This one was pretty quick to do! The inspiration imagination just went wild on me! I decided not only to look at the story from within the game of Kingdom Hearts, but I also looked into the manga version, too. From there, I managed to create a story line that works well, along with each character getting some good moments. Time to tumble into Wonderland!
Chapter 1: Falling Down the Rabbit Hole
Sora and Philia endured the ride as Donald steered and Goofy fired the turrets of the gummi ship, striking down the Heartless ships that were in their path. "Goofy, on our right!" Donald called to Goofy. "Right!" Goofy answered, firing the turret towards two Heartless ship, taking them down.
"Is it going to be like this every time we fly to a new world?!" Sora asked. "Yep! The Heartless ships give us a hard time out here, but we can beat them up with our gummi ship!" Goofy answered. "Just hold on! We're almost there!" Donald shouted. Philia and Sora looked out the dome window to see that Donald was right. "We finally made it; A new world!" Philia sighed in relief.
(Philia speaking) Hi. My name is Philia, and that's all you'll get from me. Some time ago, I landed in a world called Traverse Town, with no memory of my past. This is mostly the reason why I joined these people on their journey.
Sora, here, is the chosen wielder of the Keyblade, a special weapon used to defeat the Heartless. Donald and Goofy were sent by the king to find Sora, and search for the king afterwards. Jiminy Cricket is our journalist, writing down our entire journey in his little book. As for me, well, I'm just searching for who I am, and where I came from. Maybe this world will give me some answers.
"So how do we get down there?" Sora asked. "Simple. We use that there transporter to telephone us down to the surface." "Teleport!" Donald corrected Goofy's statement. "Right. We teleport down there." Goofy corrected himself. Sora and Philia looked to the circular platform surrounded by a metallic wall.
"Is it safe?" Philia asked. "Sure! We went to Traverse Town on that thing!" Goofy answered. "I'll lock in the coordinates to get us down there!" Donald informed the crew, "Get on the transporter!" Sora, Goofy and Philia all climbed onto the platform. Once Donald punched in the coordinates, he waddled his way onto the transporter, and they disappeared in a flash of light.
When they reappeared, they looked about. They found themselves in a dark, circular room. Sora then felt nothing beneath his feet, looked down, and looked horrified. A deep hole was beneath them. "Oh no…" Sora moaned, and the four started falling down the hole, screaming like crazy, wondering what was gonna happen next.
(Cue 'Digimon Adventure Tri Opening 1 - Butterfly TV Size', music on Youtube)
(0:00-0:19) As the viewer zoom in on a grassy field, a red shape passes the viewer, revealing Sora in the distance. A light blue shape passes, revealing Philia, then a green one reveals Goofy, and a dark blue one reveals Donald. The viewer zooms in and circles around to see the four of them standing there, looking off into the distance. The image becomes blurry as the title appears in front of them.
(0:19-0:30) Sora was asleep on the shore of the Destiny Islands, but was awoken by a voice behind him. He turned to see Kairi and Riku standing there by the raft, the latter looking somewhat annoyed by Sora's laziness while Kairi waved him over to help. Sora got to his feet and raced to his friends. The screen fades to white.
(0:31-0:41) The viewer zoom out of the white in Philia's eyes as she practices with her Sword Breaker, with Leon and Yuffie watching her. Her blade glowing yellow-green as she thrusted her blade forward in a Dagger Skill. She holds her position for a moment as Yuffie applauds her, then Philia lowers her weapon, looking up at the sky with a sad expression. The viewer looks into the sky, seeing the stars as they shined for a seconds, before quickly disappearing one by one.
(0:41-0:46) The viewer zooms out as Maleficent comes into view, standing at the table with the shadowy silhouettes of her villainous allies, and Riku at her side.
(0:47-0:55) The scene changes to six of the seven Princesses of Heart, their eyes closed as if they were asleep. Kairi appears in the middle of it, her arms crossed in front of her as she opens her eyes and her body scatters into lights, replacing her position with Sora as he stood there beside Philia, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy on Donald's head as the viewer shifts the angle to behind them, seeing the hundreds of Heartless in front of them.
(0:56-1:06) The four begin to display to the viewers their combat skills against the Heartless one at a time, starting with Sora, then Philia, then Goofy, then finally Donald, who rains down lightning onto the Heartless before the heroes charge in to continue fighting.
(1:07-1:18) The viewer passes the Heartless to see Riku standing at the end, reaching out to Sora as to invite him to the darkness, with the shadowy image of Heartless Ansem mimicking his movements. Philia clears the path for Sora as he races forward, reaching out to his friend. The view shifts to Sora's view, his hand reaching out to Riku as he and the darkness fade away into the light.
(1:19-1:32) The screen shines an image of King Mickey holding the Keyblade as Donald and Goofy looking in from the sides. The view shifts to a dark image of Aincrad as it crumbles away, with Philia's face looking to the viewer. The view zooms out as Sora pats Philia's shoulder, causing her to look and smile at Sora as he grinned back. The view zooms back even further to show quartet and Jiminy standing there, smiling at the viewers as they stood on the same hill as before, before the view shifts back to the sky again, with the flower petals flying by once again.
"Why did you set us here, Donald?!" Philia demanded, tumbling down the hole. "I didn't know this was gonna happen!" Donald squawked back.
While three of the heroes were terrified, believing they were gonna die, Goofy noticed something, and asked, "Hey, uh, does anyone feel like they're slowin' down?" The trio stopped panicking, feeling their descent. He was right. They were less falling like a bag of hammers, but more like hanging from parachutes. What's more, they were able to control themselves in the air better.
"What's going on?" Sora asked, turning to Donald, "Is this suppose to happen?" "How should I know?" Donald replied. Goofy looked like he was relaxing on a couch as they fell.
"Ground floor, incoming." Philia warned the team, seeing the floor creeping up from underneath them. Sora, Donald and Philia landed on their feet, while Goofy wasn't prepared, and tumbled to the floor face-first. "I did warn him." Philia pointed out as Donald shook his head at Goofy's absentminded moment.
As Goofy was getting up, someone passed by them in a rush. It was a white rabbit, the size of Donald, wearing a red coat over a yellow dress shirt, a dark red bowtie, and gray pants. He carried an oversized pocket watch in his left hand.
"Oh, my fur and whiskers! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!" the White Rabbit cried out in a worried tone, rushing past the team, "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! I'm here, I should be there. I'm late, I'm late, I'm late! The queen, she'll have my head for sure!" He rushed around one corner, and disappeared.
"What was that about?" Philia asked. "Who know." Donald answered. "C'mon. Let's go follow him!" Sora decided, "I'm sure we'll understand if we go after him." Sora took off down the crooked corridor. Donald and Philia looked to each other as Goofy stood up to his feet, and together, they ran after him.
Sora reached a door around the corridor. He opened it, and another smaller one, and another smaller one. "What's the point of that?" Sora asked as the team gathered together. He led the team by crouching underneath into the next room.
The room was small, but very odd-looking and unbalanced. There was a table and a chair in the middle of the room, with two glass bottles on the edge of it, and a bed sitting in one corner of the room, right next to a door too small to even crawl through, with a golden doorknob.
Sora looked about, then noticed something very odd. The white rabbit was much smaller now as he raced past the team, entered through the small door on one side of the room, and closing it behind him.
