Back in the tree house Tarzan finished comforting his Mother. He let go of her and spoke more in his native tongue. Their calm silence was interrupted by a loud screech. Running through the door was the young gorilla Terk, Tarzan's childhood friend. She ran towards Tarzan and Kala. Terk rambled in monkey language translating that their family is in danger. "What!" cried Tarzan in English. Recognizing his human heritage.

"Their being hunted and scattered by hordes of dark primates," Tarzan translated. Tarzan looked to Kala and back to Terk unaware that they are being watched.

Three yards back a hole in the wall pervaded the tree house. The tip of a gun crept through it. It pointed towards Terk's back ready to fire. The hole was just big enough for a man to see through. The hunter got in position. He put his finger on the trigger preparing to shoot. He was about to pull the trigger until he heard the sounds of webbed feet running his way.

"BABABABAAAGGHH!" screamed the white duck causing the hunter to lose his aim. He pulled the trigger and the bullet missed the young ape passing near Tarzan. The bullet shot straight through one of Tarzan's dreadlocks cutting it like a knife barley missing his ear. His hair fell to the ground scattering piece by piece. Kala and Terk frightened by the shot ran off screaming with Tarzan behind them. They did not know where it was coming from but knew they needed to reach safety. The ever observant Tarzan noticed a gun being removed from the hole. While the gorillas ran for cover Tarzan stayed to investigate. He turned the corner to see the Duck and the Hunter.

"Donald! Clayton!" shouted Tarzan.

"What's the big idea? You almost killed someone," said a wound up Donald to Clayton.

Mumbling nervously Clayton made an excuse, "You don't understand. I was only trying to... Ah. A snake slithered by, you see. I saved that poor gorilla's life." Tarzan and Donald frowned at Clayton. He looked down at his gun realizing he can't talk his way out of this. His fingers clenched the rife. Clayton began to laugh while standing up. He grabs his gun and begins to reload it. Donald disturbed by this began to step back as Tarzan remained stagnant.

"Clayton?" said Donald stepping back.

"Not Clayton!" shouted Tarzan. "Not Clayton."

A dark aurora appeared around Clayton. He smiled while heartless began appearing around him. Power wilds climbed down from the vines and up the trunk. Tarzan brought out his spear and Donald summoned his staff. The heartless surrounded him while facing Donald and Tarzan. "Clayton what are you doing with the heartless?" shouted Donald. He sounded "Thundara," causing a storm of lighting to destroying the Power Wilds. Tarzan stared fiercely at the hunter pointing his spear at him.

"Tarzan of the Apes. The man who was raised by gorillas," said Clayton gripping the opposite end of the gun. He continued speaking, "Do you know who I am. I am Clayton the Hunter. I am renowned back at home for besting every animal I have faced. Monsters, Dinosaurs you name it. It is a title and an honor that I will do anything to protect. Out of all the beasts I have encountered I have never seen a beast like the one in this jungle." Donald cocked an eyebrow thinking back to earlier.

Clayton slowly reached into his pocket pulling a small strange pill. Without warning he threw the capsule on the ground causing smoke to appear around the man. "A smoke bomb?" thought Donald covering his beak. The smoke blew through the heroes faces blinding their eyes.

When it resided Clayton has disappeared. "Tarzan, what is he talking about?" asked Donald. Tarzan did not speak he walked over to the edge of the tree house looking into the jungle eloped in the night.

"Not Clayton, &&%#," he spoke again walking to the railing.

"What does that mean?" shouted Donald a bit annoyed.

"Look," said Tarzan. The magician walked over to the edge of the railing. Tarzan pointed down to the jungle.

Donald hopped on the railing so he could see into the jungle. He looked down to see pink lights appearing all over the forest. "What?" thought Donald.

"Was this a natural phenomenon or was something of concern happening?" He noticed Tarzan seemed rather disturbed.

A loud scream echoed through the jungle. It was a gorilla's cry. Tarzan sprang in immediate action. He grabbed his spear and jumped off the tree house landing on the white net that circled under the tree. He then ran off the net jumping into the forest without even glancing back towards Donald.

Donald dumbstruck as Tarzan was here one moment and gone the next. "Hey wait don't leave without me." Donald followed after him preceding to jump off the tree house. He had a rough landing on the tent as it jolted back and forth when he landed. He regained his balance as the tent straightened out. He then jumped out into the jungle following the ape man in the dark.

