Nicktoons & Disney Heroes UNITE!

by Dr.Dude

An evil Syndicate spanning four worlds has formed in order to work for the common goal of universal domination, and it is up to four heroes from those worlds to band together and stop them. However, a slight mistake has brought them to a new world entirely, and an even bigger adventure unfolds alongside their own as they join with a boy holding a key.

14. Haunted Heartless Amity Park

With the Ghost Zone left behind, our heroes found themselves in a basement… or perhaps, to put it more accurately, a small laboratory. Desks and shelves with beakers and glasses filled with green liquid samples, not to mention lined with all sorts of white and green devices, seemed to line the room's walls. There was a mobile chalkboard with a drawn scientific diagram showing the process for one invention. Behind them was a smaller version of the ghost portal they had seen in Vlad's throne room, although it appeared closed. The portal they came out of had closed and vanished. Jimmy Neutron looked at the room around them in scientific intrigue.

"Fascinating!" Jimmy said as he walked around, observing all the inventions currently lined up. "This looks like ghost hunting technology. Danny, did you make these devices yourself?"

"No, my par… err," Danny quickly amended what he was about to say, "the Fenton Family are the ghost technology wizards, not me. I'm just the ghost boy they chase after every other day."

Goofy once again looked at Danny with an expression of suspicion on his face. Again, the ghost boy cut himself off before saying what he was originally going to say about someone. Now, if he were to guess…

"The Fentons?" Timmy asked. "Aren't they the weird couple in latex jumpsuits Vlad had trapped in his throne room? If they're ghost experts, we should try to rescue them!"

"We can't!" The spectral superhero shook his head. "Vlad's too powerful with his ghost portal open. We need to find some way to shut it down."

"On top of managing to get back into that castle." Donald added. "It's not like we can just go through the front gate."

The boy genius was still looking through the inventions. He saw that most, if not all of them, were labeled with a ghostly green fireball with a darker green 'F' inside. Some were labeled with the words 'Fenton Works' in green font. Others seemed to just have their names on them, like the Fenton Xtractor, a redesigned vacuum cleaner. Either way, the citizen of Retroville was more than ecstatic just looking at everything, his dog following him with an inquisitive sound.

"If I spend some time studying these devices," Jimmy said as he inspected some of them, "perhaps we can build a gadget to close the portal. There's just so much to work with here, I could go for hours just coming up with ideas!"

"Yes!" Gadget popped out of Sora's hair, agreeing with Jimmy, and added, "No doubt one of these inventions the Fentons made could already give us a leg up against Vlad. We just need the time to do it and we should be good."

"This is no time to be studying!" Cosmo poofed into his normal form alongside Wanda. "Who'd want to spend the whole day just waiting around, bored?"

"Yeah! We're heroes!" Timmy was eager to jump onto that and avoid Jimmy and Gadget's idea. "Heroes don't just sit around and study!"

"Oh, yes, they do!" Jiminy Cricket corrected, hopping from Goofy's hat and onto Timmy's nose, making him jump. "The greatest heroes of our time didn't start out as great adventurers, you know. Most of them had to get an education first. After all, even Hercules himself went to school, if you recall Icarus saying such."

"But even so," Spongebob pointed out, "there's no doubt trouble happening outside. We have to go out and save the world!"

"Spongebob's right." Danny nodded, walking over to the invention table and picking up one that resembled a metal-plated thermos. "We'll figure out a plan once we get to Vlad's castle. Now, let's just see how many of these gizmos we'll need before heading out."

"So what's that you got there, Danny?" Sora asked.

"This is something we'll need here, the mostly-reliable creation in this lab, the Fenton Thermos… real original name, I know." The ghost boy showed it off before the casual shrug at the end. "I often use this when I'm taking care of ghost trouble. Just aim, open it, turn it on, then capture the ghost and keep it inside to be sent back to the Ghost Zone. Pretty simple."

"Huh. So, kinda like the movie, Ghostbusters?" Timmy asked.

"Ghostbusters?" The teenager blinked, having not heard of that one.

"Aw c'mon, you seriously don't have that movie in this world?" The average kid no one understood couldn't help but groan. "It's even got a sequel and a few cartoons!"

"At least it hasn't gotten an unnecessary reboot." Cosmo mentioned.

"Not yet, anyway." Wanda knew how Hollywood worked. "Give it time."

"Sorry, Timmy." Jiminy Cricket hopped back to Goofy. "But it appears even in similar worlds, not everything is going to be the same. Like Alice's world…"

"Hey Danny, while we're here," Goofy said as he picked up a wooden bat with the word 'Fenton' on it, "you said that this is your home, right?"

"Uh, yeah, I did." Danny blinked at Goofy's question. "Why do you ask?"

"Meanin' this is your house?" The dog asked next.

"Yeah– wait, I mean–!" he realized all too late where the captain of the royal knights was going with this.

"Then why didn't ya just say that the Fentons are your parents?" Goofy asked next.

At that, everyone else gave the conversing pair a surprised expression, momentarily distracted by gathering up the ghost-hunting devices.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about!" The ghost boy tried to refute, though everyone was still looking in his direction with skeptical glances. "My name is Danny Phantom! Clearly I'm not–"

"Danny Fenton." Goofy put his hands on his hips as he surprisingly looked stern at the halfa. Seeing how saying that name outright made Danny go quiet, he continued, "Now I'm not the most graceful feller among us, but I ain't dumb. I mean, isn't it pretty obvious how similar your last names sound? Fenton? Phantom? It's not really that hard to figure out when you think about it. And no offense, but I get the feelin' that not many people you know here seem to know how to put two and two together if that's all your secret identity is."

Danny awkwardly cleared his throat into his hand. Goofy wasn't wrong…

"How…?" Wanda was surprised, having seen the dog captain a step above her husband in terms of intelligence, but even this was surprising.

"Oh, and here I thought you were using a fancy accent for Danny's surname," Cosmo took her and the others by surprise.

"...Yeaaaah, now that you mention it, that does seem pretty easy to figure out." Sora had to admit as well. "Still, it's better than Inviso-Bill, right?"

"Inviso-Bill?" Donald deadpanned, this being the first time he heard that one.

"Not a name I came up with." Danny deadpanned back.

"Back on track," the boy genius decided to best return to the main point of focus. "These gadgets should be able to help us when encountering ghosts, at least until I come up with a way to create decent substitutes once we leave." Jimmy added the last part as they finished packing up the tech they could find. "We should head outside and check out the situation."

With that, the group headed upstairs from the basement. They headed through the kitchen and towards the living room. After that, they went out the front door and got outside the house proper. Turning back, they could see Danny's home was a maroon-colored building with a big sign labeled 'Fenton Works' protruding from it. On the roof, there was a large metal facility practically acting as a sort of command center. Every one of Danny's allies just stared at it while Danny just waited for their stares to fade.

"How can your parents even afford this?" Wanda asked.

"They're smart." The ghost boy answered. "Eccentric and really into their job, but smart."

"Danny!" "Danny, you're back!"

The group looked to see two other teenagers rushing up to them, Cosmo and Wanda poofing back into being Timmy's equipment. One was an African-American young man with turquoise eyes, short black hair mostly hidden under a red beret, and wore thick black glasses. He wore a long-sleeved yellow t-shirt, green cargo pants with a black belt, and brown boots. He was carrying a purple backpack with black straps. Everything about him screamed geek, mostly considering the small portable computer clutched tightly in his hands.

Next to him was a young Caucasian girl with violet eyes, and short black hair with a small top-knot ponytail held by a green hair tie. She also wore purple lipstick which accentuated her relieved smile. Her attire consisted of a black choker around her neck, a black top that exposed her slim midriff with a purple oval in the center, a black striped skirt with a green crosshatch design, purple tights, and black combat boots. She also wore a pair of black bracelets around both of her wrists. Definitely a goth and considerably pretty given her slim but feminine body.

They were glad to see the ghost boy… but they also looked perplexed by the odd people around him.

"Aaaaaand who are these guys?" The beret-wearing boy asked. "Are they new ghosts?"

"Tucker, Sam!" Danny greeted the pair with a relieved grin. "It's a long story, but no, they're not ghosts. They're here to help us out."

"Really?" The goth girl, Sam, raised a brow at this and crossed her arms under her breasts. "All of them? Just how much do they know about everything?"

"Well there's the fact that Danny is a superhero in his hometown, he has a few notable enemies that cause trouble, and we just managed to escape from the Ghost Zone Prison with the help of his friend Wulf." Spongebob summed up as he counted with his fingers, getting the two to stare at him. "Oh, and his parents were kidnapped by Plasmius. Am I forgetting anything?"

"How about the fact that he's also controlling the Heartless and has Amity Park under his rule?" Sora, after counting down the mental list in his head with his own fingers, figured.

"Oh yeah, those too." The fry cook nodded and raised two fingers.

"None of that really explains how you guys basically know all of that." Sam commented.

"Also, what are these 'Heartless'?" Tucker asked. "Are they those monsters that have been going around with all these ghosts?"

"That depends. Do they have these menacing emblems of hearts with barbs somewhere on their bodies?" Danny asked back.

"Yeah. Though some were freaky ant-like things." His spectacled friend answered.

"Yep, those are Heartless alright." The boy genius replied. "It seems that we have our work cut out for us around here, Danny. We better get started."

"Right." The ghost boy nodded. Then to his friends, he told, "Listen, there is a lot to unload on you guys at the moment, but right now there's a lot to do so I'll explain as we go. What happened while I was gone?"

"Nothing good." The goth answered as Tucker took out a PDA and began showing him photos of events in their hometown. "Ever since Vlad put his castle up in place of Casper High, Amity Park's been in constant trouble from ghosts and these 'Heartless' things. No surprise, a lot of these ghosts are those we dealt with before. Youngblood, Kitty & Johnny 13, Technus…"

"We already know that the Lunch Lady Ghost has taken over the Nasty Burger!" The PDA teen brought up a photo of a fast-foot restaurant where meat was creeping out from the broken windows. "At this rate, we won't have a cool hang-out with greasy food at decent prices!"

All of Danny's other allies simply stared at the picture. They blinked once. Then twice. What other reaction could there be for something like this? Well, at least the silence was broken soon after as Donald Duck finally found a good response.

"The Nasty Burger?" Donald tested the name on his tongue, shaking his head in disgust.

"That doesn't sound like a good name for a restaurant." Goofy couldn't help but comment.

"Hey," Tucker defended it, "it's just one letter away from 'tasty'."

"Speaking from experience, something called a 'nasty burger' probably wouldn't be tasty." The only one with actual fry cook experience brought up. "Then again, Mr. Krab's daughter, Pearl, may say that's what teens are into. Ironing stuff…"

"Irony," Donald corrected the sponge matter-of-factly.

Rolling her eyes at her friend's gushing over a lackluster eatery, Sam continued, "There's also the Circus Gothica in town. Apparently a lot of the Heartless and even some of the ghosts have been coming from there when they were going back and forth from here to the castle."

"Lydia…" Sora recalled the ghost who took Alice, frowning at the name.

"Oh, she's going down," even Gadget had something against the tattooed ghost woman.

"Considering that 'Remember' has been heard coming from there, it looks like they got Ember McLain working with them." Tucker added. "Not sure why, but that's another ghost to watch out for."

"Speaking of watching out," Timmy noticed something off, "what's up with people being turned into zombies?"