"How did he get so small?" Sora asked, walking over and crouching down in front of the small door. As Philia, Donald and Goofy gathered around him, the doorknob on the door suddenly opened its' eyes and spoke, "Nu-no, you're simply too big." All but Goofy were shocked at what just happened. "It talks!" Donald squawked. "The doorknob is alive?!" Philia gasped.
The doorknob yawned and asked, "Must you be so loud? You woke me up." "Good mornin'." Goofy greeted the doorknob. Really? He isn't phased by this? Sora and Philia both thought as they stared at Goofy. "Good night!" the doorknob retorted, "I need a bit more sleep."
He was about to go back to sleep again when Sora crouched forward and asked, "Wait, what do we have to do to grow small?" "Why don't you try the bottle over there?" the doorknob answered, pointing his knob-nose over to the table.
Philia walked over and picked the two bottles up, looking at each of them. One had a blue label with a flourishing tree pointing to a sprout, the other had a red label with a small sprout pointing to a tree. "A tree and a sprout…" Philia looked at them, "I bet these represent what they should do." "Hey, let's try the blue bottle." Goofy suggested, "It has a tree goin' to a sprout, so it should make us smaller." "Well, considering what the label shows, I guess that makes sense." Sora agreed.
Sora drank the bottle first, and handed it to Goofy. As Sora let go, his body started to shrink, surprising Donald and Philia. Goofy passed the bottle to Donald, who looked at it suspiciously as Goofy started to shrink, and he drank it, passing it to Philia. Philia watched the other three start to grow smaller, and took a drink. She placed the bottle back on the table as her body began to shrink. Within moments, the quartet found themselves almost as small as the bottles they had just drank.
"We've turned tiny, too!" Sora gasped, looking at himself and the environment around him, "Is this part of the world's mysterious powers?" "It's just weird for any world." Donald muttered, looking up at the table above. "Compared to what we saw Merlin do, we shouldn't be so surprised." Philia stated to the team, "Now, let's chase after that rabbit."
They were about to head to the doorknob when Soldier, Shadow and Blue Rhapsody Heartless appeared in front of them. "Whoa!" Sora gasped, producing his Keyblade. "It's the Heartless!" Goofy noticed. "At least they're small, just like us." Philia said in relief. The rest of the team pulled out their weapons, and they fought the Heartless.
During the fight, Goofy unleashed a technique where he bounded into the air with his shield, smacking down a Blue Rhapsody with his shield. "Nice move!" Philia told Goofy. "That's my Rocket attack." Goofy chuckled, "Comes in handy with Heartless in the air."
"True." Philia understood, firing a Fire spell at a Blue Rhapsody, "But that works, too." "Well, I don't know any magic." Goofy pointed out, "Donald's the wizard. I'm captain of the king's guard." "And you use a shield as your weapon?" Philia stated, "It's the reverse of the old saying, 'the best offense is a good defense'."
Once they cleared the area of Heartless, they walked up to the doorknob. "Excuse us. We would like to go through." Sora called to the doorknob. It was snoring away, indicating it was in a deep sleep. "How could it sleep so deeply and quickly after we fought those Heartless?" Philia wondered.
"Now what do we do?" Donald huffed as Goofy rested his back on the side of the bed. Philia looked to the two, then heard a noise of something heavy slowly moving. She and Sora looked about, until they noticed the bed Goofy leaning on was slowly moving back into the wall.
"Goofy, the bed!" Sora shouted, getting Donald and Goofy's attention. "Look!" Philia pointed at something. A small gap was barely seen in the same wall where the doorknob was at. "A hole!" Donald noticed. "Let's push the bed aside so we can get to it!" Philia told the team. Together, they started shoving the bed into the wall, until it was fully into it. The hole fully revealed itself to the team, and it was perfectly their size. "Let's go in and find that white rabbit!" Sora declared, and the four entered into the hole.
Chapter 2: The Unfair Trial
The team exited the hole, and found themselves in the middle of a grassy path, bordered by hedges. "What is this?" Donald asked. "Looks like…a hedge maze." Sora noticed. "A maze? We became small, and now we're in a hedge maze?" Philia asked, confused, "This world is confusing me…"
Just then, along the path ahead of them, the team noticed a horizontal path, and the white rabbit racing along it, moaning, "I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!" "The white rabbit!" Sora pointed out. "Let's go after it!" Philia declared, and the two led Donald and Goofy into the hedge maze.
It took a few minutes of the team following it before they stopped. It turned a corner, where guards that looked like oversized playing cards with heads, legs, and arms carrying spears. They made access for the white rabbit to pass by. The team looked to one another, then walked over to where the two pair of cards soldiers stood.
They were ignorant of the heroes as they looked in, and saw a heart-shaped opening into the open area before them, with which had walls and ceilings looking like a background to a cheap movie set. Inside the open are was a square rug with heart-shaped patterns on it, and a wooden court stand that looked like where a defendant should be. In front was a tall stand that looked like a judge box, what looked like a large bird cage at the bottom side that could fit a person, and a twisting staircase with a pedestal on top.
There was a defendant on the stand as well as a judge. The defendant was a young girl, maybe ten, with long, thick blonde hair, tied with a black bow. She wore a blue dress with a white pinafore, white tights and black Mary Jane shoes.
The Judge was a rather large woman, dressed like royalty. She had short hair tied in a bun, with a golden crown. She wore a black, red, and white-lined royal gown with a very high white collar. She also carried a small wand with a red heart. From the heroes point of view, they couldn't see anything else but the top half of the judge.
The white rabbit ran up the spiral stairs, pulled out a long bugle, and blew a tune into it. "Court is now in session!" the rabbit declared. "I'm on trial?" the young girl asked, "But why?" The rabbit ignored her question. "Her Majesty, the Queen of Hearts, presiding!" he declared, waving a hand to the judge of the trial.
Everyone turned their gaze to the Queen of Hearts, who's eyes were closed. She opened them, and looked down at the defendant in the court stand. "This girl is the culprit. There's no doubt about it." she declared, "And the reason is…because I say so, that's why!" What?! Philia and Sora exclaimed in their minds.
"That is so unfair!" the girl stated. "Well, have you anything to say in your defense?" the Queen of Hearts asked. "Of course! I've done absolutely nothing wrong!" the girl answered determinately, "You may be queen, but I'm afraid that doesn't give the right to be so…so mean!" The white rabbit was sweating nervously at this accusation to royalty, plus knowing the queen's wrath, as it was soon to come.
"Silence!" barked the Queen of Hearts, slamming her hands on the table in front of her, "You dare defy me?! Are you intentionally trying to anger me!" The young girl looked frightened at the angry face the queen was giving her, and she became quiet.
"Well, I can say one thing about this trial; Everything is set against that young girl." Philia stated. "Hey, guys, we should help her out." Sora told the team. "Yeah, but the…" Donald started.
"We're outsiders, so wouldn't that be muddling?" Goofy asked. "Meddling!" Donald corrected him. "Oh, yeah. And since we ain't from this world, that's against the rules." Goofy finished.
Sora turned to Philia and asked, "Don't you want to do something?" "I do. Believe me, I do." Philia answered, "But we can't get involved unless it is absolutely necessary. First, let's hear things through to see what this girl is accused of." Sora was worried for the girl, but Philia was right. He turned back and watch the trial continue, or rather finish.
"The court find the defendant guilty as charged!" the Queen of Hearts declared, "For the crimes of assault and attempted theft of my heart…" Philia and Sora were shocked at this accusation. "Off with her head!" the queen ordered the card soldiers, who turned to her, axes prepared. "No, no! Oh, please!" the girl cried out.