Tarzan swung and grinded on the vines as fast as he could. He looked forward to see flowers beginning to blossom on every tree. He then heard the screams of the ape again. He rushed towards that direction. He flew through the leaves landing on a nearby branch. Tarzan moved leafs out of the way to see a truly shocking event occur. He saw a young gorilla from his family being trapped by the heartless. And placed in a cage made of vines. He grabbed his spear and moved through the tree avoiding sight. He knew he had to save his brother and the element of surprise was his best bet. He climbed down the tree holding his spear in his right hand. He dropped to the ground hiding behind some large plants. He stared through the leaves waiting for the right moment to strike. The heartless were tormenting the poor gorilla. As the heartless were occupied with the ape. Tarzan took this opportunity and attacked. He jumped out of the leaves shouting like any proud ape would.

He loudly sounded, "Spear Barrage." He lunged his spear rapidly in a storm of attacks. The spear stabbed 5 heartless in one strike as he seemed to have multiple weapons in hand. More jumped at him with their claws out. Tarzan took his spear and swung it like a staff knocking away the heartless. Just then a big fat heartless appeared with two Red Nocturnes floating around him. It raised its arm hoping to crush Tarzan with its giant hand. He quickly dodged and ran back into the jungle out of sight he climbed a tree hoping to land an attack from the air. Thinking he had the cover of darkness to shroud his attack the Red Nocturnes saw him. They shot fire magic at him hitting his chest. Tarzan tripped and fell from the tree desperately trying to grab a vine to brake his fall. But he couldn't catch one. As it was too dark out and he couldn't see where he was. He landed on his back hard. His teeth gritted as he recovered from the impact. He tried to ignore the pain and get up but it hurt too much. He seems to have broken a rib. The fat heartless made his way to Tarzan squirming on the ground. It looked at him with his yellow eyes. Tarzan looked back almost frightened a bit. Never has he been fearful of anything in this jungle before.

The heartless raised its hand preparing the same attack as before. Tarzan tried to get away but the Red Nocturnes flew around readying another fire blast.

"Cura," sounded a voice in a distance. After the phrase was spoken Tarzan's pain subsided and his ribs were fixed. He jumped out of the way of the giant heartless and thrusted his spear at both Nocturnes one by one destroying them. He jumped on the back of the fat heartless and pierced it's neck with his spear. Darkness spewed out of its back like a facet leak before it was destroyed. Tarzan landed on the ground breathing heavily. He looked around for any other advisories to fight but he only saw Donald. The white duck has already released the ape from its prison and it ran back into the jungle.

"You know. You should be more careful. Heartless are beings of darkness they can see at night just as good as the day. If I weren't here to call the cure spell you could have been seriously hurt," said Donald holding his hand out to Tarzan.

Tarzan put his hand on his chest and thanked him. "Somethings wrong tonight," said Tarzan in broken English.

"What do you mean?" asked Donald. Tarzan pointed to the pink flowers appearing all over the trees. Donald put his hand under his chin stating, "Well you know it seemed those vines were moving by themselves. I haven't been here that long but from the looks of it. That's not normal.

The entire forest has awoken, animals were scrambling about knowing something was wrong. The pink flowers gave off a strong glow lighting up the forest like thousands of lamps. But the residents knew better. They felt the evil that came from these plants. Trees shaked and the ground rumbled. The flowers even began to sprout from underground acting as sensors to anyone who stepped by them. These plants even appeared near the bamboo thicket monitoring the Britannian ship that is almost ready for launch.

In the ship, Jane has told the others of what happened to Ralum. No one could believe that an Elite would turn on another like that. There was dissention among the people on what to believe. They began to discuss what they are going to do next. They can't leave now since all their Elites are missing. Jane hoped that the fighting outside has ended. She told her Father she would investigate and brought two guards with her for protection. She walked back to the area where Sora and Ralum were fighting. She looked around to see them all gone. She knew this was not good because the Prince accepts them to be back soon.

"What do you propose we do Miss Porter?" asked one of the guards. She rubs her forehead with two fingers thinking of what's the best thing to do. She soon came up with the best plan. "Wait until dawn. If they have not come back yet send a search party after them."

