CHAPTER XI

DOWN AND OUT

Sora, Riku, Donald, Goofy and Mike, still clutching Boo, came out of a door in the middle of a snow covered mountain. Nothing to the left of them but snow covered dunes. To the right, the same. Stretching out in front of them was miles and miles of untouched snow. Mike tried the door with the red light over it…but it was no use. There was no power to the door, and when he opened it, he could just see through the doorway to the other side of the mountain.

And behind them, masked with his chameleon skills, was Randall Boggs - the meanest monster in Monstropolis.

Boo shivered and frowned. She didn't cry, but it was clear she was uncomfortable. Donald cast a small firaga attack in the snow, which lit a small fire after it melted through the snow to the sticks and grass beneath it.

"It won't stay lit for long. We've gotta get outta here," Riku said to Sora.

All Sora did was nod. He was about to agree with Riku, but suddenly a voice came out of the snow from behind them.

"You little punks think you're so smart. I've got news for you; Randall is the king of Monstropolis. Don't forget it!"

Without warning, Sora's feet came out from beneath him for no reason. Mike got poked in the eye while Goofy and Donald's hats got knocked off by snowballs.

"What's going on?" Sora managed to mumble, as a snowball hit him square in the mouth.

"It's gotta be that camouflaging monster from before…he must have followed us," Riku said.

The sound of one set of hands clapping rang through the mountain. "Very good, you know…you guys might not be as dumb as I thought." Randall turned from his invisible white to yellow and then to blue…as he completely turned purple he smiled as he kept scurrying around Sora, Donald, Riku, Mike and Goofy, as Boo sat between them, staying close to the fire.

"Now, if you were really smart, you'd give the girl to me now and save yourselves a butt-kicking."

"By my count, there's five butts here against four feet…Randall, you're outmatched, pal," Mike taunted.

"Hmm. When you're right, you're right." Randall smiled widely as he snapped his fingers. He then put his hand to his mouth and called out a name that the friends hadn't heard in ages.

"Oh, Jafar! Time for reinforcements!" Randall yelled, deviously.

"Jafar?" they cried, looked at each other, eyes wide.

The six friends panicked. The mountain started to shake and tremble as if an avalanche was heading their way…but it was far worse. At least one-hundred living bone heartless and another two-hundred rapid thrusters were charging down at them from atop the hill. The little annoying yellow heartless that looked like beaks wouldn't have been a problem, had they not been accompanied by the ones that were as big as rhino fossils. Together, they could trample the heroes.

The friends turned to run down the hill, but saw a familiar black portal opening up right next to Randall. Out of it came the Frowning Man from the city streets they had met earlier that day. Instead of charging straight at the friends, he ran toward Randall and grabbed him by the neck, lifting him a foot off the ground.

"Insolent fool! We were given code names for a reason! I trust you with my identity and you hand it over to the street-rats?" Jafar screamed.

Randall looked at Jafar with hate in his eyes. "I wish I had a mask to hide behind. Then I'd get other people to do my dirty work for me, too."

Jafar hissed, threw Randall into the portal and turned to see the friends.

"Ah…even better than I had planned. The Dark One. Time to kill five birds with one stone…" Jafar mused, as he pulled off his mask. Even though they knew it was him from the sound of his voice, it didn't truly affect them until they saw his large nose, crooked smile and wispy moustache poke out from beneath the mask. The mask shimmered in the snow and then vanished, as if no longer necessary.

"Yes, yes. I won't be needing that any longer. The Dark One knows my identity…but he won't be able to tell anyone but the dungeon walls," Jafar said, summoning a large golden staff. The staff had a snake's head on top and a sharp scimitar-like sword digging into the snow.

At that point, the friends turned to see how close the heartless army had gotten. It was impossible – the rapid thrusters were already overhead! Behind them by only a few hundred feet charged the living bones…as Jafar's cackles rang into the mountain, the friends knew that they were in deep trouble.