"Hold it right there!" Sora and Philia called out, racing ahead of Donald and Goofy as they charged through the soldiers, coming right behind the court stand. The girl turned to the heroes, startled at their sudden appearance.
"Who are you?!" the Queen of Heart demanded, "You dare interfere in the proceedings of this court? Mannerless, the lot of you!" "Says the queen who accuses a little girl under illegitimate reasons, and sentences her to death." Philia retorted stubbornly.
"E-Excuse me." Sora started, stepping in front of the team, "But we know who the real culprit is!" "Uh-huh. It's the Heartle—." Goofy started, but he shut himself up. He couldn't tell anything about the Heartless to people that didn't know them. Philia also knew that from Leon and the others.
"Well, in any case, this girl is not the one you're looking for." Philia told the queen. "That's nonsense. You have no idea what you are talking about!" the Queen answered, tapping her wand on the table, "Have you any proof to support the defense?" Sora and Philia looked to one another, before Sora answered, "Er, no…but we can find some to show you."
The Queen of Hearts waved her wand to one of the card soldiers, who seized the girl, tossing her into the birdcage and sealing it up. "Very well, I shall humor your claim." she told the heroes, "Bring me evidence of Alice's innocence! Fail and it's off with all of your heads! Gather as much or little evidence as you please. Until you conclude your investigation, the court is adjourned!" She slammed her wand on the table like a judge's mallet, signaling the end of the trial.
"What a mess we ended up in." Donald huffed. "At least we have a chance to save that girls' life." Philia assured the team. "Let's talk to her, and see if she has anything to say that'll help us find clues." Sora decided.
He led the team over to the girl stuck in the birdcage. "Who are you?" the girl asked. "I'm Sora." the boy introduced himself. "I'm Philia." she followed, "The two behind us are Donald and Goofy."
"Pleased to meet you, though I do wish it were under better circumstances." the girl answered, "My name is Alice. I'm very sorry you got mixed up in this nonsense." "Don't worry." Sora responded, "We wanted to help you out. So, why are you on trial in the first place?"
"I should like to know the very same thing!" Alice answered, "Apparently, I was guilty from the moment I took the stand!" "That's crazy!" Sora gasped. "And I say it again; Everything was set against you, Alice." Philia repeated herself.
"Can you figure out any place we might find some evidence to help support you?" Sora asked. "I'm not quite sure." Alice answered, "Although, within the woods past that grove over there…" she pointed to a path different from the one they entered into, "…the Cheshire Cat resides there. He might tell you where to find this proof."
"Oy! The defendant will be silent!" the card soldier barked at the group, "Visitin' hours 'll be over. Get movin' already!" "Okay, okay!" Sora replied, then to Alice, "We'll help you out of here, so don't worry about anything." Alice smiled and nodded back at them. "Come on, guys! Let's help Alice!" Sora declared, and he led the team to the path that led into the forest.
They entered into the forest, looking about the area. If they considered the fact that they had shrunk before, then this forest wouldn't be as odd as they thought. The grass was as tall as them, sometimes even taller. The stumps of former trees were wide enough to fit all four of them on, and still have room for ten more. Lotus were all over the place, like platforms that rose to multiple levels of the forest.
"Hey, guys, why can't we just have said that the Heartless were responsible for the assault?" Sora asked as they walked. "Well, the Heartless and us have something in common; We are not from this world." Philia answered. "What difference does that make?" Sora asked, "And why is it against the rules to conflict with other worlds?"
"Because every world has a boundary of reality and truth." Donald explained, "If one kind of truth from one world emerged in another, it causes confusion and chaos within its' reality. That's why we can't meddle too deeply in another world's affairs."
Sora and Philia looked to Donald with understanding, though very surprised. "What?" Donald asked, "Did that not make sense?" "No, it made sense, it's just…" Sora started. "…We didn't expect you to be that intelligent in it." Philia finished his statement. "Hey!" Donald barked. Goofy scratched his head, completely confused at Donald's explanation.
Just then, the team detected something, and they looked about. Suddenly from out of the shadows, a bouncing head of a grinning creature appeared for a few seconds, then it vanished. It reappeared and disappeared about them, until it and its' headless body appeared on a large stump. The body was balancing on the head, then it hopped off of it, picked up the head, and placed it on top of it, returning it to its' proper place.
Based on the appearance of the creature, the team guessed that they had just met the Cheshire Cat. It was grinning pink and purple-striped cat, larger than the average cat.
"You speak the truth? I suppose that the untruth of this truth upon truths holds truer." the cat stated, "The Cheshire Cat knows all truths, and finds as yet no contradiction nor chaos." The team looked puzzled at the first half of his speech, but understood the second half.
"I suppose that makes you the Cheshire Cat, then." Philia guessed. "I suppose that I am, or am I not?" the Cheshire Cat responded, getting more confusion, "Poor Alice. Soon to lose her head, and she's not guilty of a thing!"
"If you know any proof to help Alice, then tell us!" Sora demanded. "The Cheshire Cat has all the answers…but doesn't always tell." the grinning cat answered, "The answer, the culprit, and the cat all lie in darkness." With that, the cat faded away, disappearing without a trace.
"Wait!" Sora called out, looking at the stump and about him. "They've already left the forest. I won't tell which exit." the cat's voice echoed about, "There are four pieces of proof in all. Three are a cinch to find, but the fourth is tricky. But a reward can be gained if all are found."
"Should we trust him?" Donald asked the crew. The Cheshire Cat reappeared on the stump again as he answered, "To trust, or not to trust? I trust you'll decide!" With that said, it vanished once more, and everything was silent.
"Sora?" Goofy questioned, wondering about his thoughts. "Let's trust him. He may be full of riddles, but he doesn't seem untrustworthy." Sora answered.
"Four pieces of evidence, with three of them being easy, and the fourth not so much." Philia muttered, "If we're trying to save Alice, we need to gather as much evidence as possible, and as quickly as possible. Since there are four of us, let's split into pairs, and search this place for any evidence we can find indicating the Heartless."
"Sounds okay to me." Sora agreed, "I'll go with Goofy." "Then Donald will go with me." Philia responded, "If we don't meet each other before so, let's wait for one another at the court room. Got it?" "Right!" the trio responded. With that, the two teams split up, taking on different parts of the forest.
Chapter 3: Searching for Evidence
Sora's Side
Wandering through the woods, Sora and Goofy encountered multiple Heartless about, trying to stop them as best as they could. While they weren't able to pull any evidence off of the Heartless, they did drop light green stone shards on occasions.
"What are these things?" Sora asked, holding a shard up. Jiminy hopped out of his pocket, examining the stone. "That's a Spirit Shard." he answered, "Those are a kind of material you can use to make new things in Moogle shops."
"What kind of things?" Sora asked. "Oh, you can make all kinds of stuff." Goofy answered, "There's potions, and accessories, and even weapons." "When we find a Moogle shop, we can just give them the material, and using a recipe, they can create something for us." Jiminy finished.
"That's pretty cool!" Sora realized, "I found some Mythril pieces before, but I didn't know what to do with them. Guess I'll gather as much as I can to make new things."
"Hey, look over here!" Goofy called to Sora, and he wandered over into a grassy patch. Pulling back the tall grass, he saw a small box on the ground at Goofy's feet. "A box?" Sora noticed, picking it up. "Wonder what's inside?" Goofy asked.