Everyone looked out into the streets where the buck-toothed boy was pointing. Skulking along the sidewalks and the road, or even just standing idle on balconies and roofs, were several pale-blue skinned people just moaning and droning, even holding their arms out before them as they moved. There also appeared to be a pale-bluish glow around them, matching their skin. Not to mention their eyes all glowed red…

"Those aren't zombies!" The vegetarian corrected him. "They've been overshadowed by the ghosts that Vlad has released. So far, the number we counted among those possessed was six, but knowing how many ghosts are causing trouble, there's bound to be more."

"So not only do we have to deal with the Circus Gothica, my usual gallery of enemies, AND the Heartless, we have to get people unpossessed before we get to Vlad's castle." The spectral superhero sighed. "Of course it wouldn't be easy."

"Yeah, we better get a plan of action started, fast." The ghostly hero's tech-savvy friend said. "So far, we've been safe behind the newly-installed FentonWorks anti-ghost gates for the most part, but…"

"Please tell me whatever is coming after that 'but' is something that we can easily manage." The ghost boy hoped.

A futile hope, really.

"Buuuuut," Tucker couldn't delay the inevitable, "Jazz is still out there in the thick of things."

The ghost boy facepalmed. Why, oh why did he have to ask for the impossible? Must his day get harder than it already is, he lamented. Now he had another great mess to try and clean up. In the midst of his inner rantings, Danny noticed his companions looking questioningly at him.

"Who Jazz?" Tarzan asked.

"My older sister." He explained. "And much like my parents, no doubt in trouble with everything that's going on right now."

"So we better go find her fast." Sora had no problems with helping his friend find his sister. "Where do we go from here?"

"Amity Park's a pretty big place." Tucker brought up a map of the town on his PDA and showed it to them. "Honestly, the best way to get this mess cleaned up would be to spread out."

"Then that's just what we'll do." Jimmy of course was on it. "Spongebob, you and Tarzan will go investigate the Nasty Burger. If it's as much a hang-out as Tucker says, we could probably use that as a base of operations."

"Got it, Jimmy!" Spongebob saluted the boy genius. "I'll also see if the menu needs improving while I'm at it!"

"What menu?" The jungle man asked the sponge.

"Oh, that's pretty easy to explain, you see–" the fry cook was about to explain before getting cut off.

"Timmy, Donald," Jimmy continued, "you two are to look for anyone who still might be running from the Heartless and Syndicate troops and make sure they get to safety. Even though your programs are currently depowered, their abilities, along with Donald's elemental manipulation with his matter converter–"

"Magic staff." Donald deadpanned.

"Do you really want to keep trying?" Timmy whispered to the mallard.

"...should be able to help with keeping enemies at bay." The boy genius finished, dismissing the duck and boy's comments. "Danny, since you and your friends know this town well, you three, along with Goofy, will exorcize the overshadowed populace."

"Wait, isn't an exorcism technically magic?" The ghost boy raised a brow.

"No, it's faith. There's a difference." The citizen of Retroville shook his head. "Not to mention you're using superpowers which aren't based on magic."

"So that just leaves you with Sora." Timmy noted. "What's your plan there?"

"If my assumptions about our previous visits are correct," the boy genius answered, "then there might be some special keyhole-shaped emblem for Sora's Keyblade to interact with. We find that as soon as we can, we might just expel the Heartless' from Amity Park."

"That's some good thinkin', Jimmy!" Goofy liked the idea. "If we get rid of the Heartless sooner, gettin' to Vlad's castle should be easier, too!"

"Divide and conquer," Sam pointed out. "Although, that's a double-edged sword. Will everyone be able to pull through when we're spread out like this?"

"That's the hope, anyway." Jimmy answered seriously before he and Goddard walked over to Sora. "Now, let's get started. We have a lot of ground to cover here and maybe not much time!"

"Right!" Everyone else replied.

And thus, the four teams went in their different directions, intent on cleaning up the chaos currently going on in Amity Park. As they went along, they didn't notice someone had been listening in on their conversation the entire time. This person drove out of the alleyway between Danny's home and the house next door, riding a red bike as he gripped the handles with black, fingerless gloves, past a crashed car and onto the road. He ran one hand through his wild dark brown, tan hair, grunting in exasperation. He clearly was in some kind of mood.

"Heartless, huh?" He mused. "First ghosts, then those things, now weirdos coming out of the woodwork. Great time for a stupid exchange program."

He looked back towards the alley. Within it were the knocked out bodies of thugs wearing red and white sports jackets, the also knocked out forms of ghost guards, and the dissipating forms of Heartless that were too busy twitching their messed up limbs to even move. Working out the kinks in his neck, he took the handles of his bike and revved up the engines again.

"Screw it." The young man decided. "Might as well help out while I'm here. Kid with the spiky hair looks like he needs the most help out of all of those oddballs. Guess I'll start off with him."

The youth put his foot down and then drove off with a roar of his bike. Whoever this boy was, hopefully he would be a friend to our heroes.

—-

Timmy and Donald were in the midst of town, passing by a computer store only to find yet another crashed car that knocked over a fire hydrant, leading to a fountain of water blowing upward. The duplex nearby had broken windows, yet no sign of life could be seen inside or outside. They looked around for any sign of people running around, but they hadn't seen hide nor hair of anybody running around. It was about as empty as the streets of Traverse Town's second district when the Heartless weren't popping up. As Donald scratched his feathered head and looked towards the ten-year old boy he was with, Cosmo and Wanda poofed back to their normal forms.

"You know, when Jimmy said we should be looking for survivors," Timmy's fairy godfather started, "I'm pretty sure that implies that there'd be people actually around."

"That's surprisingly observant of you, Cosmo." Wanda gave her husband credit. "So far, the city just appears to be… well, a ghost town."

Her husband then immediately busted out laughing, holding his stomach as he chortled.

"G-ghost town! Hahahaha! Oh, I get it! It's so funny!" He kept laughing.

"Easy come, easy go." His wife sighed, knowing she should have expected that.

"Too bad going around this dead end won't be easy." Their godchild looked at the anti-ghost gate before them. "Seriously, how many anti-ghost gates did the Fentons put up around here?"

"Clearly enough to forget that ghosts can fly." Donald chimed in. "And speaking of flying, I think it's about time we got to talking about something important while we're here."

"Important? Like what?" The boy asked the duck.

"How about the fact that since Jimmy's too stubborn to admit magic exists," the royal wizard started, "that has to mean that your two 'fairy programs' aren't really programs?"

The trio immediately gained nervous looks at the duck looking at them with a suspicious brow.

"Uh, I don't know what you're talking about." Timmy denied, looking to the side. "They're definitely programs! Programs I made. Because I'm smart like that."

"Yeah! We're totally not real fairy godparents assigned to Timmy because his life is miserable due to neglectful parents, an evil babysitter, a rough school life involving bullies and an evil teacher, and lots of other antics inbetween!" Cosmo denied… well, tried to, at any rate.

Donald was hardly impressed by the show of deception.

"...Do you think he believes it?" Cosmo asked out loud to Wanda and Timmy.

"Cosmo!" Both wife and godchild shouted at him.

"So, fairy godparents, huh?" But it was too late. Donald already got the gist. "Shoulda figured with those wands and wings."

"Not the pointy, crowny things?" The dimwitted fairy asked.

"Look, it's not what you think! They totally aren't fairies!" The average kid still fervently denied it, holding out his hands in front of them.

The royal wizard just crossed his arms and tapped his foot, giving Timmy a look.

"Timmy, I'm the royal wizard to a king from a world far and away from your own," he told the boy, "and Goofy and I are following a spiky-haired boy from another world wielding a mystical key for a weapon, alongside a walking, talking sponge, a boy with ghost powers, a self-proclaimed boy genius, and a jungle man all from different worlds. The fact that you have fairy godparents in your world hardly shocks me."

"Then what about the doorknob back in Wonderland?" asked the average kid.

"When was the last time you've seen inanimate objects talk?" The duck asked back.

Cosmo and Wanda opened their mouths to answer.

"Ones that were inanimate objects to start with?"

They promptly closed their mouths.

"Besides," he continued, "whatever happens if people know they're fairies in your world isn't likely to happen here in this one. Jimmy's the one who worked with universe portals and we got the Gummi ship. Outside of this Syndicate and everyone at Traverse Town, we're probably the only ones who know much about world-travel, much less about our two differing universes."

"That's… surprisingly optimistic coming from you, Donald." The buck-toothed boy replied in astonishment. "I figured you'd rag on me over going against the rules or something."

"Please, like that's all I ever do." Donald rolled his eyes at that.

"Hey, does anyone hear a glittering sound?" Cosmo suddenly asked.

The group stayed quiet as they perked their ears. Indeed, like the absent-minded fairy said, they could hear some kind of glittery sound in the air. Or, perhaps it was twinkling? They looked past the duplex towards a barred gate and beyond that, a ruined building with a lopsided sign on it labeled 'Amity Park Station'. Just outside that building and running about were, oddly enough, three glowing yellow stars that glittered and sparkled.

"Woah! I didn't expect to see these here! Wish Stars!" Timmy exclaimed, smiling as he saw those. "Just what we needed!"

"Wish Stars?" The royal wizard asked.

"Those are Emergency Wish Stars. They pop up whenever our magic isn't working properly." Wanda explained.

"Hard to believe that happened only twice." Cosmo recalled.

"But how did they get here in Danny's world?" The average kid had to ask. Shaking his head, he amended, "Aw, who cares? With these, I can make an actual wish that can help us out!"

"Like wishing away the Heartless and that all these disasters didn't happen?" Donald sounded intrigued by that prospect.

But sadly, Wanda told him, "Nothing that powerful, I'm afraid. The most Timmy can do with three Wish Stars collected is for some tool that he can use."

"Good thing it's three Wish Stars instead of the original five." Cosmo commented. "Hoo boy, was that ever hard to deal with! Having to chase them down everywhere…"

"Wait, why would you have to chase them down?" That confused the duck. "Wouldn't it be easier if you just had them on hand?"

"I dunno." Timmy shrugged. "Story of my life, I guess."

"Hey, check it out! Actual moving stars!"

Not expecting a new voice to just come out of nowhere, Timmy, his fairies, and Donald looked around for whomever spoke. They then looked up and saw none other than a young boy who appeared close to Timmy's age dressed like a knight with a green plume popping out of the helmet. He had pale white skin and green eyes, signifying him as a ghost, and short green hair that could be seen with his visor up, along with freckles on his cheeks and two buck teeth. He rode upon a skeletal horse with eyes possessing green sclera and black pupils, and it wore black and green armor fit for a knight's horse.

"Uh, I mean, forseeth!" The ghost child corrected himself and spoke in a faux-English accent. "Stars of mystical enchantment before mine eyes!"

The skeletal horse rolled his eyes and corrected his rider with a legitimate English accent, "It's 'forsooth'."

"Forsooth? Seriously?" The boy got out of character as a response. "Then what does forseeth mean?"

"On top of needing an extra 'e' at the end, it means to burn or bring to a boiling point." His horse answered.

"Well whatever!" The boy shook his head and pointed towards the stars. "Those stars are mine for the taking!"

"Hey!" Timmy called towards the boy, getting his attention. "Those Wish Stars are ours! Get your own!"

"Who dares speakest to me in such a tone?" The ghost boy looked down and saw the human boy. "Twas you, feeble ka-nave?"

"It's 'knave'." His horse again corrected. "You don't pronounce the k."

"Then why have the 'k' to begin with?"

"Don't act like you haven't heard me!" The average kid pointed up at him. "We found these Wish Stars first! Just who are you, anyway?"

