Gepth: Welp, here's another chapter. Should be studying, but I'm drawing and writing instead. And playing Final Fantasy. Man, nothing quite as awesome as double blackmage fury! Anyways, here's more of Halloween. And Aliasfan, I'm surprised you didn't recognize who Daemon really is. Oh, well, anyone who doesn't will be revealed to next chapter.
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"That's strange," said Jack. "She isn't here."
He looked about, but still did not see Sally. He turned to the others.
"She said to meet here in half an hour, right, guys?" he asked. Orchid nodded.
"That's what I heard," she said. They had been standing there for nearly ten minutes already.
"How very unlike her," he muttered.
"Maybe she's still in the graveyard, kupo?" suggested Montblanc, flittering about with his little wings.
"Well, let's go check," said Jack.
They searched high and low throughout the twisted hills and knolls of the graveyard, with no sign of Sally, until by accident, Orchid stumbled over a gravestone and went tumbling down the slope.
"Owch!" she cried out as she came to a rest, hitting her shoulder against a wooden grave marker. "Jeez..."
She went quiet when she saw the name of the grave.
"Deadly Nightshade..." she said softly, staring at the black plants growing over the barrow. Looking a little ways away, she could see a scatter of blooms lying strewn about on the ground. She called for the others as she walked over.
"Yeah, you find something?" asked Arc grouchily as he trudged up, pants mucky from falling in a hidden mire.
"I think so," said Orchid. She held up the discarded flowers for the others to see.
"Those are the Deadly Nightshade blooms!" said Jack. "I guess Sally came here to get them."
"I wonder where she went then, and why she left them here," murmured Orchid as she pocketed the flowers.
"Zero, could you check things out?" Jack asked his ghostly companion. The dog barked, turned around once, then sniffed around the area. He trailed away to the other side of the gravestone, then towards a slightly darkened area. Upon coming to this area, he suddenly shot back and started growling at it uneasily. "What's wrong, boy?"
"I'm willing to bet the Heartless are behind this," said Arc.
"Without a doubt," agreed Orchid.
"Oh, come on, guys," said Jack. "You shouldn't be so hard on them. They've been a great help this year! I'm sure if we go to town, we can get them to help organize a search party."
Orchid sighed and shrugged. The group followed Jack as he walked back to the town. They went down the narrow, crooked streets and dark alleys until they came to the town square, its gargoyle fountain still spewing greenish liquid. There weren't too many people about, though a number of Heartless search ghosts were floating around.
"Hey, there!" said Jack, running up to a group of them. The search ghosts turned and stared at him curiously. "Have you seen Sally?"
The search ghosts gave no indication of understanding what he meant.
"The girl with the red hair and ragdoll body," he added helpfully. One of the search ghosts tilted its head, then nodded in recognition. "Have you seen her?"
All three of the Heartless shook their heads.
"Well, sorry to hear that," sighed Jack. "Well, do you think you might be able to get some of your pals together and organize a search for her?"
The Heartless that had understood him wavered from side to side, as if trying to decide. Suddenly, its back when straight and it stood as if shocked, then quickly relaxed and assumed its normal wavering self. It nodded at him.
"Great! Wish you luck, good fellows!" said Jack. He turned to the trio. "Okay, while they do that, let's get these blooms to Dr. Finklestein!"
Arc stared suspiciously as the Heartless stalked off. Something wasn't right.
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"We need more time," muttered Daemon.
"Hey!"
"Mister!"
"We're here!"
"Ah, you three," he said. "Is it all ready?"
"Ready as ever!"
"Raring to go!"
"Very well. Then lead him on your merry chase."
"With pleasure."
There was the sound of evil laughter as the three skittered away, malicious intents in mind.
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"Ah, Jack, I see you made it back in one piece," observed Dr. Finklestein. "So, did you bring back the flowers that I needed?"
"Uh, yeah, I have them," said Orchid as she went through her pockets. She soon came up with a handful of soft, deep purple blooms. "This good enough?"