Sora opened the lid, and saw a pair of muddy footprints within it. "Footprints?" Sora questioned. "Hey, ya know, that looks a lot like the footprint of the Heartless!" Goofy realized. "You're right!" Jiminy agreed, "And I bet it can be used as evidence." "Perfect!" Sora cheered, putting the box away carefully on him, "We found our first clue! Now, let's go find another!" Jiminy hopped back into Sora's pocket as he and Goofy raced along the forest, searching for more evidence.
Philia's Side
In another part of the grove, Donald and Philia hopped up the lotus to a higher part of the area. They dealt with the Heartless about them mainly with Fire spells, although Philia handled the ones that were close to them with her dagger.
"I can't find any evidence at all!" Donald moaned, "Maybe that cat was lying to us, after all." "We only just started looking. Donald." Philia answered, "C'mon, let's go this way." The two walked into a dark hole within the woods, keeping an eye and ear out for any Heartless appearing. Next second, the two fell down a hole they didn't notice, screaming.
Next second, the duo found themselves back in the bizarre room again, laying on top of a brick oven in there. "Well, that was unexpected…" Philia moaned. "This place is too confusing." Donald huffed, getting to his feet, brushing off his beret.
"Hey, check this out." Philia said, pointing to the edge of the oven top. It was a small box. The two walked towards it, with Donald picking it up. "What's in it?" Donald asked. "Open it and find out." Philia answered.
Donald opened it, and closed it quickly, shaking his head in disgust. "Pee-yew!" he gasped, "That smells bad!" Philia took the box, and opened it. It was a rather foul odor, and it was rather hard to compare it to anything else, except…
"You know, I recall this smell from the Heartless I've fought." she pointed out to Donald, closing the box, "Perhaps if we gave this to the Queen of Hearts, the smell might be familiar to her." "Then that means…" Donald realized. "We found a piece of evidence." Philia told Donald, "Looks like the cat wasn't lying after all."
Donald grumbled a bit, but had to accept the fact that Philia was right. Philia placed the box away, and said, "Let's keep moving. We should find more evidence." The two leapt off the oven, going back to the forest to search some more.
Sora's Side
Sora and Goofy were back to back as they were surrounded by Heartless. "We just can't get a break from them!" Sora moaned. "Must be because of the Keyblade." Goofy guessed. The two took on the Heartless, defeating them quickly before any reinforcements arrived.
As soon as they were done, they heard a small voice ask, "Excuse me, but you wouldn't happen to have a potion on you, would you?" Sora and Goofy turned to the direction of the voice, only to see a closed flower by them. "Who said that?" Sora asked. "I did!" the flower shook its' head, "Please give me a potion. I am very thirsty."
Sora and Goofy looked to one another, then Sora stepped forward, pulling out a potion, and pouring it onto the head of the flower. In an instant, the flower petals opened up, revealing a small face. It had something in its' closed petals, which turned out to be a hi-potion.
"Oh, thank you ever so much!" the flower thanked Sora, "If there is anything I can do, please ask." "Okay. Do you know of any sort of 'evidence' we can find?" Sora asked, "Maybe a box containing some evidence?" "Hmm…" The flower hummed, "Well, I don't know it it was evidence in it, but there is a box on that lotus over there." It pointed its' face to the lotus near them, rising high above them, too high to merely leap to it.
Sora looked around it, saw a pair of mushrooms, one higher than the other, which worked as steps to reach the pad. Sora bounded forward, leaping from one mushroom to the next, finally reaching the pad, seeing the box on top.
He opened it up, and saw a shadowy branch within it. "What is this?" Sora questioned, pulling it out and examining it, "Wait a minute…those Shadows had antenna like this. It's a Heartless antenna!"
"Is that a piece of prune?" Goofy asked. "Proof!" Sora corrected him, "And yeah, it is!" He hopped back onto the ground next to Goofy. "That's two pieces of evidence we have found." he told his friend, "Now we just need to find those last two pieces, and we'll be good!" "Wonder if Donald and Philia are havin' as much luck as we are?" Goofy asked as the two wandered off for more evidence.
Philia's Side
The two were back in the forest, hopping along the tops of the lotuss. Philia noticed a treasure box nearby, and she wandered over to it. "Another treasure, eh?" Philia asked, "Well, I might as well open it." She pulled out her two metal pieces, and worked on the keyhole.
"You can open that?" Donald asked. "I've done it before in Traverse Town." Philia answered, "It'll take a few seconds." After that amount of time, the lock clicked, and opened up. Inside, she was startled as three dalmatian puppies popped out, bounding around her. "Puppies?!" Donald squawked. "Dalmatian puppies!" Philia giggled as one came up to lick her face.
"What are they doing here?!" Donald demanded. "You know, I recall Aerith saying that there was a pair of dalmatians that lost their puppies, 101 in all." Philia stated, "I bet these are three of their puppies. When we head back to Traverse Town, let's bring them there. But where should we place them for now?"
"Let's send them back to the gummi ship." Donald stated, pulling out a device similar to the one Goofy had back in Traverse Town. After a few buttons, Donald sent the puppies to the ship. "They're in the storage area of the ship, so they won't get into trouble!" Donald assured Philia. "Good thinking, Donald." Philia replied, "Now, let's continue the search."
They were about to continue when they saw something grow off in the distance. To their shock, it turned out to be Sora, becoming bigger again. "Wha!" Donald said with shock. "Sora? What happened to you?!" Philia asked.
Sora turned to see the two. "Hey, guys!" he greeted them, "A flower helped me get bigger. This might help us out." Philia and Donald ran over to the lotuss closest to Sora's face, seeing Goofy getting out of a pond, having just fallen in. Sora walked over, and stomped on a mushroom which fell into the ground, causing another lotus to grow higher. He then wandered over to a large stem, accidentally ramming into it, making it spin. "Ow, my head!" Sora moaned, "I need to get smaller again."
"Sora, up there!" Philia called to him, pointing to what looked like a ripe piece of fruit above Sora's head. Seeing it, Sora leapt up and smacked the fruit off of its' branch, catching it in one hand. "Is it edible?" Sora asked, and he took a bite into it without thinking things through. It was rather tasty. The moment he swallowed it, his body started to shrink again, back to how he was before.
"Hey, I'm back!" Sora stated, looking at himself. Philia and Donald leapt back down to Sora's side, while Goofy joined them, wringing his hat before placing it and his goggles back on his head. "This world is just full of growth-issues." Philia sighed, "Well, let's see what the results of what you did before did."
There were new parts of the forest they could get access to, now that they removed some obstacles. They reached higher and higher into the forest, with Philia ahead of the pack. She found another dark path ahead, and felt that she knew what was gonna come. "Guys, get ready to fall in." she told the team as they were trying to catch up with her, and she raced into the dark path. "Wait up!" Sora called out, reaching the path she took. Looking in, Sora saw that she disappeared.
Philia fell down again, this time landing on top of a faucet handle near the fireplace. She caught herself before she fell off, looking about. She saw a shelf next to her, and a small box on top of it. "Bingo!" she muttered, and she leapt to the shelf just as Sora fell onto the faucet from above, catching himself. Goofy followed afterwards, and Donald fell last. He nearly slipped and fell off the handle, but the two boys caught him.