"Who am I?" The ghost boy replied, deciding to ham up his introduction. "I am Sir Youngblood, Head Knight of the Triangle Table! Chivalrous champion of children, and bane of adults everywhere! I'm–"

"A ghost!" Donald exclaimed, cutting him off. "And let me guess, you're one of Danny Phantom's enemies, aren't you?"

"Wait, you're friends with that party pooper?!" 'Sir' Youngblood groaned. "Great, just my luck!"

"It will be more than just your luck if we keep talking as is." His horse told him. "Why don't we just take care of them before they actually become an issue?"

"Great idea!" Youngblood agreed. "You're good at this, assistant!"

"It's what I do." The deadpan response spoke volumes.

Shifting his right gauntlet into a jousting lance, Youngblood then charged at Timmy and Donald with his assistant whinnying like a horse, making them jump out of the way before he passed. The court magician got up with an annoyed growl before pulling out his stave and returning fire with a few shots of fire. Some of the fire hit the skeletal horse ghost in the flank, making him whinny in pain and began bucking, forcing the child eternally playing pretend to hold on fast.

"Wh-hey! Hey! Woah, horse! Woah!" Youngblood exclaimed, pulling on the reins. Once his assistant finally calmed down, he gave the duck a glare, "Hey! Who said you could do magic?!"

"Says me, you phantasmal pipsqueak!" Donald retorted. "Someone's gotta teach you some manners, and this wizard's the one to do it!" He then turned to Timmy and said, "Hey, you go get those Wish Stars! I'll hold this mischief maker off!"

"Uh, you sure you can handle a ghost on your own, Donald?" Timmy asked with a brow raised. "Think he might be tougher than he looks. I mean, considering what we've been dealing with…"

"Just do it!" The duck quacked at him.

With that, Timmy and his fairies rushed off as Donald barely jumped away from a sword coated in green, ectoplasmic fire. The wizard rushed into one of the houses, dodging more swords on the way. He made his way up until he got to the roof, pulling out his Warhammer and glaring at the pretend knight floating on his horse near the building. The duck glared, clenching his stave in hand.

As for Timmy Turner, he was chasing those Wish Stars around, dealing with Heartless, Grunts and ghosts as they appeared.

"Hey, you guys mind your own business!" The average kid told them off as he shot stars at the enemies, managing to take down the Heartless and grunts down with ease.

"I dunno, Timmy." Cosmo said to his godchild as he dodged a mace from one of the ghosts. "Ghosts tend to make their unfinished business other people's problems in movies."

"Cosmo, surprisingly, has a point, sweety." Wanda was surprised by her husband's intuition as of late. "And these ghosts don't act that differently either."

"Would be nice if we had a proton pack or something." Timmy grumbled, pelting one of the ghosts with stars. "But noooo, everybody else got the cool tech back at Danny's house."

"Oooh! Look sharp! One star's on the move!" His absent-minded fairy godparent told him.

When the way was clear, Timmy rushed after one of the running Wish Stars. For any other person, this should be an easy chase that should last no more than a second at most. But for Timmy, who was not any good with sports or physical education, well, it wasn't really his best performance. Like his grades at school. But fortunately, Wish Stars weren't exactly expert runners themselves, and indeed Timmy managed to catch it.

"Alright! That's the first one! Now to just get the other two!" He cheered… only to find more Heartless, Grunts, and ghosts popping up around him. "Oh come on!"

As for Donald, he was still buying as much time as he could for Timmy while dealing with Youngblood on his own. Dodging the flaming swords was somewhat easy enough, but apparently the spectral spoiled brat decided to up the force of the throwing swords to emit waves of blue fire when they hit the roof, forcing the duck to jump to avoid getting burned. In response, the mage continued pelting the pretend knight and his boney horse with fire spells. Something that the literal ghost child did not appreciate.

"Hey! No fair using homing fireballs!" Youngblood complained.

"You're the one throwing flaming swords at me!" Donald rebutted.

"Then, foul mage," the ghost got back into character, "thou shalt feel the power of a knight's greatest weapon… eye lasers!"

"Knights don't have eye lasers." His assistant corrected him.

"They do if they're ghosts!" He retorted.

Then he indeed fired laser beams from his eyes. Donald quacked in shock before immediately running as they gave chase. He even jumped as he felt them singe a bit of his tail feathers! The mage hoped that Timmy was having better luck with getting those Wish Stars than he was dealing with this specter.

Fortunately, Timmy indeed was managing, dealing with the wave of enemies and having managed to get the second Wish Star. It was then just a matter of getting to the last Wish Star that was inside the Amity Park Station building. The door was barred shut, so he couldn't go in through there. Fortunately, he saw that there was a shut dumpster to the side of the building for him to jump up from to get inside through the broken roof. Sure, the windows were broken and accessible, but the ten year old boy didn't plan on getting cut on glass. Once he made it inside, he got that last Wish Star and his fairies poofed back to their normal forms.

"Man, dealing with all these enemies with just a Star Flinger is hard when I'm on my own." Timmy said to his fairies. "No offense guys, but I think I need to add more to my arsenal."

"But Timmy, your arsenal looks just fine!" Cosmo told him. "I mean, just give it a few years, some exercise, you might get it to the size you want…"

"Not THAT kind of arsenal, Cosmo!" Wanda rolled her eyes at her husband's absentmindedness. "But what is it that you have in mind for getting better at fights, sport?"

"Well, Donald's got some powerful magic going for him. Maybe if I could use something like that, I could wipe the floor with these Heartless and goons easier." Timmy had an idea.

"I'm sorry, Timmy," but Wanda had some bad news, "but that might be too much for the power of Wish Stars. Not only is Donald an actual court mage in his world, but his magic is also different from our own. We're not sure if we can make such a wish happen."

"Not to mention he's already the mage of the whole group. If you end up becoming another wizard, what would be the point of him?" Cosmo asked, missing the point entirely. "Though if you wished to be a duck, then…"

"Me wishing to be a duck has about the same chance of a snowball in–" Timmy then thought of something. "Wait, snowball… ice… blizzard… that's it! I may not have magic like Sora or Donald, but I can improvise! I wish I had a Freeze Glove!"

And with another poof, Timmy was suddenly clad in a blue snow coat with white fur trims. On the trims around the wrists and waist, there appeared to be little blue squiggle designs on them. On his right hand was a large blue glove akin to a mitten.

"Quite a good way of going about it, sport!" His godmother commended him. "With this Freeze Glove, you can freeze anything that can be frozen, be it brittle things like breakable objects or even enemies, or even flowing water!"

"It might not be powerful ice magic, but it has its uses!" His godfather agreed. "You might even be up there with Sora and Donald in terms of ice magic now."

"I won't mind finding out!" Timmy tested out the glove's power and froze the barred entrance before him. He then broke it with a good hit from the gloved fist. "Now, let's hurry and help Donald!"

To say that Donald was having more trouble than he expected would be kind of an understatement. It apparently wasn't enough that Youngblood could shoot lasers from his eyes or be able to conjure flaming swords to throw at him. No, apparently he had to try constantly jousting at him after again changing his right gauntlet into a jousting lance. And the boy had apparently wised up to Donald's use of fire magic, so he countered each fire spell with a shot of blue fire, making them burst into large balls of fire upon impact. Suffice to say, Donald was having no easy time of it.

Youngblood laughed as he saw Donald was short on breath from running so much. He even had his assistant land on the roof to tower over the exhausted wizard.

"Wherefore art thy quips now, mallard?" He got into his role. "Mayhaps thou should have quit whilst thou were ahead." He then whispered to his bony assistant, "How was that?"

"...Good enough." It was really hard having to justify having to constantly correct the boy.

"Yes! Nailed it!" Youngblood pumped his fist.

"Hey, Sir Lancerbutt!"

At that, Youngblood and his assistant turned to see Timmy Turner and his fairies, having made it to the roof to help out the royal wizard.

"Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" Timmy taunted.

The young ghost took another look at the mallard and blinked. He then turned back to the boy who looked about his physical age and replied, "I'm pretty sure he's taller than I am."

"He doesn't mean literally. He's challenging you himself." His assistant corrected him.

"Ooooooh, right, right." The pretend knight recalled that, then cleared his throat and got back into character, "And what dost thou think thou can do in place of the magus, bridgend?"

"It's 'brigand'." The assistant rolled his eyes.

"Isn't that what I said?"

"Well this 'brigand' is about to put you on ice!" Timmy reared back his gloved hand and then shot out a trail of ice in the ghosts' direction!

"Seriously? 'Put you on ice'?" The childlike ghost was unimpressed with that line. "Could you possibly come up with anything lame–"

But then, 'Sir' Youngblood and his skeletal animal assistant were frozen in a block of ice. It was instantaneous. The child ghost was so busy with his jeering that he didn't even bother trying to avoid it or have his assistant fly away. Now they were practically frozen with surprised looks on their faces. With the threat neutralized, Donald wiped his feathery brow of sweat and walked over to Timmy and his fairies.

"So this is what you got from those Wish Stars?" Donald looked over Timmy's outfit.

"Yep." The average kid nodded. "Should be handy if we need any enemies frozen solid, or anything else frozen too."

The duck hummed as he tapped one webbed foot, commenting, "Well, in that regard, it's a more handy tool than a regular Blizzard spell."

"Glad to hear it," Wanda said to the duck, "but what do we do with this frozen pair of spectral miscreants?"

The royal wizard looked at the block of ice with the two villains frozen within. Then he looked towards the gate back on the ground level. On their own, they couldn't really get over it without anything to get them at a better height. And seeing as that ice block was about two heads taller than the two of them…

Donald then got an idea.

"I think I know a good use for them." The duck mischievously chuckled as he walked up to the ice block and began pushing it.

"Oooh, I like the way you think!" Timmy liked the sound of that and went to help him out alongside his fairies.

While they started pushing their frozen enemies down through the building, hoping to get to the ground before the ice melted, they never noticed something flying just overhead above them.

—-

"So let me get this straight." Tucker said to Danny as they, Sam, and Goofy were going through town to look for possessed civilians, "Not only is Plasmius taking over Amity Park possible because he made allies of people from other worlds, but you also made allies from said worlds, ended up in one beyond even their universes, met up with a guy who uses a key to fight these new monsters called Heartless, and the result is that these Heartless are basically working for Plasmius and making things even worse than they already were?"

"That's just about the gist of it, Tucker." Danny confirmed. "I'm honestly surprised you managed to get all that."

"Oh, I get it." Tucker replied. "I just don't understand it."

"I've been there! Ahyuck!" Goofy laughed.

"Look sharp, guys." Sam got their attention. "We got more possessed people just up ahead."

Indeed, the quartet had been busy trying to free the people overshadowed by rampant ghosts, though of course Danny and Goofy did most of the fieldwork as Sam and Tucker stuck behind them for their own safety. Sure enough, not only did the two fighters have to deal with the ghosts in question, but also more Heartless and Syndicate troops. Making it more difficult were the new troops that appeared. Broad, blue robots with a single green optic for a head, three-pronged claws for hands, holding metal, dual-sided, gray tridents in their right hand, and moving on a single wheel. Capable of forming a forcefield around itself, going at ramming speed, firing blasts from their tridents and even twirling it before them to drive their enemies off, these robots were dangerous enemies.

But fortunately, thanks to Danny's powers and Goofy's shield, not even these robots were capable of impeding them from their rescue mission, and quickly were reduced to scrap. And for being saved from possession, the people… ran off in fear without a word of thanks. Every time.