"That should be a sufficient amount," agreed the doctor, taking them from her. He flipped the lever on the arm of his wheelchair and steered himself over to the desk, where the Poison Ivy keychain still rested. Then, he tossed the flowers into a pestle, and ground them up with the mortar. Adding dashes and bits of various powders and ingredients, he ended up with a rough, black, granular mixture, which he poured into the dark cage of the keychain with the help of a funnel.
The reaction was almost immediate.
The small metal cage shook as if something was moving in it, and soon, little black tentacles snaked their way out of the darkness to wrap around the steely bars as top. It wasn't until they grew bigger and sprouted inky black leaves that Orchid realized that they were vines, not tentacles.
When it finished, the metal cage keychain was entwined and wrapped in ebony vines with dark black leaves, sinister, and very much alive. The doctor handed it to Orchid, and she took it with reluctance.
"Well, try it on the keyblade, kupo!" said Montblanc. Orchid nodded, then summoned the keyblade and hooked the new keychain onto the key ring that Clockwork Grape's keychain hung off of.
Quickly, the keyblade lost its shimmering green for the inky black that it had had as Poison Ivy. Off the handguards and haft sprouted sinister black leaves, dark as night and slick as sin. The bunch of grapes had now been replaced by a set of black leaves, set around a single, large purple bloom, so dark as to almost be black. No light reflected off it, and Orchid suspected this was no fault of the dim laboratory lights.
"Nightshade," she said, knowing the blade's new name.
"Sweet," grinned Arc.
"Does it give you any new abilities, kupo?" asked Montblanc.
"Well...I have Poison back again," said Orchid. "And now...I also have a spell called 'Terror'. I wonder what that does?"
No one got a chance to offer an idea before there was a yelling at the door. They all hurried downstairs, except for the doctor, to see who it was.
They opened the door to find a small, somewhat squat and triangular man with a top hat thinner than Jack and almost as tall as him too. The man had a smiling peachy colored face with funny looking eyes.
"Oh, Jack, I'm so glad to see you!" he said. Then his head turned around to reveal another face, this one worried, pale, and nervous. "You've got to help me!"
"Why, Mayor," said Jack. "What's wrong?"
"It's Oogie's boys!" he whispered, as if afraid to be heard.
"Jack! Jack! It's Jack!" came the shout.
The mayor scurried into the tower and hid behind Jack and the others as three little figures scrambled up. The first was a little boy dressed in red, with wiggling pointed tail. He wore a red devilish mask over his tall face. The next was a girl, in a green witch's mask and faded purple dress, along with a tall pointed hat. Lastly was a rotund, portly boy, with a grinningly ghoulish gray mask and skeleton decorated clothes. He licked at a black and orange lollipop.
"Why, it's Halloween's finest Trick-or-Treaters!" said Jack happily. "And to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"And we thought you didn't like us," said the girl shyly.
"Daemon sent us!" said the pudgy boy.
"By name!" added the devil boy.
The introduced themselves to all, one by one, taking off their masks.
"Lock!" said the devil.
"Shock!" said the witch.
"And Barrel!" said the ghoul, taking a lick at his lollipop.
Their faces were not very different from their masks.
"Why did Daemon send you?" asked Jack.
"He sent us to warn you!" said Shock.
"Oogie's back in town!" added Lock, dancing from one foot to the other.
"And he's got the girl!" finished Barrel.
"You mean Sally?" said Jack in surprise.
"Didn't you people already beat Oogie? With Sora and those guys?" asked Orchid.
"Old haunts die hard," said the Mayor in a frightened voice. "I'll just stay here while you take care of this, if you don't mind."
"Can you take me to him?" said Jack urgently.
"Yeah!" nodded Lock.
"Sure thing!" shouted Shock as she hurried down the path from the tower.
"This way!" called Barrel as the four of them ran after the three little kids.
"Well, I guess you'll get to find out Terror does pretty soon, neh?" grinned Arc lopsidedly to Orchid.
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"Fall into my web, little Skellington fly," he recited emotionlessly. "Once you are gone, I'll suck this world dry."
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They were near the twisted spiral hill when they attacked.
"Heartless!" shouted Orchid, swinging the keyblade around.