Philia took the small box, and opened it up. Inside, she found a piece of bark, with three cuts on it. "What'd ya find?" Sora asked. "Claw marks!" Philia recognized, "Heartless claw marks. I recognize them anywhere."
The three reached the wooden shelf, seeing the bark in Philia's hand as she placed it back in the box. "So, adding this, we also have the stench of a Heartless." Philia noted, pulling out the other box, "What about you?" "We have footprints, and an antenna." Sora answered, pulling out the two boxes, "That means…" "We found all the evidence!" the two exclaimed in unison.
They were slightly startled at their sudden union of voices. Donald and Goofy chuckled at what just happened. The two looked to them, then two each other, then blushed in embarrassment. It wasn't like they planned on doing that.
"Well, look what you've found. Nice going." said a familiar voice. The team turned to see the Cheshire Cat on the faucet handle. "That's all four pieces of evidence." Sora stated as he and Philia showed off their prizes, "Now we can save Alice!"
"Don't be so sure!" the cat warned them, "She may be innocent, but what about you?" "What are you talking about?" Philia asked, frowning at the cat. "I won't tell. But I'll give you something." the cat stated, lifting a paw up to reveal a magic orb. It split into three orbs, which dove into Sora, Philia and Donald.
"That's cold!" Sora felt. "It's the power of ice!" Donald realized, "We can use the Blizzard spell." "An ice-element spell?" Philia understood, "That'll help us out. Thank you for…" She looked up at where the Cheshire Cat was before, but he vanished. "He disappeared!" Goofy realized. "Where did he go?" Donald asked.
Sora couldn't help but feel a little suspicious about the cat's warning. What did he mean by their innocence? Were they accused of something? Wanting to follow this through, Sora leapt off the shelf down to the floor, followed by the rest of the group.
Before they could reach the hole to the court, there were Heartless that they had to take care of before that. It contained Red Nocturnes, which were similar to the Blue Rhapsodies, only they used fire attacks. "Let's use the new spell out!" Sora told the team, "Deep Freeze!" he shot several ice crystals that went a short distance, but scattered about to hit two Red Nocturnes, defeating them.
"Good work, Sora!" Philia cheered, using the same spell to defeat a pair of Shadows, "A scattershot attack like that is bound to come in handy. And considering that it was Blizzard magic, those Red Nocturnes didn't have a chance!" When they cleared the area, they gathered up new material from the Heartless that Jiminy called Blaze Shards, and raced towards the hole, ready to show their evidence to the Queen of Hearts.
Chapter 4: The Disappearing Act
The team raced back to the court room, with Sora and Philia taking to the stands, and Donald and Goofy standing on the sidelines. They noticed that the position of the birdcage had risen several feet into the air, near the Queen's level, and red blinds were closed around Alice, hiding her from view.
"Your Majesty, we have evidence on us that prove Alice's innocence!" Sora declared. "We shall see." the Queen of Hearts responded in an unimpressed manner, "Now, show me what you have found." Sora and Philia placed the boxes of evidence out in front of them.
"Well, that's certainly a lot of evidence, but I'm still not impressed." the Queen of Hearts huffed, "Cards! Bring forth my evidence!" One of the red cards raced to one side of the court room, pulling out a new box that the heroes did not see before. At the same time, another red card soldier gathered the four they had, and placed them on the ground before the judge's stand. "Is that evidence legitimate?" Sora asked Philia. "How should I know?" the girl responded.
"Hmm, checking all five would only be a waste of time." the Queen stated, "All right, then. Choose the one you wish to present. I'll decide who's guilty based on that evidence." "Wait, what?!" Sora gasped. "After all that trouble, we can only pick one?" Philia asked. "You dare object?! Then you will lose your head!" the Queen of Hearts roared, "Now choose! One box!"
Sora and Philia were now in a stump. They could only pick one piece of evidence out of all that they have gathered, plus one more that they didn't know what it was. "What do we do?" Sora whispered to Philia. "I don't know." she answered, "But we need to pick one that has the strongest proof that the Heartless are responsible." "Okay. Why don't you pick one out." Sora told her, "You probably can see which is better."
Philia stepped down and examined each box. Which one has stronger proof of the Heartless? she thought, Well, the footprint is out. It's clean in here, so she probably wouldn't recognize it. The same went for the stench. The smell has probably died out, already. Plus, if she recognizes Alice as the guilty one, she wouldn't know what the Heartless truly look like, so that rules out the antenna. That leaves the claw marks, and the queen's evidence.
She removed the three she chose not to pick, leaving the two remaining. She looked at either one, wondering if she should show their proof of the Heartless, or her's. She then detected something from the queen's box. There was some sort of movement within. Frowning, she wondered if it was worth the risk. She reached out, taking the box, which surprised Sora, and she opened it up.
The moment she opened the lid, something shot out to the Queen. It was a Soldier Heartless. The Queen was horrified. "What manner of creature is this?!" she demanded. "Your true culprit!" Sora shouted, producing his Keyblade, and striking the Heartless before it reached the Queen.
"There's your evidence." Philia stated, "That creature was attempting to steal your heart. Alice is innocent. Please, let her go!" Sora came to Philia's side, nodding in approval. Despite the risk, they had a sound case.
The Queen of Hearts was shaken by the sudden attack. She calmed herself, closed her eyes, then angrily looked down at the two. "Silence! I'm the law!" she bellowed, "If I say she is guilty, then guilty she is! Article 29 states, 'Anyone who defies the queen is guilty'!" The two were horror-struck, as well as the ones on the sidelines.
"But we have proof of her innocence!" Philia barked, "It came from the evidence YOU gave!" "You dare defy me once again?!" the Queen growled back.
"The fact that you defied your own evidence is no different than defying you!" Philia yelled angrily, stepping towards, "If that article stays true, then you are defying yourself! Therefore…" she pointed a finger up at the Queen as she finished, "…you are guilty!"
The card soldiers were murmuring amongst themselves while the Queen was completely speechless. In all sound and reason, Philia had placed her in a corner, with no way of getting herself out without defying her own rules or herself. She might as well off her own head if she did that.
Meanwhile, Donald and Goofy were amazed at Philia's sound judgement, but none more so than Sora. She managed to use this world's unfair laws, and pin them against the queen! Sora thought, Philia is amazing. She has no memory of her past, but she is smart enough to think her way around this world's rules without meddling too much into it.
"Donald, Goofy! Lower the birdcage!" Philia ordered her two friends, "We had our say. The judgement has been passed. Alice is free to go!" Donald and Goofy did as they were told, passing by the black card soldiers, and turning the crank to lower the cage. "What are you doing?!" one soldier demanded, "We can't release prisoners without prior authorization!" They ignored this as the birdcage hit the ground. They opened up the blinds as Philia and Sora came to join them. They were shocked to see that the cage was empty. Alice was missing!
"Alice?!" Sora gasped. "Where did she go?" Goofy asked. "She couldn't have freed herself." Philia noticed, "How did she get out?" "She must've gotten kidnapped while we were searching for evidence." Donald suggested.
"Stand to attention, men!" the Queen of Hearts declared, getting the card soldiers' attention, "The defendant has escaped custody, and remains at large! I order to you to search for who's behind this! I don't care how! Should you fail, off with all your heads!" The card soldiers understood and took off in multiple directions.
"What do we do, now?" Donald asked. "What else? Find Alice before they do!" Sora answered, "Let's search for her, together!" The team nodded in approval. Philia liked the fact that Sora was taking charge here, especially after how defiant she was against the queen, before. With the decision made, Sora led the team back to the bizarre room to investigate.