"Gawrsh, a simple thank you would be appreciated." The captain of the royal knights said with a sad pout.

"Don't expect too much, Goofy." The ghost boy told him. "That's basically how things go here… for me, at least.."

"Alright, that makes about… oh wow," Tucker checked the number on his PDA, "12 people we set free. Twice as much as we originally counted."

"Any others nearby?" Danny asked.

"Looks like just the one, and… oh great." The goth girl checked out the screen and grimaced.

"What is it?" The ghost boy dreaded that tone. "Someone we know?"

"Yes. And you're not going to like it." The tech geek's tone was definitely sigh-worthy.

"Oh, now, he can't be that bad," Jiminy Cricket was more optimistic, "can he?"

"Yeesh, can you believe the bulk on this guy?"

Hearing a voice ask a question not meant to be in their direction, the five looked off near the entrance to the Amity Park Zoo, where not only was a meat truck parked, but behind it was a black motorcycle with the number 13 emblazoned in green on both sides. Sitting sideways on the seat was a pretty, rather attractive girl with pale greenish-white skin and shaggy green hair. She had red eyes, and wore thick eyeliner with purple lipstick and eyeshadow. She was clad in a black cropped tank top, a red biker jacket and matching skirt, green tights with fishnet stockings, and black high-heeled boots. Her accessories included a green pendant, a purple scarf, and a green-and-gold ring. She seemed to be checking her nails, hardly invested in whatever her companion was doing. Definitely a biker girl.

Speaking of said companion, he appeared to be checking himself out in the side view mirror of the meat truck, and the sight of him made Danny completely understand the exasperated looks his friends were making. He even made one himself. The individual in question was a teenage boy with short blond hair. He was very muscular and fit, befitting of his jockish appearance, wearing a red-and-white letterman jacket, with a black t-shirt underneath and dark blue jeans and white shoes.

"Yeah, yeah, he's brawny. He's captain of the football team, what do you expect?" The girl asked him.

"Yeah, but what kinda football captain has legs like these?" The jock asked as he looked over himself. "Seriously, look how thin they are! How does this guy even walk? Has he ever heard of leg day?"

"That's rich, coming from a guy who rides on his bike most of the time!"

The sudden call-out got both of their attention and they all saw Danny Phantom, Goofy, Tucker and Sam approaching! Their eyes immediately caught onto the halfa with focused glares, with the boy's being quite notably green.

"So, even you two got into being some of Plasmius's grunts, huh, Johnny, Kitty?" Danny asked sardonically. "And here I thought being free to do as you pleased was your idea of a good time."

"We are free to do as we please, Phantom!" The jock, apparently Johnny, said. "It just so happens that Plasmius has given us an opportunity to go wilder than ever!"

"Sounds more like you two should have found somethin' nicer to do." Goofy retorted.

"It's nice for us, and that's all that matters." The girl, Kitty, shot back.

"You said it, Kitty!" Johnny began working out the kinks in his neck… before his body suddenly glowed green. The green in his eyes faded to a dark blue and he fell to the ground, unconscious. However, from the teen's place appeared a different figure.

He had pale-white skin and blond greasy hair. He glared at the group with green eyes, and looked a tad young with the freckles on his cheeks and a hint of stubble on his chin. He wore a long dark gray jacket with a white shirt underneath and the sleeves rolled up, black pants, and gray boots. He also had two belts - a green-and-gray one worn normally and a gray studded belt that hung down his hip. His accessories included a green skull necklace, black fingerless biker gloves, and a green-and-gold ring worn on his left hand.

"Now," the true Johnny said, getting back on his bike as Kitty had her arms around him, "we're not going to let you chumps spoil our fun! Shadow!"

Just then, the shadow beneath Johnny's form emerged from the ground and took shape! A wispy black ghost, essentially a humanoid shadow. It had glowing green eyes with no discernible sclera or pupils, fangs, and claws. Its "hair" wisped up into three strands, and it had a ghostly tail. It hissed when it saw Danny Phantom while its master revved up his bike and had it fly into the air!

"Yikes! Is that some kinda Heartless?" Jiminy asked as he looked at the creature.

"Nope, that's Johnny's gimmick." Danny explained. "He's got a living shadow that does all the heavy lifting for him."

"How's this for a gimmick?" Johnny shot back, the headlights of his bike firing green rays!

Immediately dodging the attack, Goofy and Danny got ready for a fight while Sam and Tucker rushed over to get the unconscious jock safely away. The knight captain held up his shield to block another ghost ray, this time from Kitty, just as the ghost boy began fighting against the Shadow. It hissed at the teenage superhero as the two flew against each other, trying to hold Danny back with its body to envelop him. However, a couple ghost rays from the fingertips blew large holes into the Shadow, letting him fly through it in an effort to get to Johnny and Kitty. The Shadow reconstituted itself and grabbed Danny by the legs before flinging him into a building!

As for Goofy, he was still blocking ghost rays with his shield as he tried making his approach towards the ghostly couple. But then he noticed Johnny revving his bike up, making ready for a getaway so they could cause more trouble. He knew that Danny was focused on trying to beat back that Shadow, and Sam and Tucker were just trying to help out that civilian that Johnny overshadowed, so it was up to him to make sure these troublesome teenagers of the afterlife wouldn't escape so easily. It was then he noticed something attached to the back of the meat truck.

A tow chain and a hook. Goofy then got an idea as he tried getting closer, defending himself from the blasts. Once he got close enough to the meat truck, he saw the pair just about to ride off. He grabbed the chain, concentrated on the bike, and then began swinging it like a lasso.

"It's all about stayin' focused," Goofy readied the hook for a good throw, "on your goals!"

And then Goofy threw the hook and chain, watching it fly towards Johnny's bike… only to cling against a building and then ricochet on the roof of the meat truck, then against the Amity Park Zoo sign, then through the Shadow just as it was about to try clawing into Danny, then off the building just behind the ghostly superhero, and right back into the air to finally latch onto Johnny's bike!

"What the–?" Kitty just noticed it latched onto her boyfriend's bike.

"Yahoo!" Goofy cheered. "A ringer!"

The three teenagers couldn't help but stare and blink at the sheer randomness of which that happened.

"...did that really just happen?" Tucker asked.

"I guess?" Danny shrugged.

Johnny only tsked and then had his bike fly off, taking the chain along with it. However, Goofy took hold of the chain and tried to pull back… only to end up being taken himself! He let out a howl akin to a yodel as he held on for dear life. Danny, noticing this, blasted the Shadow out of his way to give chase and assist his friend, though the Shadow began pursuing him as well. Kitty looked back as they flew to see Goofy still hanging on to the chain and Danny flying after them.

"Jeez, they're persistent!" Kitty was annoyed. "Johnny, can't you do something more about this?"

"I'm working on it best I can, Kitty!" Johnny retorted. "Can't exactly shoot rays and drive at the same time here! Why don't you shoot at them while you're looking at them?"

The girlfriend of the duo groaned in frustration with her boyfriend's attitude, but she did as he suggested and began firing ghost rays at Goofy and Danny! With a shout, Goofy adjusted himself so he had his shield block her attacks and hold onto the chain at the same time. Danny just flew around the shots, but he had to deal with Johnny's Shadow coming at him from above, keeping him from supporting the knight captain. Seeing this was going nowhere made Kitty further agitated. But then she got a good look at the chain the dog was holding onto for dear life.

A nasty smirk on her face, her hands glowed blue and she focused her power on the chain. The link closest to the hook suddenly curved upward before whipping forth, heading in Goofy's direction. Immediately after, the shielder was flying up into the air with yet another howl!

"Goofy!" Danny called out as he watched Goofy practically fly overhead.

"Well, that's the dog freak taken care of." Kitty told her boyfriend.

"Now all that's left is ghost boy." Johnny looked back over to his Shadow. "Shadow, sending some help your way!"

Johnny put his fingers to his lips and whistled. Then, Search Ghosts began appearing by the score, flying towards Danny! While Johnny looked satisfied by this, Kitty lost her earlier pride and looked nervous at the sight of the Heartless.

"Johnny, you said you wouldn't summon these things!" Johnny's girlfriend told him. "I mean, you've seen what they've been doing around here to both humans AND ghosts."

"Better them than us, Kitty." He replied without a care.

Johnny's eyes seemed to turn yellow for a moment before going back to their regular green, something Kitty noticed and only unnerved her more. She had more than a few reservations about these dark creatures that they only recently got introduced to by Plasmius. Johnny wasn't all that bothered, though, finding them to be similar to his Shadow. He promised her that he wouldn't use them when she said she wasn't comfortable around them. And yet…

Danny had an easier time blasting the Search Ghosts to atoms with his ecto-blasts, but of course the Shadow kept being the more difficult enemy, manipulating its form so that the ghost rays would only go through holes instead of damaging it. Yet Danny noticed something off while he was fighting the Shadow. The moment Johnny 13 summoned the Search Ghosts, for a moment the Shadow's eyes flickered between colors. He figured it had to be a trick of the light. No way could it possibly be…

As for Goofy, he was still up in the air from being flung, just about ready to feel gravity take effect. However, since this was yet another familiar situation for the captain of the royal knights, he looked down for any sign of where the biker could be. He could barely see through the clouds, but he did see a few shapes beneath them, so those had to be what he was looking for.

"Hmmm… Maybe if I adjust myself like this…" Goofy then held out his shield before him as he tried positioning his body to go straight like a rocket. "Then if grav-ee-tee takes me down like this… Yeah, this should work!"

"Uh, Goofy," Jiminy was a bit concerned as he held on tight to Goofy's hat, "what exactly are you planning?"

"Somethin' so goofy it just might work!" He answered.

With that, Goofy, being known for occasionally defying the laws of physics, began kicking his legs to 'swim' in the air, keeping one eye open to adjust his aim just as gravity was starting to pull him down, even sticking out his tongue. Once he felt he was in a proper position he then kicked his legs forward to fall diagonally in the air, keeping his focus and aim at one particular spot as his falling speed began to pick up. Falling faster and faster, the defender began shooting through the clouds and building plenty of force to follow through. He paid close attention to the shapes below, keeping on his target. Just one more cloud to shoot through, and then…

"Yeeeeehaw!" Goofy hollered as he got through that last cloud, shooting towards Johnny and Kitty as they were just getting into his range!

"Johnny, watch out!" Kitty tried warning her boyfriend the moment she heard that holler.

But before Johnny could pull away, it was too late. He got hit in the face by Goofy's shield, sending him flying off his own bike, which began to careen out of control and fall down from the air. Kitty quickly flew off the bike and shot after her boyfriend. The Shadow, noticing this as well, did the same to rescue its master. Danny whistled, glad to see Goofy was okay and actually managed to get one of his enemies good before shooting after him as well.

Back on solid ground, the Shadow quickly formed a landing pad for Johnny to land on. Kitty quickly went to her boyfriend's side, concerned about his well-being. Goofy managed to land on his shield, cartoonishly sliding on it down the road before finally managing to come to a complete stop once Danny managed to catch up and hold his legs to slow him down.

Johnny groaned as he held his head, though he also gasped when he saw his bike still plummeting towards the sky. He got up and flew to try and catch it, but unfortunately the bike fell too fast for him to reach, much less think of commanding Shadow to do it. The bike hit the ground with a great crash, and the impact broke it into several pieces, reducing it to mere scrap. Johnny gasped in shock, his eyes again flickering yellow. He then growled at the halfa and the knight-captain as he brought up his hands. The once green glow became a dark purple when the ghost biker summoned more Heartless! In the midst of it, his Shadow froze in place, eyes beginning to flicker.