Searchghosts, the heartless in coats and gloves, gargoyles, the leathery bat-like ones, and wight nites, the spinning cyclopean mummies, crawled out from under the shadows of tombstones, surrounding them.
Lock, Shock, and Barrel gave little screams of terror and ran off to hide as Arc and Orchid drew their blades, and Montblanc readied his wand. Jack looked about in surprise, then crouched low and spider-like, ready to fight.
"Bring it on," grinned Orchid, waving about Nightshade.
She was duly obliged by a pouncing wight nite, who took the keyblade straight in the face, dispersing into inky black particles, only to be sucked back in again by the keyblade.
"Hah!" yelled Arc as Sequence sliced a gargoyle out of the air in mid-dive. Turning, he bashed another Heartless with his sheild, smashing in its face and destroying it.
"Let's go, guys!" shouted Jack as he slid gracefully on his knees through a crowd of Heartless, knocking them this way and that, then tearing at them with his bony hands.
"Thundara, Blizzara, Fira!" cast Montblanc, unleashing a salvo of magic. All around him, Heartless dissappeared in puffs of fire, lightning, and ice.
Orchid turned after beating a searchghost, only to get knocked off her feet by a swooping gargloyle. Sliding roughly across the ground, she quickly scrambled back up, and took aim with the keyblade.
"Let's try this..." she muttered as she got the gargoyle in her sights. "Terror!"
A cloud of sin black bats came swooping out of nowhere, surrounding the Heartelss until it was no longer visible. The floating black mass in the sky struggled and grew, until it was a featureless ink black ball. Then it burst, and there was nothing there.
"Awesome!" said Orchid, turning and blocking the blow of a wight nite. "Poison!"
Her spell hit a clump of searchghosts, spraying them with noxious green ooze that slid off them with sickening drops. The Heartless shuddered and twitched, but kept attacking. However, their moves were sluggish and slow, and they were weak to the blows from attacks.
"Applause!" shouted Jack, as lightning burst out around him, thundering like a tumultous crowd, scattering Heartless left and right.
"Get offa me!" yelled Arc irately as a wight nite latched onto his arm. He shook it off, only to get another clinging to his back. Montblanc was encountering similar problems, and even Jack was starting to get bogged down. There were just to many of them.
"Moonlight," yelled Orchid, sweeping away a Heartless that came too close, "Rave!"
She stepped, and then blurred out of sight.
Jack, Arc and Montblanc watched as Heartless flew all over, dispersing into their base darkness and trailing after the blur of explosions as they were sucked into the keyblade. As they shook off the last few hanging onto them, they watched as Orchid leapt and blurred out again, only to appear just above the final clump of Heartless.
"Finale!" she yelled as she came down. She blurred out again, the entire group of enemies exploded into a million inky fragments. The dust cleared, and Orchid stood in the middle, grinning.
"Let's go rescue Sally," she said.
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"They're coming, they're coming!" shouted Shock and Barrel as they ran up the slope.
"Good. And the trap's all set," said Daemon coldly.
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"Come on, you guys, hurry!" urged Lock as he led the four warriors through the graveyard. "This way!"
He led them over low walls and around masoleums until they crossed over a thin stone bridge. On the other side stood a pair of imposing black gates, wide open like a gaping maw. Shock and Barrel stood there, anxiously dancing from foot to foot.
"So Oogie's in there?" asked Jack as he walked up and peered into the gloomy depths of the forest.
"Yeah!" said Shock.
"Just follow the path!" said Barrel.
"I've got to help Sally!" said Jack as he ran in through the open gates.
"Tch...Doesn't even check if it's safe," sighed Arc.
"Hey," said Orchid, turning to the three little kids, who were giggling quietly. The three stopped and turned to face her, masks innocent. "Thanks for helping us."
"No problem," said Lock, grinning.
"None at all," added Shock, pulling a lever.
"Just doing what we're supposed to!" laughed Barrel as the gates to the forest slammed closed.
The three laughed maniacally as Orchid ran forwards and tried to open the gates, to no avail.
"Jack, wait!" she shouted. "It's a trap!"