When they arrived, Goofy suggested that maybe Alice was taken back to the entrance at the bottom of the rabbit hole. They used the bottle to grow big again, and return to where they started.
When they reached there, they found a whole sleuth of Heartless, coming in waves to attack the team. Sora, Philia, Donald and Goofy all worked together, taking on Shadow, Soldiers, Red Nocturnes, and even a Large Body. Philia pulled off the same trick she used the last time she fought off a Large Body; leap over it when it charged, and unleashed a Side Bite Dagger Skill. The results were the same. When they cleared it, they found a treasure box that the Heartless hid, which turned out to be a Mega Potion. Even though there was no sign of Alice, the reward was still satisfying. Philia suggested the forest again, and they returned back.
As they entered the forest, something came to Sora's mind. "You know, we don't really know who the kidnapper looks like." he figured, "Our best bet would be that the Heartless did it, since they are the only TRUE villains around here, but that wouldn't make any sense."
"That's true." Philia agreed, "Heartless act on instinct, and attack anyone with even the slightest darkness in their heart. For some reason, I didn't feel any sort of darkness within Alice. She's too innocent. Plus, Heartless aren't smart enough on their own to pull off a plan like that."
"You know, I have a hunch about somethin'." Donald wondered, "There is a chance someone is actually controlling the Heartless. Based on movements, it's like they were strategically put to stop us or our goals."
"So, in other words, someone is working in the shadows, capable of controlling the Heartless." Sora rephrased, "But who could be able to do that?" "I dunno." Goofy answered, then he shuddered, "But it must be someone pretty bad!" The team looked to one another, thinking. Who was able to manipulate the Heartless to do this?
As they thought, they reached the pond that Goofy fell into before. Just then, a red flower opened up beside them, firing a large rock passed them. They stopped to avoid the rock as it landed near the pond. "Where did that come from?!" Sora gasped. The same question could be asked again when the Cheshire Cat suddenly appeared, doing a kneeling handstand on the rock.
"You again." Philia noticed. "Alas, having found the evidence you sought, you now seek the defendant you lost? Poor Alice…" "Have you seen Alice?" Donald asked. "Alice, no. Shadows, yes!" the Cheshire Cat answered. Shadows? Philia thought.
"Where did they go?" Goofy asked. "This way? That way? Does it matter?" the Cheshire Cat answered, "Left, right, up, down! All mixed up thanks to the shadows!" "You're the one that's mixed up. In the head!" Donald squawked. Sora waved a hand in front of Donald to silence him, then he asked, "Just tell us where to go."
"Step deeper into the forest to the deserted garden." the Cheshire Cat told them, "You might find shadows in the upside-down room!" With that, the Cheshire Cat vanished once more.
"I still don't trust him." Donald moaned. "Trust him or not, he's the only one who's given us clues to reach this far." Philia told him, "Let's find a way deeper into this forest, and find this 'upside-down' room." She walked over to the large rock as she continued, "That Cheshire Cat obviously set this up for us. He wants us to push it into the water. But we're too weak to move it."
"Hey, why don't ya grow bigger?" Goofy asked. "Oh, yeah!" Sora realized, walking up to a closed flower. He reached for a potion in his pocket, but realized he was out. "Hey, does anyone have a regular potion on them?" he asked. "I have one." Philia answered, walking over and pulling out a potion.
Sora backed off as she poured it onto the flower, which opened up and sprayed powder on her. Suddenly, Philia grew to a large size before them. She was surprised at her size at first, as was the trio. She then went over and easily pushed the rock into the pond. Two lotuss in the pond rose with stems underneath, forming a pathway to a different part of the forest.
After that, she did what Sora did before, took a fruit from the tree above, and bit into it, reverting back to normal. "That was an interesting experience." she muttered. "C'mon! Let's find where Alice is at!" Sora told her, and she followed him up the newly-formed platforms.
They descended down into a part of the forest that was too thick to get to any other way. Inside, they discovered another dark pathway, believing that they were bound to drop down somewhere. After defeating some Red Nocturnes, they ventured into the path, but there was no drop. Instead, they found themselves coming out on top of the hedge surrounding the Queen's court. She was no longer there at the moment, so no one saw them.
They did discover a treasure chest. Sora opened it up, revealing three dalmatian puppies coming out of it. Sora was surprised at first, but after Philia and Donald's explanation of the dalmatian puppies they saved before, and where they belonged, Sora got Goofy to send them back to the gummi ship to wait.
They went back into the Lotus Forest to investigate some more areas they haven't made it too before, climbing around the lotus and mushrooms to search for more areas to find Alice. They then noticed another dark path to take, and they entered through. When they came out, they discovered themselves in the bizarre room again, only this time, they were walking on one of the walls!
"What in the world?!" Sora gasped, seeing the actual floor to his left. "The whole room has gone sideways!" Donald pointed out as Goofy tilted his head, trying to look at the room like it normally was.
"I wonder if this was what the Cheshire Cat meant by the 'upside-down' room?" Philia asked. "But the room isn't upside down." Goofy pointed out. "Not yet. But I bet we can find a path that'll lead us to this room being upside down." Sora realized, "If we find that, we'll find the shadows!"
"But where should we go from here?" Donald asked, looking about, "I don't see any path leading there!" "This world has plenty of confusing ways getting around. Let's adapt to this world's rules, and discover a path from there." Philia told the team.
Sora walked about the area, then looked at an unlit candle lamp. He rubbed his chin, wondering. He then used a Fire spell, lighting it up. All of a sudden, the painting near him, which was blank, now revealed a picture in it.
"Guys, check this out!" Sora called out, getting everyone to the picture. "This certainly wasn't here." Philia noticed. Sora climbed onto it, looking down at the painting. Then like a man standing on water, he instantly sunk into it. "Sora!" Donald, Goofy and Philia gasped, wondering where he went.
They were about to go in when Sora suddenly popped out again. "What happened?!" Goofy asked. "I suddenly found myself in the middle of the Lotus Forest." he answered, "There wasn't anything where I was at, so I dove into this puddle, and found myself back here." Philia sighed in relief. "Don't scare us like that!" she told him. "Sorry." he apologized.
Knowing that Sora was okay, Donald looked around the wall they were standing on. He saw a teddy bear on a shelf, though sideways. He glared at it for a second, then decided to give a shelf a whack with his wand. It loosened the shelf, making the bear fall to the actual ground. "Did that do anything?" Philia asked from a distance. "No, but that's all I could think of." Donald answered. "Let's head back to the forest and investigate more." Sora told the team, and they did as they were told.
They started looking about for more ways, sometimes going back to paths that they were once on before. At one point, they found themselves along the same wall with the faucet and shelf that held the box containing claw marks. Sora though it was an idea to turn the faucet handle to activate it. He did so, causing water to pour out of a nozzle, which entered into a pot that magically appeared on the actual floor. When the water cleared, the team entered in, and found themselves back in the Queen's court again.
After some confusion, Philia suggested doubling back to the bizarre room to investigate what happened to the teddy bear Donald dropped. They went back inside, grew big again, and saw the teddy bear one chair on the side of the wall. They also saw a book that wasn't propped up before, discovering a Mythril Shard inside.