"Yikes, can't you just take it to the workshop?" Danny replied in his usual taunting manner, but he did sweat at the number of Shadows and Search Ghosts that appeared.

"That was my bike your mutant dog friend just broke with that stunt of his!" Johnny 13 growled, his eyes starting to remain yellow. "Now I'm ready to break you guys in two!"

"J-Johnny, calm down!" Kitty tried to ease Johnny's anger by pulling on his arm, noticing how it was starting to also have an effect on his Shadow. "If you keep summoning these things, you're going to lose yourself, too!"

"I don't care, Kitty! They just crossed a line even I figured they wouldn't cross with a man's wheels!" Johnny 13 actually shoved her away, shocking Danny and Goofy. "I don't care what happens to me! I'm going to make these punks pay!"

The ghost biker then hovered in the air, starting to emit a purple aura as his Shadow then began to expand, growing bigger and bigger until it was the size of a four-story building! The wisps on its head started expanding, lengthening until they started flowing in the nonexistent wind. Its claws grew longer and sharper, and the mouth seemed to vanish entirely.

"You're dead meat this time, Phantom!" Johnny swore. "You hear me? You're dead–!"

The Shadow waved its form out… and then enveloped Johnny before suddenly flying off like a giant dark wisp, taking all the summoned Heartless with it. As Danny Phantom and Goofy watched this with shock and confusion, Kitty could only look on in horror at what had happened to her boyfriend. Her eyes quivered and shook as she was only barely registering all that she had seen take place. After that, she shook her head and then took off after it.

"Johnny! Wait! Johnny!" She called after her boyfriend, desperation in her voice as tears of horror ran down her face.

"...What. The heck. Just happened?" Danny asked after a while.

"I think that Johnny just turned into a Heartless." Goofy figured with a shudder and sadness in his voice. Even if he was an enemy, that was not something he'd wish on anyone, "First time I ever saw it happen. Now that was scary…"

"And we got another problem to deal with while we're here. Great." The halfa groaned, scratching his head.

"There you guys are!"

The two turned to see none other than Tucker and Sam running up towards them, practically out of breath due to running the whole way. Tucker, the one who spoke, managed to pull himself up to talk to Danny.

"Okay, so, good news, bad news on our end." The tech geek friend answered. "Good news, the overshadowed guy is safe."

"And the bad news?" The ghostly superhero figured he knew, but asked to be polite.

"Dash Baxter is back to normal." Sam deadpanned as she got up as well.

"Don't think this means I'm grateful to you nerds."

The four looked back again to see the jock from before, apparently named Dash Baxter, walking up to them with a sour look on his face. Since he wasn't possessed, his eyes were dark blue.

"I'm just here to thank Inviso-Bill, since he's the hero who did all the real work." The football captain told them. "And also tell Fen-twerp that–"

But in the midst of his bullish speech, Dash finally noticed the non-human before him.

"Ahyuck! Hey there!" Goofy greeted. "You alright? Can't imagine bein' possessed by a ghost would be all that pleasant."

A moment of silence passed by. Dash blinked. Then he shouted in terror.

"GAH!" he freaked out. "Mutant dog!"

And then Dash ran away that very next moment… only to smash face-first into a tree and collapse into a quick nap. Not exactly the most dignified act for the most popular boy in Casper High, but as Danny, Sam, and Tucker knew, it was hardly that big a surprise, judging by their flat, half-lidded stares.

"Gawrsh, that's gotta be the second rudest person we met on this adventure." Goofy commented.

"Well, if that's everybody who's overshadowed," the ghost boy said to his friends, "we better go meet back up with the others and tell them about what just happened with Johnny 13. The Nasty Burger should be good to regroup by now."

"Wait, who's carrying him?" Tucker asked, pointing at the unconscious jock.

"Not it!" Sam and Danny replied immediately, making their nerdy friend groan.

"Oh, come on…" the spectacled boy sighed in resignation, but got a friendly pat on the back from the royal captain.

"Here, let me lend ya a hand," the captain offered with a friendly smile, getting the boy to grin back.

—-

Regarding the fast food eatery, a while earlier, Spongebob and Tarzan were on their way towards the restaurant in question. And as they walked along, dealing with Heartless, grunts, ghosts, and even malicious robots, the fry cook was explaining to the king of the jungle the best he can about menus.

"Okay, so in civilization," Spongebob explained, "there are these places that serve food to people instead of having them get food on their own. People get food from other people. You with me so far, Tarzan?"

"Yes?" Tarzan wasn't sure if he was, honestly.

"Right. Now, people use something called money to get this food cooked for them." The fry cook continued. "Mon-ee. That's either green paper or little metal flat circles with faces on them."

"Right?" Tarzan knew he definitely wasn't getting it even now.

"Hm… Maybe I'm going a bit too off-track." The sea sponge could tell from the jungle man's expression that he wasn't doing a good enough job explaining. "Okay, let me see if I can do this from the top. You see–"

"We're here."

Tarzan pointed ahead, actually relieved that he could avoid hearing his yellow friend try explaining something that made no sense to him. Spongebob looked at the direction the ape man was pointing and indeed saw the eatery that Danny's friend seemed to love. The Nasty Burger. A retro, boxy 70s diner that was mostly white and silver with a white neon sign with red letters reading the name, the front doors with the letter N on the left and the letter B on the right, and a few outdoor tables with umbrellas over them, along with red seats. Spongebob took a moment to look at this restaurant and give his expert opinion. He noted the style of the restaurant, but also noted the broken windows.

"Hmmm… credit for style," he critiqued, "but it clearly does not hold a candle to the Krusty Krab in terms of aesthetic. Now I know I have to show Danny what a real restaurant is like."

Tarzan sniffed the air, stepping a bit closer to the Nasty Burger in curiosity… and with a bit of tension as he gripped his spear.

"Smell of meat… too much…" The ape man observed. "This place… danger inside."

"Oh, I doubt it's actually that dangerous, Tarzan." Spongebob waved that off as he went over to the doors to push them open. "If anything, too much of a meaty smell probably means the cooking is sub– great Neptune's ghost!"

But when Spongebob opened the door, he shouted in shock as he saw the inside of the restaurant, or at least what he could. A black and white checkerboard floor, red cushion seats along with single black chairs and stools, red and white striped drinking cups, three-pronged ceiling lights… and so much uncooked meat splattered around! It was a health inspection nightmare! And even worse was that some of the meat appeared to be moving.

…But that didn't seem to register to Spongebob yet. "This place is a dining disaster!" He exclaimed. "What self-respecting fast-food employee leaves all the meat on the floor?! It's a waste of good food and potential burger meat!"

"Meat not normal." Tarzan of course helped with that. "Meat… danger."

"It is if someone eats it as it is now!" Unfortunately the help didn't go in the way he hoped. "We gotta clean up this mess quickly! Then I'll give whoever runs this place a good talking-to about proper restaurant management."

"This isn't our fault, weird mascot thing!" A voice got defensive.

Spongebob and Tarzan looked for the source of the voice. On the ceiling, encased in the burger meat, was a man practically reaching his mid-life crisis with combed-back orange hair and stubble for a mustache. Near him was an African American high school girl with shoulder-length black hair and purple eyes, also encased in meat. They were clearly trying to get out of their predicament, so desperate that they didn't bother freaking out at the sight of a walking, talking yellow sponge. In fact, the man, the one who spoke, mistook him for a mascot costume.

"Here at the Nasty Burger, we pride ourselves at providing decent food service to the high school students who come here when they have nothing better to do than socialize!" the man, the definition of a manager who didn't look forward to tomorrow, said.

"Mr. Burns, you literally told your employees to stay put when this place got attacked since it's 'our duty to protect the explosive nasty sauce'." The girl flatly told him.

"If we weren't in this predicament, I'd have your pay cut for that remark, Tiffanie." 'Mr. Burns' snapped back.

"Ah, now that brings back memories." Spongebob lightly chuckled at the interaction, finding it nostalgic. "But what do you guys mean by 'attacked'? Was it the monsters? Some vile fiend most treacherous? What?"

"Pardon me, young men…" a kindly voice addressed Spongebob and Tarzan from the kitchen, "but would you two prefer a lovely meal made with only the finest meats the Nasty Burger has to offer?"

The one who made the gentle request from the kitchen was, at first glance, a kindly old, if broad framed lady wearing a pink hairnet with dark pink stripes over her white hair, a pink cooking uniform under a white apron, yellow gloves, white socks, and black work shoes. However, what tipped Tarzan off to something being wrong was the fact her skin was light green bordering on teal, red eyes, purple lipstick, and that white glow around her person. She appeared to be offering an actually delicious meal on a platter with one hand.

"Oh, why of course!" Spongebob didn't think anything bad of the offer and moved to approach her. "As a fry cook myself, I should see if the food being properly cooked here is worth the praise."

"Wait!" Tarzan tried to warn him. "Trap!"

And indeed, Spongebob barely dodged a large shot of meat fired at him from the kitchen! And just like that, the woman lost her gentle appearance and looked wildly angry with sharp teeth and unkempt hair.

"THE ONLY COOK THIS PLACE DESERVES IS SOMEONE WHO KNOWS THE TRUE VALUE OF MEAT!" The ghost shouted in a booming voice. "AND THAT IS I, THE LUNCH LADY GHOST!"

Then with another roar, the Lunch Lady Ghost shot more meat at both the sea sponge and the jungle man, who both dodged and ran around to avoid further shots. At one point, Spongebob put his finger in one of the meat piles and stuck it in his mouth, giving it a taste. He savored it, thinking of the quality as he continued running. He had to click his tongue in disappointment. Where was the love? Not to mention the care for the customers who appeared to be trapped in all that ill-used meat?

But then Spongebob ended up crashing into a nearby jukebox, suddenly starting up an admittedly familiar tune to his ear holes, with Tarzan standing on one of the tables and pointing a spear against the meat coming closer to them. Immediately, Spongebob knew this was not a fight to be won with mere violence. No! This was to be done… with cooking!

"I'm…" the sponge started with fire burning in his pupils as he reached behind him. "Ready…"

Spongebob then took out his trusty Krusty Krab uniform hat and placed it atop his square head, and took out his trusted spatula. Not just any spatula mind you. When Spongebob pressed a button on the spatula's handle, another set of spatula attachments appeared from the port and starboard sides, and they began drilling through the meat once he set it to turbo drive! This not only astonished the ape man and the people still trapped, but even the Lunch Lady Ghost was flabbergasted!

"WHAT KIND OF SPATULA IS THAT?!" She demanded to know.

"The right spatula for the right cook for the job!" Spongebob answered her. "No offense ma'am, but this way of serving people food does not make a happy customer! And so, allow me to demonstrate!" Using the turbo drive of his hydrodynamic spatula, the fry cook of the Krusty Krab then began flying towards the Nasty Burger kitchen, calling out, "Who's hungry?"

And from there, Tarzan could only look on in confusion over what happened next. His spear ended up on the floor soon after. Once in the kitchen, Spongebob immediately went to work using the meat and cutting it into perfectly circular patties to be cooked on the grill. From there, he also sliced and diced the vegetables at rapid speed, began applying all the necessary condiments… and even cleaned the place up using his spongy body. All the trapped humans suddenly found themselves freed and seated accordingly, confused and disoriented before seeing familiar burgers suddenly landing on plates conveniently put out for them. And as the seats and plates filled up, Spongebob didn't stop putting the leftover meat to good use, and simply made towers of similar burgers perfectly stacked on large trays. Even the savage man and the Lunch Lady Ghost found themselves with plates in their hands, as if by sheer magic!