The two soldiers nodded their heads signaling they understand. They soon turned around and began to head back. Jane looked around seeing the entire camp was packed up and loaded on the ship. They can leave any time. She soon heard rustling in the bamboo thicket. She turned around to see a young gorilla run towards her. It rammed into her arms making Jane fall over. The gorilla was Terk and she seemed very scared. Jane held the ape trying to comfort her. She looked on in the thicket to see that Terk was being followed. The bamboo began shaking as it seemed several individuals were after her. Jane screamed when they revealed themselves. The soldiers who were a bit ahead of her heard the scream and turned around only find her missing.

The hooded figure appeared on the other side of the jungle a good distance away from Ralum. He released Sora and Dagger from the confines of darkness and dropped them on a large branch. Sora coughed and looked up to Cloak. He raised his thumb thanking him. Dagger regained her senses and looked around. They were alone now.

Sora got up while Cloak reformed his body. Sora spoke to Cloak, "Do you know where Donald and Goofy are?"

Cloak shook his head, "Sorry, but I can't just go to them. My powers don't work like that. And since this forest is so massive it's hard enough to find anyone in it. But I did find your ship. He pointed to the left revealing the gummi ship was intact but was being held up by strong vines.

"Oh thank goodness," said Jiminy jumping out of Sora's hood. "We can sweep the area for the other two."

Sora smiled and said to Cloak and Dagger, "Let me show you our ship." Sora jumped a great distance surprising both heroes that a twelve year old was as athletic as he is. Sora climbed over to the hatch opening it. But this caused the ship to break some vines. The weight was too much and the ship began to snap all the vines and fall. Dagger covered her mouth with her hands and gasped. Cloak took immediate action hoping to save Sora. But he was too late the ship gave way and fell to the bottom floor. Causing a loud crash. Cloak looked around to find Sora. Dagger also wanted to use her healing abilities to help jumped down from the tree landing near the wreckage. They couldn't see him till he called out to them. They looked up to see Sora hanging from a vine with one hand rubbing the back of his head.

Jiminy who nearly fell off ceilinged to Sora's hood with both arms. He breathed a sigh of relief only to have his hat to fall off. "Huh," he said trying to grab it. But he was unsuccessful. The tiny blue top hat float down to the floor. Cloak caught the hat before it could hit the ground. It fit in his palm like a sugar cube. Jiminy glad nothing bad happened was in for a shock when suddenly Sora just let go of the vine. The cricket screamed to the bottom as Sora landed on his feet. He stretched his arms and back while Jiminy desperately tried not to throw up climbing back into Sora's hood. Cloak came down and handed Jiminy his tiny hat.

Sora looked over to see Dagger inspecting the gummi ship. She then spoke, "I've never seen a ship like this before. It's made of gummi rocks like our ships but it's designed so strangely. I have no idea how a ship like this could be powered." Sora answered her question, "Well to be honest even I'm not sure about all the ins and outs of this ship. But it's powered by happy faces for some reason. I didn't ask how but that's the explanation I got."

"Happy faces that's really weird. If only Dr. Pinkmen were here. He'd want to turn this ship inside out," she said excited.

"Whose Doctor Pinkmen?" asked Jiminy taking out his journal again.

"Dr. Pinkmen is the head of the Science Division of Britannia. He's Clayton's boss. Dr. Pinkmen is a genius who help revolutionized technology in Britannia. On our world we use steam engines as the primary energy source. He was the innovator that helped improve the quality of steam power making it easier to harness and more powerful than ever before." She felt around the ship accidently pushing the hatch button opening up the ship. Sora smiled and led the other two heroes inside. He showed them around and eventually led them to the control room.

"You can fly this?" asked Cloak as Sora entered the head seat.

"I know a thing or two." Sora cracked his fingers and was prepared to start up the ship. Before he could push the button Jiminy spoke, "Sora that's the air conditioning button."

Sora looked again to realize it said A/C under the button. Sora giggled a bit. Jiminy jumped off Sora's shoulders on the control panel. "Setting up the engines and readying for launch."

Sora grabbed the steering wheel as the ship ascended into the air. Cloak and Dagger sat on the other two control seats only glancing at each other. The ship soon began to cruise along the sky over the trees just far enough avoiding the tops.