Goofy thought that the other chair next to the one the bear was sitting on was more comfortable, so he placed it on there, causing a odd-looking grandfather clock to appear from the wall next to it. Sora examined it, saw that it was loose, and pulled it aside, revealing a hole behind it. "I think we're getting somewhere!" Sora stated. "In this world, I'm not sure." Philia stated as they walked over to the drinks shrank down once more, and entered the hole.
Inside the room, they discovered a new area, which looked like it housed a tea party. However, the tea and silverware had become prints on the tablecloth. On the far end of the table was a picture frame, with an aging man with a green top hat and a suit, and a brown rabbit with a red coat, both crying. The heroes were standing on the second floor of a twisted house.
"What is this place?" Goofy asked. They descended to the table, with Sora finding a treasure chest containing a new material called 'dark matter', and examining the tea set.
"Hey, look at this!" Donald called to the team, seeing a sign that said, 'Please take a seat to receive your present'. "What kind of present?" Goofy asked, anxiously. "Let's find out." Sora answered.
They all sat in different chairs, waiting patiently for something to happen. All of a sudden, a silver platter appeared, with a dome lid. It opened itself up to the team, but before they could look, the chairs flipped back, making them fall out abruptly.
"Wha!" Sora gasped tumbling to the ground. "What kind of trick was that?!" Donald demanded. "Hey, look!" Goofy said, pointing to the picture. The man and the hare looked different, joyous and happy. "I think that was a trick pulled off by them." Philia groaned. "Some trick that was…" Donald moaned, "I'm not happy!"
"They at least gave us this." Goofy stated, pulling an elixir from the tray. "That's a compilation for their prank." Sora guessed. "C'mon. Let's enter the house, and see if the person tricking us is actually in there." Philia told the team, and she led the team in.
Chapter 5: The Master of Tricks
When they entered, they found themselves in the bizarre room again, only now, it was where they wanted to be; Upside-down. Upon entering, they looked around, and noticed the Cheshire Cat leaning against one corner of the room. "We meet again." Philia greeted, "Were you waiting long?" "It depends." the cat answered, "How long long is to you, or how short short is to me?" Philia was getting very irritated by these riddles.
"So, uh, where are the shadows?" Goofy asked. "They're hiding somewhere. And the momeraths outgrabe." the cat answered, "Want to find the shadows? Try turning on the light." And with that said, he disappeared.
"What lights?" Donald asked. They got into full view of the ceiling they were standing on, seeing two hanging lamps acting like ceiling tables with candles. "I think we should light those up." Philia suggested, "Sora, let's do it." "Right!" Sora agreed. They each climbed onto the hanging lamps, lighting each one up with a Fire spell. Once they were done, they hopped back down, waiting for something to happen.
The Cheshire Cat appeared once again, sitting on top of one of the hanging lamps. "All the lights are on. You'll see the shadows soon." he told them, "They'll arise in this room, but somewhere else. They might possibly target the doorknob." And with that, he vanished.
"They might attack the doorknob?" Sora questioned. "Then we need to get right-side up, again!" Philia told Sora, "Hurry, let's get moving!" They quickly ran to the entrance to stop the shadow.
Moments later, the team arrived back in the bizarre room again, everything right-side up. Looking up at the table, they saw the Cheshire Cat waiting for them once more. The team raced up to the top of the table, meeting up with the cat as he stood on his hind feet.
"The shadow should be here, soon." he warned them, "Have you prepared your hearts for the worst? If not, too bad!" With that, the cat vanished, taking the two bottles that grew and shrunk the team with him. "Hey, wait!" Sora called to it.
Suddenly, something fell from above, landing on its hands, and flipped over the table. The team watched as it landed on its' feet, folded out its arms, revealing itself to the team. It was a large Heartless, mainly pink, purple and black. It had two gold curled-toed feet, but four pink and purple legs. It had chest armor and shoulder guards, and its black, zig-zagging arms looked like it was made out of paper. It head, or rather heads, were stacked on top of one another like a totem pole, five in all. It also carried a pair of striped black and white maracas on it, as well.
"That's the shadow?!" Goofy gasped. "That cat didn't say anything about it being something like this!" Philia recalled. "He set us up!" Donald squawked. "It doesn't matter!" Sora retorted, readying for combat, "We have to take it out!"
Philia pulled out the Heartless book, quickly looking through it. "Got it! This is the Trickmaster Heartless." she read, "That's all that this book has to say about it! Looks like we're gonna have to ab-lib it here!"
Sora, Philia and Goofy leapt out at the Heartless, striking it in the chest each, then landed on the ground at its' feet. Donald unleashed Blizzard spells at it, striking it all over. The Heartless wasn't phased much by it, but it raised its' arms high, striking down at the heroes at its' feet. Sora and Philia managed to leap to one side while Goofy raised his shield, protecting against most of the attack, but was sent flying into the grandfather clock, causing cuckoo birds to spin around his head.
Donald unleashed fire spells at his chest, while Sora and Philia tried damaging its' legs. Unfortunately, the legs were so flexible, the attacks bounced off of it. "We need to target any part of it that isn't super-bendy." Sora told Philia. "Basically the head or the chest." she understood, looking up at the tall Heartless, "I can reach up there if I jump high enough, but what about you?"
Sora watched Donald's magic work on the Heartless, then came up with an idea. "I'll keep leaping off the table at it!" Sora stated, "I'm sure I can keep striking it a few times before I fall." "A little time consuming, but I guess that'll work!" Philia agreed, "Now, let's get to work!" "Right!" Sora declared, taking off to get onto the table as Philia leapt up at the Trickmaster.
Philia used her ascent, unleashing a single slash upwards, followed by three horizontal slashes to the chest. This gave enough time for Sora to get to the table, leap forward, and unleash several slashes at it before he descended.
The Trickmaster raised a maraca like a club to Sora, who had no way of defending himself against the attack. Fortunately, Donald and a recovered Goofy came in just in time, working together to parry the attack. This caused the maraca to go back in the face of the Heartless, making it daze, and cripple.
"Now's our chance!" Philia declared as she led the charge, striking the attack as strongly as they could. They managed to damage it well enough before it straightened itself up, and begun dancing about, waving the maracas. "Keep at it!" Sora told the team, and they continued the attack.
The team kept up the same pattern as it danced about, striking anyone with its' maracas. Sora kept up the pattern he was doing before; getting to the table and leaping at it's chest, unleashing several slashes, then falling. Philia's leaping abilities were perfect enough for her to unleash leaping slashes at the Heartless. Donald's magic was low, but Philia gave him an ether, so he quickly recovered his strength. Goofy's Rocket technique was especially helpful, as it helped him reach the chest alongside Philia.
When it recovered from the second dazed moment, the Trickmaster backflipped away from the crew, landing right next to the stove. "After it!" Donald roared, leading Goofy, Sora and Philia towards it. Sora noticed something was up as it turned to the oven, placing his maracas over it. Suddenly, they lit on fire, and the Heartless turned to them, the flames bringing shadows on its' face.
"Guys, look out!" Sora called out as the other three realized how dangerous it had now become. The Heartless then slammed its' maraca at Donald, sending him flying in a burning state. Goofy jumped up and tried striking the Heartless, but it was too high to reach without his technique or without it lowering to him. The Heartless ended up smacking him away as well with its' flaming maracas.
Sora and Philia took on the Heartless cautiously, unleashing Fire spells at its' chest. It didn't do much to it, but the Trickmaster retaliated by waving its' maracas, then unleashing fireballs at the two. They quickly doubled back to avoid the fire, but the attack quickly caught up to them, and they were each struck a couple times by the fire, causing smoke to obscure them.