With uneasy shrugs, the former captives took a bite out of their surprise meals… and their eyes all lit up. Their taste buds were met with bliss! Never before had they tasted something so delicious in all their time here in the Nasty Burger! Right after, they began eating more eagerly. Ravenously, even. The Lunch Lady Ghost, losing some of her prior fury as she observed this phenomenon, looked to the burger she had yet to eat. Raising a brow, she then took a bite of it as well. And sure enough, it appeared as though some life returned to her eyes!

"My goodness!" Her gentle voice exclaimed. "This is much more delicious than I expected! Never in my whole afterlife have I ever seen and tasted meat cooked so well!" Poking her head into the kitchen, seeing the sea sponge blowing some steam from his spatula, asked, "Young man, just how did you manage to become such a talented chef?"

"Years of practice with the goal of working for the greatest restaurant in all the seven seas." He twirled the high-tech spatula on his finger. "Nothing all that special. Not to mention a lot of love for the craft, and that's what is most important when it comes to cooking for the customer. Just listen to them now!"

Spongebob gestured towards the people whom she once trapped in meat, getting her to look on in curiosity.

"Wow, these taste just so good!" A jockish man of Asian descent with short black hair and sea foam green eyes said as he showed off the burger he already took a bite out of. He was very muscular and fit, wearing the standard uniform of the jocks in these parts: a red-and-white letterman jacket, with a black t-shirt underneath and light blue jeans and white shoes. "I never expected that we would be saved by a mascot AND given great food!"

"Yeah!" A girl agreed. She had hips-length golden blonde hair with spiky bangs, an orange flower shaped hair clip, and turquoise eyes. She had a model-like figure. She wore a white T-shirt with a thin orange collar, orange cuffs with a number 9 in the middle, dark orange capris and white flats. "This makes me almost forget that we were attacked and trapped just earlier by that ghost who haunted our school months ago!"

As the residents of Amity Park were busy enjoying their meals, and practically forgetting about the ghost still among them thanks to the sea sponge's cooking, Tarzan was still confused by what had happened. Here he was, ready for a fight, but instead Spongebob managed to diffuse the situation with hardly any fighting needed. So he looked back to the burger he had in hand, rose a brow, and then cautiously took a bite. And just like that, the king of the jungle too found it incredibly tasty, and thus saw how Spongebob managed to win without much fuss.

"Hm. This is good." Tarzan mused to himself. "The others should try this…"

—-

"No sign of the keyhole here, either…" Sora sighed after he took out another Search Ghost. "Any luck on your end, Jimmy?"

"Negative." Jimmy replied, using his Tornado Blaster to blow another robot away. "Unfortunately, dealing with these Doomsday Troopers has taken our time away from getting results."

"Doomsday Troopers?" The wielder of the Keyblade echoed.

"Considering that these robots are no doubt created by the Syndicate and have more force than the usual grunts," Gadget explained, "since they probably make up the bulk of their semi-elite force, Jimmy figured Doomsday Troopers would be a good name for them."

"Oooooh, yeah, that makes sense." He got it with a nod.

Sora, Gadget, and Jimmy's search for Amity Park's keyhole had yet to yield any fruit. They just kept dealing with the likes of the Heartless and Syndicate troops as they made their way through the trashed streets, looking for any sign of something out of the ordinary, even for this world and its penchant for the paranormal. But as it appeared, Sora's Keyblade had yet to react to anything outside of battle.

"Hey Jimmy, are you sure we can find the keyhole just by looking around?" The keybearer had to ask the boy genius. "From what I can guess, the last two appeared after we dealt with some pretty big bad guys. Maybe it would be the same here? We could just defeat Vlad and maybe the keyhole will appear before us."

"An interesting idea, Sora. However, it's not a question of when, but where." Jimmy replied. "Remember back in Wonderland, the keyhole at that time was inside the Doorknob's mouth and we've been near it numerous times before the Keyblade suddenly reacted to it. We can't simply expect it to only appear after a great threat is defeated. It would be purely circumstantial otherwise."

"So, better to strike while the iron's hot." Gadget could understand. "If we find the keyhole before encountering any strong enemies, we could just as well have less Heartless to deal with."

"Less Heartless would be good…" Sora admitted. "Still, it feels like we're not getting anywhere fast. We're supposed to be stopping Vlad as soon as possible, yet we're just still here in town cleaning up this mess."

"It's not like we have much choice in the matter." The boy genius lectured. "Nobody said being a hero was ever easy."

"And it's not like there's a damsel in distress in every corner." The gummi ship mechanic added.

But right on cue, a girlish shout of panic called out in the air, reaching their ears. Goddard rose one ear up to pick up the sound, and then barked as he began running in one direction.

"Looks like Goddard picked up on some trouble." The citizen of Retroville observed. "After him!"

Without any hesitation, they chased after Goddard through more of Amity Park's streets. Eventually, they found Goddard growling at more Heartless as they surrounded a girl. An attractive, tan-skinned teenager with teal blue eyes with a curvy if slim body and about the same height as Danny. She had a micro fringe and black long hair with a pink hair clip on her side to frame her heart-shaped face. She wore a pink crop-top that fit her torso nicely as it revealed her navel, light blue denim capri pants hugging her hips and white flats on her feet. Her makeup consisted of lavender colored eyeshadow and a mauve purple lipstick. She had her back up against the wall as one of the Search Ghosts had its hands reaching towards her.

"Not so fast!" Sora's voice got their attention as he ran towards them with the Jungle King in hand. "How about you pick on someone who can actually fight?"

"W-Who are you?" The girl asked with a Spanish accent. Then after looking over his form, she added, "And what's up with that goofy outfit?"

"Goofy outfit?" Sora blinked, looking at his clothes. "This?"

"Sora!" Gadget told him. "Focus!"

"O-Oh, right!"

Focusing on the Heartless, Sora got to work rescuing the girl from the dark creatures. Jimmy joined in as well, still using his tornado blaster to blow more of them away before they could try teleporting out of range. The girl watched them fight with a raised brow. She liked that she was being rescued, but was it really wrong that she would have preferred her actual hero to save her instead of these weirdos? At least the one with spiky hair could fight the monsters off.

After taking out the group of Heartless, and collecting all the usual drops they left, Sora went over to the girl to check if she was alright. She appeared to still be appraising him.

"Hey, you okay?" He asked her. "The Heartless didn't hurt you or anything, did they?"

"Thankfully no. Ugh!" She shivered in disgust. "If I got any scratches from those claws, I'd die!"

"Yeah, they are pretty sharp." He figured, but then she snapped.

"Not like that! I mean, have you seen my skin?" The girl showed herself off with a hand on the back of her head and the other on her bee-like waistline, displaying curvy hips. "Flawless and pristine! If anything happened to it, I'd kiss my life of popularity goodbye!"

Immediately, the prior tension stopped like a record scratch, and both Sora and Jimmy stared at the teenage girl with confused stares. Gadget herself gave the Latina a blank look.

"...Uh, what?" The keybearer blinked.

Did he hear that right?

"I got a reputation to uphold in school!" She continued, as if she didn't hear the perplexion in her rescuer's voice. "The moment you lose what makes you so beloved by everybody and cements your place in the clique, it's all over! At least the ghosts didn't get this close to doing that to me!"

"I'm pretty certain that being alive at all is something to be a bit more thankful for, but that's just my intuition, ma'am." Jimmy pointed out, a little annoyed by the teenager's flagrant disregard for her own safety in favor of her own social status.

She scoffed in response, of course.

"If I wanted advice from a fifth-grader with a cowlick, I would have asked." She rebutted, making Jimmy sputter in offense. Then to Sora, she said, "Look, I'm glad you helped me out and all, but unless you're Inviso-Bill, you're hardly a blip on my radar…"

She was still going, but Sora was not paying attention, leaving poor Gadget to facepalm and rub her face in annoyance. No, he did not ignore her on purpose. He simply noticed something up in the sky. Something big. Something black… and careening towards her! And she was too busy talking to notice!

"Watch out!" Sora quickly tackled her out of the way to avoid them getting crushed, catching her off guard with a shout.

Then the object just crashed down with a heavy impact, spreading smoke and scattering rubble everywhere as Sora held the girl below him to make sure she didn't get hurt. The dust began to fade, and the Keyblade master looked over to what had landed as the girl looked on, fear returning to her face. From the impact zone, a black, amorphous shape started wiggling before it began to stretch. It grew taller and taller until it towered over even the buildings in the area. A horrid face with yellow eyes and sharp teeth appeared in the center of it as a form emerged around it. Some kind of biker-like puppet clad in black with puppet joints connected to black tendrils like strings. The monstrous face seemed to appear on the shirt as wisps appeared on the puppet's head, trailing in the nonexistent wind, and claws appeared on the biker's gloves. The puppet's eyes were electric green, but no sign of life existed in them either.

The tendrils seemed to move in the air, guiding the puppet towards the down pair before having it raise one foot to crush them flat! Noticing this, Sora got up, carried the girl in his arms and then ran away before the puppet could stomp on them! For the girl, as the keybearer rescued her again, she suddenly felt as though things went in slow-motion. Looking up, she could see how determined and brave he looked as he held her protectively from the giant monster. Her eyes began to sparkle, her cheeks reddened, and her heart began to pound in her chest. She completely forgot about how she once thought his outfit was goofy. She hadn't felt like this outside of meeting the heroic ghost boy…!

Sora skid right next to Jimmy and Goddard, gently getting the girl back on her feet and telling her, "You get to safety! We'll take care of things here."

"Y-Yeah, okay…" She nodded a bit, somewhat getting back to reality as she then ran off, though not before giving another look of wonder towards him.

With the high school girl apparently safe, Sora joined Jimmy in focusing on the giant creature before them. No doubt about it. It had to be a Heartless. The tendrils manipulated the puppet's arms, having them reach out and make a pulling motion from the ground. Just then, from pools of darkness, two dark motorcycles with glowing yellow headlights and spiked wheels appeared, revving their engines as the dark pools faded from under them.

"Jimmy, have we got any good names for this one?" the islander asked.

"Judging by how the body appears to be controlled like a marionette, I'm going to dub it 'Bound Biker'." the boy genius answered. "As such, we might call its minions the Road Warriors. Would have gone with Hot Rods, but somehow it feels like it's already taken."

Goddard let out a confused whine at that.

"Either way, this is going to be a tough battle." Gadget said. "I'm not sure how good our chances are with just us here."

The sound of a bike engine reached their ears. But not from the Heartless before them. Rather, coming from behind, having them turn their heads to see a red hot rod bike approaching. Upon that bike was a teenager, much like Sora and the girl. His wild hair was a dark brown tan with blonde highlights. His eyes were an amber-yellow. His body was covered with scars, and he wore a dark blue long coat that had yellow lining on the inside. He wore a belt with a skull buckle. He wore a pair of black pants that had white stripes on the sides of them. On his feet, he wore a pair of sneaks with red straps on them. He also wore a studded scarf around his neck and studded wristbands. His gloves were fingerless and had raised metal studs on his knuckles. Stopping the bike near the pair, the boy took a good look at the giant monster before them.