When it cleared, Philia and Sora each downed a hi-potion, while Donald, recovered from the burning, was stomping on Goofy's back to stop the flames. "It's even more dangerous with those flames!" Sora stated.
Philia looked up at the table, and saw the Cheshire Cat sitting there, watching the battle. "Aren't you gonna help us, at all?!" Philia demanded, "Tell us how to beat this thing!" "But my dear, this shadow is too hot under the collar." the cat stated, "You should wait for things to cool down."
"Wait for things to…" Philia started angrily, then she came to a realization. Sora's expression showed the same realization, as well. They looked to one another, nodding in confirmation.
The Trickmaster unleashed more fireballs at the two, who begun racing towards it, zig-zagging about to avoid the fire coming at them. "Just a bit closer…" Philia told Sora. "We're almost there!" he answered.
The two leapt above fireballs that came at the spot they were at, leaping in unison in front of the Heartless. It raised its' two maracas to attack them, the flames burning strongly. "Now!" Sora declared, and the two fired Blizzard spells at the maraca heads, making the flames disappear. The Heartless looked startled at this sudden turn of events, while the two landed on the ground simultaneously.
The Heartless looked angrily at the two, raising its' two maracas' ready to bring them down. Sora got in front, ready to protect Philia. As it slammed its' maracas down, Sora unleashed an aura of energy, which formed into a rippling sphere around him and Philia. It repelled the attack easily, and damaged the Heartless at the same time, making it cripple.
Philia was amazed at the new technique, but she didn't have time to admire it, yet. Sora and Philia came together, concentrating their magic in unison. They then unleashed a Blizzard spell, which combined to become a large icy burst of energy. It struck the Heartless, and it suddenly froze in ice.
Philia bounded forward at the frozen Heartless, ready to finish the fight. She readied her dagger, which glowed a deep blue aura. She roared as she unleashed a horizontal slash, followed by a downward slice straight through the middle of the line, forming a cross.
The attack made the Heartless crack, then shatter, its' upper parts scattering everywhere. From the debris, a large crystal heart rose from it, flying into the air, where it disappeared. The Trickmaster had finally been defeated.
As Donald and Goofy joined the other two, Sora and Philia looked at one another. "What kind of move was that?" Sora asked. "I was gonna ask you the same thing!" Philia answered. Sora pondered for a second, recalling the book he read all about techniques. Finally, he recalled the move within the stronger attack section.
"Ripple Drive." Sora remembered the name, "Yeah… That was the name of the move! But what was yours?" Philia thought for a while, then she recalled the name. "The Dagger Skill, Cross Edge." she answered, "That was the name of the move!"
"Hey, look at this." Goofy called to the team, picking up something where the Heartless once was. It was a bracelet of some sort, but it looked like a pair of demonic horns with a red gem on top. "Would you look at that." Sora stated as he looked at the accessory.
Jiminy popped out, examining the bracelet, then said, "I think that might be the Ifrit's Horn. It provides a little defense, plus it gains resistance to fire attacks." "That's handy." Sora stated, "Hey, Goofy. Why don't you hold onto it." "Gawrsh, thanks!" Goofy thanked Sora, and he placed it around his wrist.
Just then, the team heard a yawn, and turned to see the doorknob awoken slightly. "What is this racket?" he asked, "Do tone down the brawl, would you? How's a doorknob able to get any sleep?" "I would like to know how he slept in that in the first place?" Philia asked. "Talk about ungrateful!" Donald huffed.
Sora, on the other hand, watched as it yawned widely, and saw something in its' mouth. It looked like a standard keyhole, the edges glowing mysteriously. This drew the other three's attention as Sora wondered why the keyhole was shining.
Just then, the tip of his Keyblade started to shine with white energy, drawing the team's attention. Sora looked down at it, then as if by some unknown force, the Keyblade pulled his hand forwards, shooting a beam out of it, connecting with the keyhole. There was the sound of something being locked, and the keyhole died away as the doorknob closed his mouth.
"Wha.. What was that?" Sora asked, looking at his Keyblade. "The moment that beam connected with the keyhole, it sounded like something clicked." Philia noticed. "Yeah. Like something locking up!" Donald compared.
Something bounced out of the hole of the doorknob. It looked like a piece of some kind of object. "Hey, it's a gummi block!" Goofy noticed, picking it up and examining it, "This sure doesn't look like any other I've seen, no sir."
"A gummi block?" Philia questioned. "It's a mechanical part from another gummi ship, kinda like the one we use." Donald explained. "If we're lucky, we might find one that belongs to the king. Then, we might know where he is!" He took the gummi block from Goofy, and pocketed it.
Just then, the heroes heard someone clapping from behind. They looked up to see the Cheshire Cat still standing on the table. "Splendid. You're quite the heroes." the cat told the team, "Your powers really do bloom true, if I do say! Keep it up, and you'll end up florists someday!"
"Save it!" Philia retorted, walking towards the cat on the table, "What about Alice. I thought the Heartless would lead us to her." "Alice is neither here nor there, nor available for any occasion." the Cheshire Cat answered, "She has passed from this world, fallen into the darkness of obscurity."
Philia looked back at the team, worried. They gave the same expression back at her. The Heartless have already taken her away from this world. Philia turned back to where the Cheshire Cat was at, but he vanished. "Just who's side is he on, anyway?" Sora asked, puzzled.
"Let's go back to our gummi ship." Donald suggested, "We might find her in another world." "I hope so…" Sora agreed, "There was no sign of Riku and Kairi, here, either." "Don't worry. There's still plenty of other worlds we haven't explored, yet!" Goofy assured Sora, "With any luck, we might find them and the king, as well!"
Yeah…you're right!" Sora agreed, "Come on, let's head to the next world. Let's go, Philia." Philia didn't move immediately. She looked up at the table, thinking. We ended up coming to this world, only to get more questions than answers. she thought, I had hoped to find my memory. Sora wanted to find his friends. Donald and Goofy are searching for their king. Now, that poor girl, Alice, is added to our list of people and things to search. Will we ever get any answers from this?
"Philia?" Sora tapped her shoulder, getting her attention. She turned to see Sora, Donald and Goofy's worried expression. Not wanting to get the crew worried about her, she shook her head of negative thoughts, and smiled. "Let's search for our friends." she told them, "We won't find them here, after all." Donald and Goofy smiled in agreement. Sora, on the other hand, looked concerned at Philia. I really hope this journey doesn't disappoint her. He thought to himself.
And just like that, another person vanishes on them. I hope you guys liked this episode. Honestly, my favorite part is Philia's great confrontation against the Queen of Hearts. I could've done the fight, but this was much more fun to make! Anyways, this is another world down! Next world, here we come!
Don't forget to leave a review, tell your friends, and be patient for the next world!
Next time on SAK: HO
Donald: Wow! A coliseum!
Sora: I wonder if Riku's here? He's always interested in getting stronger.
Philia: So far, I've gotten memories of my Dagger Skills quicker than anything else. Maybe fighting is the answer.
Sora: Let's enter the games, and become heroes!
Goofy: Gawrsh, that feller with the big sword is scary!
Philia: No time to hesitate. I sense something else here that is darker!
On the next 'Sword Art Kingdom: Heart's Origin'
Olympus Coliseum! Heroes & Competitions!
Philia & Sora: Let's go chart our next adventure!