"Good grief," he grunted, "as if these things weren't already a pain in the butt." Getting off the bike, he added, "And here I thought the Crusaders were annoying chumps."

"Uh…" Sora had no idea what he was talking about. "Who are you?"

"Who am I?" The boy asked back, walking right up next to them. "Isn't it obvious?" He then put his hands into his pockets and dynamically leaned forward, giving the Heartless a surly look.

"I'm an average exchange student!"

Sora, Gadget, Jimmy and Goddard all tilted their heads in confusion, but the roars of the Road Warriors approaching them got them back into the fight. Practically being living bikes, the Road Warriors could pop wheelies before trying to run over their enemies faces with the front wheel, but could easily get deflected back by Sora holding the Keyblade defensively. At other times, they popped stoppies in order to swing the rear tire like a club or a bat, and that was more effectively dodged than deflected. Fortunately these Road Warriors proved simple enough to beat and were taken down. But the Bound Biker simply had its hands risen and another pair of Road Warriors appeared to take their place, revving their engines loudly. At this, the 'average exchange student' closed his eyes and concentrated as he waved his arm out before him.

"Shut up already!" He told off the Heartless bikes and then opened his eyes as his hair suddenly flickered with a yellow glow. Then, four images of himself emerged from his being and then dashed before and behind him, instantly wiping out the Road Warriors that were just summoned.

"Woah!" Sora was amazed. "Did he just use magic?"

"It doesn't look like it, Sora." Gadget answered. "If anything, that might have been some other power."

"Hey, look sharp!" The new guy told the keybearer. "The boss ain't happy about his mooks being easy pickings."

Indeed, the Bound Biker's central face gave a great roar of anger before the tendrils began making their puppet move. The Bound Biker stomped towards the trio before rearing one arm back and punching forward, the joints making it stretch out to reach a farther distance! They thankfully dodged the attack just before it retracted back. But that wasn't all the Heartless had up its sleeve. The eyes of the Bound Biker's head began to emit a glow and then began firing green laser beams that trailed after the boys, forcing them to go on the run! When it appeared Sora and Jimmy were backed into a corner, the Heartless ceased firing lasers and then tried crushing them with both outreached fists, but a surprising counter strike from Sora pushed the arms back and ended up tangling them into the tendrils!

"Guys! Go for the tendrils!" Gadget told them. "They're holding up this giant marionette to begin with!"

"But how do we do that?" Sora asked. "There's not much that'll get us up there, and I don't think it makes those punches last long enough to get onto the arms!"

"They're also out of range of my tornado blaster!" Jimmy concurred. "As it is, we don't have much to work with against this boss."

"Oh I doubt that." The other teen disagreed. Looking at Sora, he asked, "Hey, Sora, right?"

"Uh, yeah, but how do you–?" Sora was confused by how he knew his name without asking for it.

"Just throw that oversized door key at it." He cut him off. "I'll take care of the rest."

Apparently the 'average exchange student' had a plan, and who was Sora to distrust the guy who could apparently use not-magic? So, the islander threw the Keyblade towards the Bound Biker, and the scarred boy closed his eyes and held out his hand. Suddenly, the Keyblade began spinning faster and kept moving in the air; even flying upward and defying the laws of physics! The Keyblade struck through and flew through several of the tendrils, cutting into them and making them dissipate into black smoke, making the puppet lose motion in its joints and then end up plummeting to the ground with a heavy smash once the last tendril was destroyed. The Keyblade then flew back towards Sora and he grabbed it by the handle, with the other boy opening his eyes and putting his hand down.

"Alright, now let's thump this chump!" The youth then rushed towards the Heartless, no hesitation, no fear.

"We better join him before he ends up getting in trouble." Jimmy figured, following him with Sora.

So, joining the exchange student, the keybearer and the boy genius joined him in attacking the head of the Bound Biker, dealing as much damage as they could. The wild youth hit the puppet with booted kicks and heavy elbow strikes while Jimmy kept blasting with gusts of wind and Sora with strikes from the Keyblade. However, that didn't seem to do enough to do the Bound Biker in, and tendrils reappeared from the darkness to bring the puppet back up to its feet, forcing our young heroes to step back. Especially since the Bound Biker summoned yet more Road Warriors.

"Bet you scare easy." Once more, the mysterious biker youth waved his arm and his hair flickered yellow. This time, four afterimages of himself spread out in four corners around him before suddenly becoming sleet cutters and lashing out at the Road Warriors, actually forcing them to turn their rears towards them! "Hah! Figured. Idiots."

"Huh, guess even creatures of darkness are capable of fright." Gadget blinked.

"Just what kind of not-magic is that?" Sora had to wonder in amazement as he destroyed one of the Road Warriors.

"Something that's not doing much for long!" Jimmy answered as he destroyed the other Road Warrior. "It's going to punch again!"

And indeed, the Bound Biker reared back its arms and then let loose a double-punch, forcing the three to dodge once again. Sora figured he could try throwing his Keyblade at the tendrils again and the other boy would move it to take the tendrils down. Sure enough, the biker thought the same thing, and did just that. However, before the last tendril could be cut, the darkness actually began pulling it away to avoid getting pierced, right before using the puppet's mostly motionless body to try and crush its enemies underneath it! At the very least, the three avoided getting crushed, but unfortunately the impact still did a bit of damage.

"Ugh, that hurt…" The exchange student focused on himself, and somehow his wounds healed!

"Heal!" Sora held his Keyblade up and healed himself.

Jimmy, being a firm believer of science, grimaced when he had to use a potion to heal himself.

"Ugh… I really should get this to the lab so I can figure out the potential side effects…" He muttered.

"This doesn't look good, boys." The gummi ship mechanic said. "If this Heartless has learned how to avoid getting its strings cut, then we're not going to do anything that'll do lasting damage."

"Tch." The newcomer spat to the ground. "Of all the times for it to have a brain. Now it won't let us cut it down to size."

At this, Jimmy groaned as he realized something.

"Ugh, this would have been a great time to use my Shrink Ray, but I left it back at the lab!" He berated himself. "It would have helped us immensely with this Heartless… and, now that I think about it, back in Wonderland, too! We're really stuck on this one…"

Sora looked at his surroundings quickly. Cracks in the road from the Bound Biker's fists. Dirt patches in some roads to backyards…It was then the keybearer got an idea and quickly ran towards the dirt patches. The newcomer, seeing the islander go and his hair flickering, went after him. The two boys stopped on the patch and then began calling towards the monster.

"Hey, we're over here!" Sora waved the Keyblade over his head.

"See if you can get us now, you overgrown splinter!" The biker taunted.

The Bound Biker heard the calls and turned in their direction as tendrils began attaching themselves to the limbs yet again. The Heartless reared back its arms to strike once more… and that was just what Sora was intending on!

"Water!" Sora called out and pointed the Keyblade below himself and the scarred newcomer.

With that, a blast of water hit the ground as they jumped away from the patch once the Heartless let its fists fly at them. The two fists hit the wet patch, but were unable to immediately pull themselves out because the water made the patch into mud! That gave Sora and the biker enough time to get on the fists and start running up the arms.

"I'll show you hell!" The newcomer told the Heartless as he concentrated. Then when he jumped up at the monster's face, four afterimages of himself spun behind and ahead of him before turning into ghastly, dark, laughing skulls with gleaming red eyes that spun around him before spreading out and making heavy impacts at the monster's face!

"And now, the final blow!" Sora came right after, jumping up and holding the Jungle King above his head, ready to strike. "Hiya!"

And then he struck through the Bound Biker's head, slashing downward through the Heartless's form until he landed on the ground feet first; the newcomer landed next to him the same way. Defeated, the tendrils dissipated one by one, and the Bound Biker fell into a heap of tangled joints, unable to move much further. The face on the torso let out one dying howl before fading to complete and total blackness. The body too followed suit, fading into dark wisps. Not a single large heart to be found.

Sora, once all was said and done, wiped his brow of sweat and mused, "Well, that takes care of that." Looking at the newcomer, he added, "I have no idea how you know me, but thanks."

"Eh, no big deal. I've dealt with way worse." He played it off with a casual shrug.

"That reminds me." The boy genius looked over to the stranger. "Just who are you, exactly?"

"And how do you know my name?" The keybearer asked.

"I'll get to that when I get to that." The biker shrugged off their questions. "First, we should check and see if Paulina's alright."

"Who's Paulina?" Sora asked next.

"Right here, dreamboat~!"

And then, Sora found himself glomped, taking him by surprise and having Gadget hold onto his hair for dear life. Fortunately, he kept himself steady even as he found himself with an extra person snuggling up against him. None other than the girl he rescued, who was busy rubbing her cheek against his as she held him closely against her. He also couldn't help but feel two soft things pressing up against his slim chest, too.

Oh.

"Paulina Sanchez, most popular girl at Casper High and soooo thankful for the several saves~!" She said, introducing herself and nuzzling against him, making him blush and getting Gadget annoyed. "Just watching you fight that gigantic monster without any fear for your own life! Oh, so heroic and dashing~!"

"I, uh…" Sora was a bit unsure of what to say. "You're welcome? It was not that difficult. I mean, I had help–"

"And the way you swung your giant key like it was a shining sword! It was just like those weird cartoons those nerds watch, only way cooler!" She continued, practically fawning over him. "Seriously, when they do it, it's all obviously fake, but yours is the real deal~!"

"You know, there's a phrase here about stones and glass houses, Miss 'I Like Sayonara Pussycat'." The biker snarked, immediately having the girl look sour in his direction.

"You mind, Tadokoro?" She told him off. "I'm busy having a moment here with the new hero of Amity Park."

"Tell you what, Sanchez," 'Tadokoro' put his hands in his pockets and leaned forward, giving her a surly glare, "how about you get somewhere safe, maybe with your popular dork friends, instead of hanging around here like a lovesick chick waiting to get eaten? Then you can debate with yourself about your little 'Phantom' crush and your new one on Sora here all day long."

Paulina growled at the exchange student before giving a softer smile towards Sora, telling him, "Sora, huh? Nice name, too. Much better than Akira here."

It was definitely a shot pointed towards the biker, now named Akira Tadokoro, and the exchange student rolled his eyes.

"Well, I certainly won't mind seeing you again. Maybe we can have a little lunch date." She continued. "But for now, I think this token of appreciation will do~"

And with that, Paulina gave Sora a kiss on the cheek, getting him redder and even laying a kiss mark on it. Jimmy actually stuck out his tongue in disgust while Gadget found herself glaring at Paulina.

Whispering in his ear, Paulina added, "Try getting yourself alone with me later. I would love to give you a real hero's reward~"

The keybearer felt something getting placed in his pocket, but he was just frozen in place from the kiss. Afterward, the popular girl then got off of Sora and turned to leave, giving him a wink and a smile as she walked off, strutting her hips purposefully.

"Ugh… Girls." Jimmy shook his head. "Ever a mystery I dare not look into."

"...And yes, that IS her number she gave you." Akira told Sora, smacking him over the head to snap him out of it.

"Ow!" Sora rubbed his skull, also helping Gadget get on his hand when she was about to fall off.

Gadget also took advantage of her new position to start cleaning his cheek, "Shallow girl…"

"Anyway, with that Heartless taken care of, things should be just about clear here in Amity Park for the moment." The fifth grader told them. "We should probably regroup with the others. They said they'd be over at that Nasty Burger restaurant, so we'd better check up on that and get everyone up to date."

"The Nasty Burger? That lousy fast food place?" Akira raised a brow. "Ugh… Dunno why all the other students hang out there. Food's not even that good. 'One letter away from tasty' my rear end. But I unfortunately know where it is. I'll get you guys over there."

"You will?" Sora asked, while Gadget just finished cleaning up his cheek and was proud of her handiwork, even placing her hands on her hips and puffing up her chest.

"Sure. It'll be a quick go on my bike." Akira blinked as he just noticed Sora placed Gadget back in his hair. "...You sure that's a good spot for your mouse?"

"I don't mind." the tiny engineer told him.

"...Eh, whatever." The teen with some mysterious power let it go. Having seen a bipedal dog with a shield was more shocking than a talking mouse girl. "C'mon. Think you both can fit in behind me?"

"No need." Jimmy replied, clapping his hands. Then Goddard converted into a scooter mode and he got on, gripping the handles, "I'm all set here."

"Woah, you can turn your dog-bot into that?" Akira got curious. "What else can it do?"

"Oh, well, I'm glad you asked!" Jimmy was eager to explain his work. "You see…"

But while Akira and Jimmy were getting wrapped up in their conversation, Sora ended up noticing something that appeared out of place. In a nearby alley, sparkling in the shadows, was a bottle. A tall golden container with red-and-orange patterns and studs decorating it. It has a cap on top, a slim neck, and a wide, round center. Curious about the peculiar sight, Sora began walking over towards it. Gadget, being in his hair, tried getting his attention.

"Uh, Sora, don't you think we should stay with Jimmy and Akira?" She reminded him.

"Yeah, but this won't take a minute." He assured her. Picking up the bottle, he looked at it closely, observing the notable number of cracks in it. "Huh… Looks like an old, broken piece of junk… Might break if I touch it the wrong way."

Spying the cap, the islander slowly reached for it as a voice whispered in his ear. "Let me out."

"I wonder if there's anything inside…" He muttered seemingly absentmindedly, grabbing the cap.

"Sora, wait! This might be a trap–!" The gummi ship mechanic realized something dire and tried to warn him.

But it was too late. Sora removed the cap, and then green smoke emerged from the bottle – from out of the hole and out of the cracks -, breaking it apart and making him step back in surprise. He watched as the smoke started to converge together, taking shape and form. Soon, in the smoke's place, there was, no doubt in Sora's mind, a genie. A female genie, mind you.

Tall, body like an hourglass, green-skinned with red eyes, with really extremely beautiful long black hair that seemed to cover one eye at certain angles, and a blue wispy tail. To doll herself up, she wore purple lipstick, a blue headband, a blue crop-top with blue bangles and a purple necklace. She had two metallic purple cuffs on each arm, one on her bicep and one on her wrist, and she had two blue bangle bracelets on her right wrist and one on her left. Her outfit consisted of Arabian attire, which included a blue strapless crop top with purple trim, along with a metallic purple belt with a blue jewel in the center, which hung over her tail. As she looked upon him with a smile, Sora couldn't help but blush again, somewhat struck by her beauty.

"I am Desiree." she said to him, clapping her hands together. "What is your wish?"

"Are… Are you a real genie?" Sora was still surprised by what he was looking at.

"Sora, that's not a–!" Gadget tried telling him otherwise, but unfortunately her voice was falling on deaf ears.

"Of course I am~" She purred, not without some pride. "A ghostly genie."

"A Phantom Wish Mistress?" he asked in response. Gadget rubbed her temples with her eyes shut as this proceeded.

Desiree drew back, growing massive, towering, imposing! A gigantic figure who crossed both arms proudly underneath her bust, propping it up while letting her head tilt back. "The! Phantom Wish Mistress! Desiree, the granter of your deepest, most secret desires~"

Returning to her previous size, she placed an arm underneath her chin, tilting her head while spiraling around him playfully. Although Gadget could tell the smoke trails she was leaving were forming a prison of mist. "So, that girl said your name was Sora?"

Gadget leaped onto his shoulder, pointing right at Desiree, "And I'm Gadget!"

The genie had a brief fleeting look of disgust, "Of course you are..."

"Of course I am, of course you are, but of course what are we doing?" Sora asked, looking around.

"Leaving." Gadget told him, trying to steer him back out of the alley before a great green hand slammed down in front of them.

Desiree, twisting about in front of them once more, spoke, "But wait, my dear freedom granter, what about your three wishes~?"

"Well, Miss Desiree," the keybearer admitted to her, "while I appreciate the offer, I don't exactly have anything I need to wish for and I really need to get back to my friends."

"You heard the man." The fieldmouse told her off. "So let us go already."

The green genie, however, could tell that the boy was still mildly charmed by her appearance, and she wasn't planning on letting him leave that easily. So, she decided to employ a new tactic. One that has always worked on the hearts of men.

"Surely, there must be something~" She insisted, letting one hand reach out and gently press against Sora's chest. He couldn't help but feel the heat rushing to his face. "Something you're searching for?"

"W-Well, I…" He stammered a bit as she moved in closer to him.

"Or perhaps it's not a thing, but someone." The ghostly genie figured, floating around him. "Someone you hold close to your heart. Perhaps you'd wish to see them again?"

Sora couldn't help but feel her words reaching him. He was searching for Riku and Kairi, and so far he had no luck whatsoever.

"I'll admit, there are some people I'm looking for…" He whispered.

"See?" Desiree encouraged him. "And from the look on your face, you hold them dearly. You must miss them so very much. You've been searching for so long, you'd prefer to see them sooner, wouldn't you?"

"You have no idea." Sora admitted. "They're my best friends. Since we were kids."

"Then simply wish for it." She told him. "After all, your wish is my command~."

Gadget knew something was up, and she did not like the way this faux genie was using Sora's emotions to get him to make a wish. She knew she had to do something.

"Well, I guess if it's that easy, then I w–" Sora was just about to make that wish when Gadget pulled on a lock of his hair, cutting him off. "Ow! What?"

"Sora, I understand you want to see your friends as soon as possible, but this isn't the way to do it." She told him, making the genie ghost glare with a scowl towards her.

"But Gadget, if there's even a chance this could help me find Riku and Kairi," the islander replied, "why shouldn't I take it? This is practically the fifth world we've been in and we hadn't found any clue to where they might be."

"I know, Sora. But we can't trust this ghost to help you find them." She presented her case. "Clearly, she just wants you to ask for something that's bound to get twisted! She's hardly being subtle about it either."

"I don't know, she doesn't seem that way." Sora wasn't exactly convinced, which made Desiree give a smirk he didn't notice. "I mean, it's not like she's wrong about it either."

"Sora, she doesn't even know who your friends are or what they look like." The gummi ship mechanic was calm in explaining to him her concerns. "Can you really trust her to make your friends appear before you?"

"But what am I supposed to do to make sure she's trustworthy? What should I say?" He asked. "I wish for Desiree to be my personal genie?"

The question was purely a hypothetical. However, he did not realize that very phrasing would lead to rather amusing consequences.

"Wait, what?" Desiree blinked.

"Wait, what?" Sora just registered what he just said.

WHAT.

Her body quivered, and a ring began manifesting out of light and floating into the air, smoke pouring from its surface.

It spun around– oh what a ring, oh what a golden ring!

Letters etched themselves onto the ring, Arabic words blazing themselves onto the surface of it, glowing lights of a radiant array forming onto it a great red gemstone.

"Oh..."

"My…"

"Goodness!" Sora, Desiree, and even Gadget gasped.

A copy of that ring formed over Desiree's waist, a long gilded chain flying out and attaching itself onto the ring that appeared over Sora's own finger!

The two connected, and a golden glow suffused the two! When it faded, Desiree was staring at her hands in horror. Why?

Because rings covered her fingers.

Innumerable additional chains linking to Sora's, binding them ever closer.

"You fool!" Desiree's indignation finally boiled over as she shouted at Sora. "Don't you realize what you have just done?!"

"I… made a wish?" Sora blinked, figuring that this was the case.

"You just bound me to your service like an actual genie!" She actually began shaking him wildly in her frustration. "Why in all the world would you have wished for something like that?!"

"I'm sorry, it was an accident! I was just trying to ask a silly question!" He tried to apologize. "I–"

"You still said the two words to make it happen!" Desire was gripping her hair in frustration. "OH WHY MUST I ALWAYS GRANT A WISH UPON HEARING THAT INFERNAL PHRASE?!"

"Uhhhhhh… Sora? What's going on here?"

Sora and Gadget looked over to see Jimmy, Goddard, and Akira looking at the scene with perplexed expressions, eyebrows up. Sora then looked over to Desiree, who was busy giving him perhaps the most judgmental glare he had ever seen directed at him. Yikes. And he thought Donald's were bad.

"Aha…" Sora nervously laughed. "This is gonna be awkward to explain to Danny."

—-

Kitty had hoped that there would be a way to undo it all. For a way to return Johnny back to his normal form. Sure, she and Johnny had a relationship that had its ups and downs, but they still loved each other, even if he did have a wandering eye. The moment where it appeared where it looked like they would finally be free to do whatever they wanted, of course they took the chance to be free. Why did it have to involve these dark creatures? These Heartless that took her boyfriend and turned him into a monster?

The moment his change happened over the loss of his precious bike, when his own Shadow swallowed him whole, she was so worried. She had to go after him. Try and save him. But they were too fast, even for her to catch up as they flew. When she saw the monster they had become, she could only look on in horror.

Johnny 13. Her beloved Johnny… reduced to nothing more than a puppet, with mockeries of his signature roadhog as mere toys. All because of those Heartless. Those sick, twisted abominations. She hated them. She hated every single one of them.

…Oh, but she hated someone else too. Hated someone just as much as she hated the Heartless. She hated the one who destroyed Johnny. Killed him into nothingness like he was nothing more than a bug. That spiky-haired boy with the oversized key, and his friends who encouraged him to do it. She hated that smile on his face. She hated how he didn't care about who the monster originally was. She hated him for taking her boyfriend away from her.

She HATED him.

As she flew in Amity Park's skies with tears pouring down her face, she looked into her hand to see the one thing that remained of her beloved Johnny. His skull necklace.

"Johnny… I swear to you… soon… very soon, I will avenge you…" She swore softly, wearing the necklace around her neck. "I swear…"

As her makeup ran down her face, her eyes glowed a fierce red as her hands glowed with a blue phantasmal energy. Her fury was more than evident, and she knew just who it would be meant for.

"I will KILL the one with the key."

—-

Okay, WOW. Sorry for the long wait, folks. You will NOT believe what happened to end up pushing this chapter's release back as long as it did. So I'll sum it up for you.

First, writer's block. Kinda the pain of every writer's backside, but that's not the worst of it. Second, real life obligations, like helping another writer convert her original novel into a screenplay for a movie and trying to get used to how a screenplay format works. I actually had to use a different app to get that started up, and I'm STILL trying to work on it. Third, hernia surgery. That last one's a real kick in the pants and I'm still recovering from it.

Fortunately, after all that was said and done, I decided to say screw it and get back into the thick of it while I'm able to. I would like to say that the next chapter won't take as long, but as I mentioned, I'm still writing that screenplay conversion and real life tends to get in the way these days. And on top of that, the next chapter is mostly going to be more original material with a revised version of the last part of the original Haunted Amity Park level in Nicktoons UNITE!, so who knows how long writing all of that while keeping everything and everyone in character will be. But let's hope for the best, shall we?

This chapter was beta'd by The Swordslinger with some dialogue in the Desiree scene crafted by The Lord of Pages. Thank you guys for the help!

And have a Happy Halloween!